Around the Fall of 2001, the planning crew at Dave's Dominion decided to finally go ahead and attempt to construct a model rollercoaster. Top Dave's Dominion staf attended the International Association of Fantasy Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAFAPA) convention and trade show, in Bithlo, Florida, After looking at the various fantasy rollercoaster products available, the park decided on the Faller Big Dipper. (Available from Walthers, Lists for $159.95 but it has been on sale recently for about $110). The Faller Big Dipper is the fantasy park equivilant to a Schwarzkopf Achter Bahn, as it is reffered to in the real world. The construction department at Dave's Dominion researched other parks that had purchased the same ride, and learned a lot of tips from the crew that built the ride at Dave Torok's park. Finally, the week after Labor Day, the receiving department at Dave's Dominion took delivery of this shipping container:
And for a long time it sat in a warehouse at Dave's Dominion, awaiting just the right moment to begin construction. Beign a total novice at the craft of model building (I have built a grand total of ZERO models before the Big Dipper), I assumed everything I would need would already be in the shipping container. A detalied inventory of the contents against the parts list confirmed that the box contained all the parts it was supposed to (Approximately 30 sprues, decal sheets, and much more, just under 600 parts in all)
The initial reaction to first opening the box was overwhelming, and admittedly
cured my zeal for building the model for several months. However, I
did in the mean time purchase and otherwise obtain a few tools and other
items to help me along my way. First stop was Hobby Lobby for a sprue
cutter ($5), box cutter ($1), imitation X-Acto knife ($1), two bottles of
Testor's Liquid Cement ($2.50 per), a bottle of CA+ ($3), a metric ruler
($1), this is a ride imported from Germany afterall, some sanding sticks
($1), and then a swing past Home Deport for a 2'x4' piece of hardwood to
serve as cutting board/model base ($3).
And the stuff sat, and it sat, and it sat, until January 20, 2002 when construction would begin. The first step of the ride was laying of a slab, the 'foundation' upon which the ride is built. As it is bassed on a German Transportable Coaster (a Schwarzkopf Achter Bahn), a slab is used instead of pouring footers. The first thing is that you discover that the slab is in two sections that are glued together to form the base. A note for future builders, when the manual says to join the two (unequal) halves of the slab together as indicated by the red dots, they mean the red dots in the ilustration in the manual, not on the actual parts themselves. You can use the layout of holes in the baseboards to get them positioned correctly, or there is a little dimple in each board about where the red dot is in the ilustration.
After the quick process of glueing the two halves together is complete you can set the slab aside as you wont be using it for quite some time. Just as well as it will give the glue plenty of time to set up. (You do want a strong foundation afterall.) Then comes evil page 2 of the book. This is the first of I'm sure many of the more tedious parts of the project. The track backbone or spine comes to you in 16 pieces, each a little bit over a foot long. This track backbone is cut a very special way that makes it incredibly flexible and pliable. Similar in concept to that cut used in the old trick about stepping through a postcard. Quite by accident I found the track could actually be bent into corkscrews and tight spirals. But forget about all that flexibility for right now, your task is to take those 16 track sections and make them one long section. However you are not to join the ends, as the two ends will eventually join the station.
One of Dave Torok's coments that took my awhile understand was the trick of joining the track segments two by two. As it takes 1 hour for each join to setup, you could either take 15+ hours to build the track up section by section as the manual seems to indicate, or you could get smart and join pairs of pieces together. The first go-round you can join 8 pairs, then wait an hour, then join 4 pairs, then wait an hour, then join 2 pairs, then wait an hour, then make the last join. Theoretically this should take you a little over 4 hours. Just be careful as the top track segment on each sprue is different it has ridges on it. Make sure those 4 track segments get joined together, and are all at one end.
A Sample Track Srpue.
The 16 rack segments become 8 after the first welding round. Note also slab above.
The second round of 'welding' is over, and note the track segments overhang the ends of the 4' long hardboard. After the third weld, both pieces were almost as long as the room the model was being constructed in. Then finally....
Yes that is the final 16'+ track section, for reference it is sitting atop an oversized 9' long pooltable in the illustration above.
