Signs are important. So are first impressions as a customer approaches a facility we design. That's why we pull out the stops to make the facility as impressive and appealing as possible before our guests even get inside. The fences and walls we design are part of the attraction. The adventure golf at NEB's will be a multi level challenge with the upper portion running along the fence line. The railway runs below. This offered a wonderful opportunity to be creative with the fence. Guests on the outside can easily see exciting stuff inside through large portholes placed strategically along the perimeter. The landscaping and theme work is wall to wall and from ground level to the very top. Signs are skillfully incorporated into the design. There is of course a whole lot more going on than this simple rendering shows... This is going to be FUN!
Main sign
We continue blasting out the concepts for NEB's including the main sign for out by the road. By the time we finish this place it is going to be a whole lot of fun from one end to the other! Just wait until you see the fence! Stay tuned...
Whistle while you work
There's a few tasks I'm not very good which include wiring and plumbing. Today I did both. To power the train we are using the controls and motor of a couple of old electric golf carts. I got them in pieces, sans any instructions or schematics but a search online got me what I needed. Then it was time to cobble together all of the pieces. Inevitably, that meant a number of trips to the auto supply. Describing what I needed and what it was being used for drew blank stares for the most part. These guys really like part numbers and I had no such thing. By the end of afternoon it was starting to come together with a few parts still on order and a few more to source next week.
I really needed to get a handle on something for the train before I quit for the day and so I turned my attention to the whistle. The whistle itself is a genuine brass antique but the valve mechanism was long lost. Amazingly, the specialty valves are still made and I sourced one online a few months ago. The rest we could get locally. It took two trips to town to get all of the necessary fittings and pipes along with the cable and clamps which would serve as the pull to activate the whistle. It took more than an hour to plumb it all and hook up the pieces. I hooked up the shop air for the test and set it to a hundred pounds - far too much pressure it seems for the whistle shrieked like a dog whistle. My ears are still ringing. Janis heard it too in the house, 300 feet distant with all the windows shut tight. Other than the rather disturbing noise all was well and it was an easy fix. I dug out a spare regulator I had stashed in the toolbox and turned the air down and down and down... it turned out forty pounds of air sounded pretty about right. Being a little past 9:30 in the evening by this time I decided to leave it alone after a couple of toots in the interest of the neighbours. I think Phoebe and Mason going to love this thing! The neighbours - probably not quite so much.