We've had an incredible project in our idea file for well over a decade. It's a fabulous idea that is begging to be built. We've worked on the story and ideas regularly through the years and developed multiple scenarios which would work in many different ways. We've borrowed ideas from the file a number of times to create other stories and projects. But the core idea has yet to see the light of day as a built out feature. Now at last, after a number of false starts, it may just get built. Sadly, nothing about the idea can be revealed publicly until we pull the curtain aside when the project is opened.... perhaps in late spring of 2017. But to not disappoint, I had to include one small clue... a new addition to the feature, just designed and sketched this evening as I work on some more drawings and details... This new addition would serve a functional and practical purpose. If you have to write a guess please do it via email. We don't want to let the cat out of the bag too soon. :)
Venting a train
Our friends at Hillcrest Shops have now completed the frame and running gear for the Skallywag Bay train. They also carefully measured everything up and passed those numbers on to us. This means we can now go full blast on the top portion of the Pirate locomotive. It was no small task to cram all of the components into as small a space as possible. Those dimensions governed the envelope we had to build around. There were more challenges to be met as well.
The engine will be powered by a diesel/hydraulic system which means that the heat from those systems has to be properly vented from the engine bay. The builder's calculations revealed that we needed four square feet of opening to properly dissipate the heat which will be generated. With the train operating in the tropics this was critical. That much venting was a challenge and made us put on our thinking caps. But as always, there was a solution. By widening the barrel at the back a large vent was created where the staves now go past the front of the cab. Two large unseen spaces will be created on top of the barrel behind the steam dome and inside the cab. We will also leave a half inch gap between the staves. Further venting is to be created around the base of the steam dome and through the top of it as well. The entire bottom of the engine bay will be open as well. We'll do our best to keep the openings subtle and hidden but they will add up to the required four square feet. Our crew applied the base coat of sculpting epoxy to much of the barrel today and it won't be long until this thing looks like a pirate train. We'll be delivering the train body to California where it will be fitted to the chassis and tested before it travels once more on to Trinidad. I can hardly wait for the test drive!
Pop goes the wagon
I often get asked how I got into the theme park business. The answer is I just did. There was no place to learn and no one to teach me. Whenever I needed something I figured out how I could build it, using whatever I could find along with the simple tools I had at hand. In the beginning we didn't have the modern tools nor the fancy materials we enjoy now. We flew by the seat of our pants, making do. The projects are certainly bigger and much more complex these days but we still seem to operate at the same edge of the envelope.
One of our very first projects was a popcorn wagon - a very small business we started in Chemainus, BC. about 1985. I first looked into buying a wagon but quickly discovered they were far, far out of our budget. The solution was to build one ourselves. I scrounged some antique wagon wheels from somewhere. I got a friend to weld up the frame from scrap steel. We located a used popcorn kettle and then fashioned a plywood wagon around it. We sanded it down and painted it with a brush. Janis sewed up the striped canopy. In the end we spent but a tiny fraction of what a new unit would have cost. It turned out that the popcorn selling business wasn't nearly as lucrative as I had imagined and so we sold the wagon, recovering all of our investment - plus a little.
I discovered I loved to build creative projects much more than I liked operating them. While our little street vending venture wasn't a huge success it did provide us with some great experience in the theme building business.