Okay, now that the coaster track has taken up residence on my pool table, its back to the other room to continue ride buidling. The next element are the vertical track support members. Similar to real ride construction, the various vertical supports would all be pre-fabricated before being errected on the construction site. I will refer to these parts as bents. even though they contain the bents as well as the cross bracing. (Horizontal, Vertical, and Diagonal support members) . The ride has a total of 17 bents. In addition to the ride superstructure, several track supports are installed onto the prefab bents. Some of these are 'welded' on, while others are just pressed on. Fortunately a lot of this section of the work is snap-together. A few judgement calls had to be made, like when the manual shos an Icon of a knife and a red line. I presumed that that ment that those parts of the pieces had to be cut off with the handy dandy knife. Time will tell if I read that right. See, mass production even exists in the fantasy ride world, and if they can give you 3 or so identical sprues of parts, and ask you to trim unneeded pieces off of some of them, it cuts down on their production costs. Another tip for future buidlers, the three Sprue 6's contains a lot of your couplers and track supports. The track supports (Part 6/5) especially like to pop off the sprues really easily. I would suggest storing the sprues over the box, that way any pieces that come off the sprues all by themselves merely fall into the box. For the first night, I was content to finish construction the 17 'bents', the slab, and the track spine. All in all about 4-5 hours were invested in the project on this day.
In the top half of this picture you can see some of the bents, that I have sitting on the slab just to keep them out of harm's way. At the time this photo was taken, the construction crew was in between 'welds' 2 and 3 of the pink flexitrack.
Day Two (1/21/02).
One of the neat things is seeing how model kits imitate detail. For example, chain link fencing is represented cleverly by gauze. I was a bit skeptical at first till I started making the gauze pieces. You see they give you one huge piece of 'chain link fencing' (gauze), unmarked, and a big decal which you stick to the chain link fencing. The decal has the drawings on it to guide you in cutting out the individual pieces, and there are a lot of pieces. Then you take two sections of framework, put the gauze in the middle and make a gauze sandwhich that actually does look like a section of ride fencing when it is done.
Ah, the first really tricky part. gluing in three dimensions in order to make the ride operator's booth. You see each side of the booth is a sperate piece, then there is clear plastic 'window' that has to be glued into the frame. (that is after your glaziers cut the individual panes from one huge sheet of 'glass' (plastic)) then there is some window detail plastic to be glued on. You do this once for all for sides of the booth, then with two pieces of square plastic for support and stability, glue the four sides together to wind up with a booth. It took two or three tires, but I do have the booth completed.
As we leave you now, the construction crew has just started building the station. Eventually safety rail must line the walls of the station, the ticket takers booth must be joined onto the station, then and onyl then can we really beging construction fo the coaster itself.
Some samples of the fencing work
(Day Three 1/22/02)
As the title of this section indicated, the fence panels that had been prefabricatedd so far are for the station. I was thankful when the foundation and station floor were shipped to me in one piece. Even the back stairs, and some ramps and stairs were already done, as well as holes drilled to accept future railings. I considered it almost trivial to weld a flat panel of plastic to the underside of the station to form a channel which would later accept the drive mechanicals. After the word underneath the station was done, I looked atop the station. While holes had been predrilled for some railing, the fencing panels would have to be welded into place. But first, I decided to use my fantasy forklift to move the ride operators booth into its designated groove between the platform and the back stairs. A perfect fit, and usinf the supporting structure for the booth I was able to weld it to the station on three sides. The fencins sections could now begin, I started with fencing the rear side of the uptrack end of the station. Luckily this was all one long pre-fabed piece that extended from the uptrack end of the station to just before the pathway to the back stairs. I welded this fencing section in plance, then worked on the downtrack end of the rear wall. This piece had already been prefabed, again in one piece and was even shaped to accomodate a ramp prebuilt into the station. Thsi was also welded to the station floor, and for good measure the end nearest the ride operators booth was welded to the booth.
