Fire has been the downfall of many Noah’s Arks. The Arks at Old Orchard and Savin Rock were lost to fire as was Southport’s Ark. Even the original Ark at Venice Beach went up in flames in the 1940s. But Blackpool’s Ark kept on rocking. By the late 1950s, Metcalf’s animals had become dilapidated, so the park decided to re-commission the time-worn biblical vessel with a snappier style, After the1960 season, Metcalf’s creations were replaced with more realistic animals made mainly from fiberglas by artist Sheila Robinson. Correspondence from the period shows Leonard Thompson was heavily involved in the redesign of the Ark and often complained to Sheila when something didn’t look right, especially the figures of Noah’s family looking out of the ark.

			Photographs from 1974 depict train-mounted animals moving round the ark. The animals made their daily trek until 1995 when Douglas Sills was hired for yet another Noah's Ark refurbishment. Sills removed the animals from the train but placed them on Mount Ararat where they still delight guests today. Under Sill’s direction, the Ark’s oldest passenger, the whale, was moved towards the back. Sills, who made many other changes to the Ark that year, retired in 2005.