If there is one ride synonymous with Margate’s Dreamland, it is, surely, the Scenic Railway.

The wooden rollercoaster has dominated the park since it first opened back in 1920. Today it’s Britain’s oldest. But, I put it out there for discussion, is it time to call time on the grand old structure?

Yes, it’s historically significant – with a Grade II*-listed status to ensure it will remain in situ regardless of if anyone shares my opinion - but, let’s be honest, it is something of a Trigger’s Broom.

I’m guessing here, but while there may be a screw or two which has remained in place over the last 105 years, given it has been torched (a blaze in 1948 destroyed a third of it, another, in 2008, around 40%), extensively repaired and dragged up to modern health and safety requirements over the decades, I struggle to believe much else has survived.

It has also, since last August, been closed after it somehow managed to rip up the track, leaving a gaping hole, as passengers came to a grinding halt.

Amid much fanfare about the park’s reopening this Easter, there was no mention of the rollercoaster until prompted (an announcement on it will be made “further into the 2025 season”). I am certain it will return, but the question is should it?

Nor is it in anyway thrilling enough to sate the white-knuckle ride appetite of today’s younger generation. I’m not mocking it’s up and down modest thrills and spills – personally I can’t stomach such rides anymore, however tame they may be – but even in the 1980s it was comfortably trumped by other rides.

Want to loop the loop? Well, there was the Shooting Star to dislodge your lunch. Wanted to be spun upside down in a boat? Then strap yourself in and prepare to dislodge your loose change in the Mary Rose.

Things are different today, but then so is the park. It’s bread and butter isn’t just the rides it offers but the experience, the nostalgia and the meaty diet of its excellent live music line-up it stages throughout the summer months.

Which begs the question – could the sprawling area the Scenic Railway takes up be put to better use? For more rides…more covered facilities…an aquarium…the options are numerous.

Will visitor numbers be down while the rollercoaster is out of action? I’d guess probably not.

Unless you are a rollercoaster aficionado, for the majority of visitors, its presence, or otherwise, is neither here nor there. Dreamland is a park which offers rides and something to do for the thousands that flock to the coast each year. There’s food, drink and fun things to spend your hard-earned cash on. It’s a well-organised, well-maintained memory-making venue which does not in this day and age, live and die by the Scenic Railway being its headline act.

Plus, during Easter at least, the park will have a huge part of it consumed by a ride which is closed. Again.

There’s no denying that, as a landmark, it is the park’s calling card. And it has served the park well, yet like the Shooting Star and Mary Rose before it, Dreamland can continue entertaining the crowds with a different offering. Its longevity is to be admired but it should not be the sole reason it is retained. The park is no longer trading on being a retro-ride park - as it was when it reopened 10 years ago and the Scenic Railway was the living embodiment of its revival - but as a modern, albeit modest, pleasure site which needs to pull in new punters not those of us who hanker for an era which has long since disappeared.

As an expensive to maintain and fix wooden rollercoaster, maybe, just maybe, it’s time for the brakes to be engaged for good.