I then, wisely, decided to to the inside railing first. It lines a ramp on the downtrack end of the station, allowing attendants or guests to exit the ride without having to cross the track. After welding the railing for the upper section of the ramp, I welded the section for the lower section of the ramp, the section that will eventually pass under the track. I also welded the two sections of fencing to each other. Then I finsihed up the fencing around the exterior end of the downtrack end. Only around the ramp for now, the rest of the station fencing would have to wait till I no longer need to get my hands into the station area. As with the inside raling the exterior pieces were welded to both the station floor and adjoining fencing panels. The last piece, actually mounted to the front half of the station, consists of a framework for the ride exit, and a fencing panel that will protect riders from falling off the exit staircase. Speaking of protecting people on stairs, ralings were then welded onto the back platform stairs for safety. With that the station was finished for now, and could be mounted onto the slab. I was reassured when three holes that were already drilled into the slab, matched perfectly with indentation in the station's front side. I felt even better whe just about the same time, a reassuring snap occured as a registration pin dropped into another predrilled hole on the slab. I then pulled the station back out, and opted on welding it to the slab. The way I fugure it, I have no intentions of taking the model apart and rebuilding it, especially as some later necessary welding would make that VERY difficult to do.
Dave's Dominion had arraged for use of a fantasy crane today to errect the bents. On the first day of vertical construction, 8 of the eventual 17 bents. were erected. Errecting the bents was aa easy as having the 'crane' lift them up and lower them into predrilled holes in the slab. The fit was firm and tight, evenso, the construction crew opted to weld the bottoms of the supports into the predrilled holes. After putting up each bent, it is nesseary to install traverse bracing for addition alstrength and stability of the superstructure. Duttifully I unpacked a sheet of traverse bars that would have to be welded to the support poles. In this step there are no notches, no premeasured markings. Instead the setup manual, include detailed schematics which indicate where the traverse bars should be installed by gving the measurement from the slab to the bottom of the traverse bar. So the construction went and the bents went up, and the traverse bars were installed.
On this date, the Dave's Dominion construction crew installed the remaining bents, bringing the total number installed up to 17. Additionally the cross bracing was installed in order to effectively have 16 of the 17 bents connected to each other. Oddly enough bent 17 stands along ein the middle of the superstructure, braced to nothing at this point. The work screw encountered a slight construction delay when it was found that bent 10 had a defect. At first I was not concerned, as I was gven two sprues that would each contain the part. In this case the Bent 10. However, upon inspecting the spare part, the mood was not enhanced as the part (4/4) on BOTH sprues contained the same defect. It seems that one of the joints holding the second horizontal cross bar was broken in a three way break. Perhaps the person designing the sprue could not conceptualize the part. Anyway, what worried me is that particular horizontal beam on bent 10 held a track support and would therefore be bearing weight from the track and the forces from the train. I applies a liberal coast of glue to all three beams involved in the three way break and welded them together. I hope the integirty of that support is not compromised too bad.
Day four also brought along a few odd jobs. The first of which was installing a large track rest where the top of the lift is to be. On a real coaster this would house a bullwheel and other parts relating to the lift mechanism. In this case it is apparently just for show. Anyway it just slips over two pegs already on the affected bents. I welded this just in case. But before it gets installed on the bents, two fencing panels need to be installed. I guess this is so that if someone jumps out of the train on the top of the lift they won't fall off. Fencing panels were installed, the whole affair was installed on top of the two affected bents, and track supports intalled on top of the whole affair. The second odd job involved three scnery panels. Of the three one has a castle theme, one a mountains theme, and the other a forest with something in German written on it. I took the plank scenery panels that were included with the ride, and prepares to paper them with the decorative scenery panels, similar to how a billboard artist would apply the latest advertisement.
I ttok the sheet of full color details out of the box. Interesting a lot of flags here, both Flags of the Nations, and some that look to be purely decorative, though various coats of arms figure into their design. A lot of interesting scenery details are here as well. Including large decals, 6 in all so that each scenery panel can be decorated on both sides. I first tried to peel the decals off the sheet, then realized that they were not precut. Ouch, time for the X-Acto knife. I will now admit that I was the child who could not stay within the lines in his coloring book. Carefully tracing out these mountain ridge decals is not gonna be easy. So I cut some corners on the cutting, but still I think the finished decals look pretty good. I then applied the decals to the blank scenery panels. Lastly the scenry panels are mounted to the ride. the panels themselves are constructed so that they have L shaped ends that fit into their appointed parts of the track pretty tight. I of course welded these into place.
Shortly after the superstrucure was up, the new intern in the Dave's Dominion PR department made his weekly visit to the construction site. Below are just a few of the photographs taken. I even took the intern up in the Coasterville Jet Helicopter to get some aerial views!
Overall view of the coaster
The left hand side of the coaster, taken from the ground.
