Yesterday afternoon, Britain's oldest rollercoaster, at the now-disused Dreamland amusement park in Margate, Kent, went up in flames.
Estimates of how much of the largely wooden Scenic Railway was wrecked in the blaze - which police are treating as suspicious - range from 25% to 40%.
What seems certain, however, is that the fire has put the future of the UK's only listed fairground ride, which was given Grade II protected status in 2002, in severe jeopardy.
The attraction was built by the entrepreneur John Henry Iles when he opened Dreamland in 1920, and is the third oldest of its type in the world (the oldest, in Melbourne, dates from 1912).
It enjoyed instant success, paying for its construction within weeks, and survived changing tastes and trends to remain as the park's centrepiece until it shut its gates in 2003.
Riding the Scenic Railway - although it had long been showing its years and looked more than a little forlorn - was a wonderfully genteel experience.
Just as they always had, its carved wooden cars (also lost when the ride's workshop building was gutted) clanked up and down a series of elegant dips and swoops, taking passengers on a breezy journey around the centre of what was once one of the most popular funfairs in Britain.
But even as chunks of the structure crashed to the ground yesterday afternoon, campaigners hoping to save Dreamland and reopen it as a heritage amusement park voiced hopes that the Scenic Railway could be rebuilt.
After all, it has survived fire before: following a major blaze shortly after the second world war, timbers were brought down the coast from Lowestoft's damaged pier and used to restore it.
"This is not the end of the road for Dreamland, and neither have we seen the last of the Scenic Railway," the Thanet council leader, Sandy Ezekiel, said.
"I sincerely hope that it can be repaired - and if this is viable, it will be done."
Share your memories of the Scenic Railway, and views on its future, below.
