Aaaaarg! A PIRATE TRAIN!

I provide answers to vexing questions every day. In the shop my crew constantly seeks answers to questions about the shape of timbers, the color of a wagon or post. They want to know the form a rock will take, or perhaps something harder like what a beaver's tail may look like. Recently I provided the ideas for how a cartoon mine car would appear. The answers are drawn from real life in part, but mostly from our imaginations. It's a fun process!

As I start in to the final designs for the next large project it's a whole new ballgame. The theme is PIRATES but we are going to take everything to the extreme... and this world will be like nothing seen before. There is a train attraction that will run around the property for our guests to ride and enjoy. It will transport our guests into this (real) make believe world. The train of course had to sport a pirate theme, and look like nothing seen before. So the obvious question was what might a PIRATE TRAIN look like?? The answer was anything I could possibly imagine!

I've been thinking about this for a while and tonight I started putting ideas to paper. I started with the outline of a train we've built previously. It was very fun but not very pirate - ish.

Then I gathered the usual (and some unusual) PIRATE images and ideas and started working them into the train. The sketch is still rough but I think It captures the essence of what a Pirate train might look like - at least in the world we are going to build in Trinidad...

This is of course but the starting point. From here we'll continue inserting the wild ideas until the last weld and sculpt are done. This is going to be FUN!

-grampa dan

Packed extra full

Our shop seems plenty big when it is empty. These days that doesn't happen often, save for when we move a big piece out and then it fills back in quickly as welded frames take their place up. Each piece gets welded, wired, mudded and then painted, with the whole process taking about two weeks.

This morning the big center bridge support was wrestled out of the shop and everything was rearranged to allow some new structural frames to be moved in. I counted six major pieces in the shop tonight, Two are in the welding stage, one is being wired, one is being mudded, one curing for paint, and one in the paint stage. In the foreground in the picture below are two structures that look like giant slingshots I am welding the pencil rod frames that will turn them into forked tree trunks. Three heavy ropes will be strung between them so kids can hang on with their hands while they do their best to balance on the third rope with their feet.

With ten to twelve crew working on a daily basis, a lot of work gets done each day. The bakers (rolling scaffolds) and ladders are constantly on the move, being shared as the crew works from bottom to top on each piece through each process. The scramble is to stay ahead of everyone and keep all the pieces flowing through the shop.

The treehouse is looming large, right outside my studio door. It will get it's base coats of paint tomorrow.

The treehouse roof is squeezed in next to the treehouse with just enough room to work in between.

Three ride opeartor's booths are in various stages of progress (with three more to go) by the big shop doors.

The shop is a full place and with the crew working hard a busy place too! 

Stay tuned for more progress...

-grampa dan

Roofin'

While the cold winter wind blew outside we were snug and warm in the shop working up a storm of our own. It surely was just a little crowed but the crew made the most of it. Lots was accomplished today. The most visible project was the tree house roof. The siffits, gables and top two thirds of the roof were trowelled thick with fiberglass-reinforced-concrete and then we carved in the heavy woodgrain. The piece suddenly looked pretty big. As usual, the upside down bits like the soffits took the longest to get right.

The first ticket booth also got the bulk of it's wire and also it's first mud today. The center portion of the bridge support recieved it's final paint this afternoon. Tomorrow it will get pushed outside, making room for some more pieces. The press is on to get things done... and the crew is doing well!

-grampa dan