A look at the tangle fo track that is the center part of the ride. Note the scenery panels, and lift top
.
The right hand side of the ride, as seen from the ground. You can almost visualize the station return track.
An Aeral view of the left side of the coaster, this part will soon house the lift hill.
Aerial of the middle part of the coaster.
Aerial view of the right hand side of the coaster.
The station for the new coaster.
Even closer view of the station, showing the ride operator's bootrh.
In this shot, I admitted our intern to the future coaster station to take this photo of what the rider wou see. Of course we will have a track on it before it opens to the public.
Similarly, here is the view as the rider will be nearing the crest of the lift.
Here is a future dive through a structure full of headchoppers.
The ruler in this photo is 12 inches or just over 30 centimeters long. You wll note that riders will be cresting the lift at a height of over 15 INCHES!
And before we conclude this installment, the Dave's Dominoon Construction Crew takes a much deserved trip to the Dave's Dominion snack bar.
Time spent on this project to date: 13 Hours. Not including work by the PR department for this top secret construction website.
Day Five
From this point I kinda lost track of the days, however on Day 5 I started laying the track. Numerous sources told me that this would be the hardest part of the project.
So the track that had been residing in one long 17' piece on the pool table came into the main model room. Out of the model box came two stiff rubber strips. These are supposedly called the 'section strips' Their function it to narrow the track so that the lift mechanism can operate smoothly, and stay true to the track without bunching up. I assume it also helps the coaster train in tracking the lift hill. I dutifully followed the directions and beveled down the begining edge of the track 'backbone', and cut the ends of the section strips diagonally. I assume to form a tapering self alliging start to the coaster's course. This part wasn't that hard, just glue the rubber strips on and let it dry. What was not a laughing matter was starting the 'run section'. The run section is a glorified coil of insulation that is missing the wire it is supposed to be insulating. As such it is very springy and hard to manage, and there just isn't that much good flat area to perform the gluing necessary. Before tracking the coaster that instruct you to only lay the first 15cm of run section on each rail. At first I wondered why they didn't have you apply it to all 17' of track and get it out of the way, I suppose there is a reason they didn't, but now it just makes a tangled mess. Did I mention that the stuff is nearly impossible to apply to the track, and took a long time to just get the first 15cm on each side, I dread having to do the entire 17' run (x2 for both rails). As instructed I left 8cm hang onff the end of the track to be laid down accross the track built into the station house. Really, that was the longest 15cm in my life. After letting that dry for awhile, like overnight, as I was getting frustrated with the model anyway, it was time to start tracking the coaster.
Day Six, I forget how many hours I have spent now, I lost track of time time as I sat there about to toss the whole model kit into the Dave's Dominion Dumpster. However, i'd estimate that I spent about 1 hour on it on day 5, so that would put me up to 14. I'd spent 3 tonight but accomplished very little. The first step was gluing the track onto the loading station at the downtrack end. The instructions said to make the joint flush with the station track section. After trying a number of times to glue it onto the very end of the track channel, whee merely getting it lined up and holding it there was a hassle, I has the a-ha moment and realized that the stationt track channel had a indented 'starter' section and that I merely had to glue the track straight down on the floor of the track channel. I then glued the run section strips down to the rails in the station though I left about 2cm unglued, so that I can join the two ends of run section together at the very end of the track laying torture, as indicated by the manual. I also glued the track to the first two support C-clamps. the first 2 of 44 on the ride. At first I tried the CA glue as inicated by the instructions. I had heard a wild rumour that Faller kits do not work with some glue products. That allegation may be true, as the model looked at the CA glue and laughed, and refused to bond. Tip to future modelers, latex hospital gloves are recommended. You will know when you get CA glue on your hands cause there will be a mild burning sensation. A nice HOT, HOT, HOT handwashing got that stuff off my hands, though I did not bond any fingers togehter as I had feared would happen. I mean come on the same bottle of industrial grade CA glue has kept the plastic Eagle firmly glued to the end of a flagpole since September 11, and it can't hold a model kit together. (Aside: Cheap flagpole, Eagle rests rather loosely in the top of the pole for my taste, but the Eagle is mission critical because it also holds the top of the halyard. A flag only has to fall off the pole becuase of wind once before I fixed that situation permanently)
Back to coaster modelig, I then tried the normal model cement, okay it won't bond as fast, but it will do. After having the track pegged to the track supports with clothes pins. I went to work on the lift mechanism as instructed in the manual. Running the driving spiral (the lifthill works on the same concept as a screw-drive garage door opener) through the channel underneath the station platform, and using a toothpick to pick it up out of the hole in the station floor and threading it into the track was trivial. I then insured the spiral could still turn frely, then I attached the drive shaft, and finally the motor. First a little plastic piece is attached to the motor with a couple screws to hold it in place and keep the motor angled at the right spot, then the plastic piece you screwed onto the motor is glued to a plastic base to hold the motor in the proper orientation. There are holed predrilled into the slab for the motor to be mounted to the baseboard. A hole is also drilled to run the electrical wired underneath the model for tidy setup. I ran the wires through the hole and then wired them up to the voltage regulator as per the instructions, the wires from the voltage regulator will eventually run to a power transformer. However the power transformer is not included in the kit, so it looks like the purchasing department of Dave's Dominion will have to go out and find a suitable power supply. Then the electrical and mechanical kit was installed. I was starting to feel good, and I removed the first clothed peg, and the track bounced off the c-clamp. A few choice words were uttered and for a brief minute or so I considered tossing the whole model back in the box.
I reglued the first two track clamps to the track, pegged them, and went to bed. (We're up to 17 hours)
Day SEVEN.
I decided to have another go at model building, I lowered my expectations of the finished product from a working model to an atrractive, realistic looking model. It is happens to operate, that's an added bonus. I gingerly removed the clothespegs and with baited breath observed as the track was firmly bonded to the c-cla,mp supports. I then glued the track to supports 3, 4 and 5, pegged them, and went off to work on something else. The rolling stock
The tiny train comes in numerous itty bitty pieces. First off, there are 5 small car bodies (okay the kit comes with 6 but one is a spare lead car, more of that economical sprue design), but the directions say to build 5 cars. In addition to the car boides, there are 5 bogies or chsis, each bogy consits of three plastic pieces, and two rollers, one with nothces, and one without for each car. The lead car gets an added bonus, the train's only chain dog. But before assembling the cars the directions have you couple the 5 car bodies to form a train. to help you measure the length space between each car, they give you a crude spacing tool. Put two car boides upside down onto the guide and it will hold the cars the exact distance away from each other. They give you a section of string that you have to subdivide yourself. Then, requiring extreeme patience you get to tie little tiny knots, double knots actually into the string between each car. With my large clumsy hands, this was quite a chore, and I admit I did feel a strong sense of achievement when it was finished. To safety the knots, a quick shot of CA glue makes sure the coupled cars don't become uncoupled.
Okay, now for the fiendish part: building the car bogies. Basically you have to be able to hold four things at once. Both halves of the car bogies, and the two rollers for each car. The solid roller goes in front, and the grooved one in the back. It took a long time, and a few curse words, but I eventually figured out the system. Its all snap together for the car bogies. First you snap one end of the two plastic bogie halves together, and then ssqueeze one roller in very carfully. You then put the grip of death on the finished side and very carefully work the other roller in, then you snapo the other end of the two parts of the car bogie together and quickly snap the car bogie onto the bottom of a car body before it has the chance to fall apart in your hands. A final little plastic pieces locks the car bogie and car body together. Its tiny, and I used the handle of the sprue cutter as a hammer. Be carefu; with the lead car, as you work the bogie onto the car chasis, you have to be carefult to slip the chain dog in, with the long end pointed the correct way. It wound stand by itself, but the action of mating the car boige and chasis will secure it as well. (Safety note - the rollers have real sharp points on the ends, be careful with your grip of deaths) The last non-decorative part of the train was plutting the seats into the car bodies. A little glue (they recommend the CA glue) will keep the seats in the cars. I then spent a while rolling my new train around the table, much like a little kid would do. It gave me the sense of personal achievement I needed to reinvigorate me. Now the plain white train is sitting awaiting decal work.
Back to the train track, the track segments appeared to be glued well and holding. A good show, and about another 3 hours down. 20 hours total.
Day EIGHT -
Only about half an hour spent today, I laid track all the way to c-clamp number 15, called myself a third of the way done laying the track, and then went out to the mall to shop.
Total Time spent so far. - 20.5 hours.
Maybe this week, I will let the PR intern take some more photos.