Designer Times
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Designer Times is a continuing column by legendary Imagineer Bob Gurr on his experiences in the early days of Disneyland to benefit the Ryman-Carroll Foundation. If you missed any previous columns, click here for the list.
6. Autopia Busted! Disneyland Learns Real Engineering
Note: Bob Gurr was invited to be one of the Imagineers for the recent Club 33 Breakfast and Imagineer Tour at Disneyland. Be sure to read his account of the event from the "other side" on page 3 of this article.
At the end of Disneyland’s opening week we had just two cars running out of the (37) Autopia ride vehicles built. Walt’s custom car was safe on its rotating display turntable parked in Tomorrowland, while the two police cars were still running good enough for ride operators to give the tiny kids a ride. I was still repairing the cars with my own tools, working out of the trunk of my yellow Cadillac convertible parked right next to the (35) dead Autopia cars.
Walt came by and just sat expressionless looking at the whole mess. “Bobby, whaddaya need?”. “Some mechanics and some repair equipment” I replied. A little while later an old tractor was dragging a small shed on some wooden skids towards me along the service road next to the railroad tracks . “Where da ya want the d--- building?” “Walt said git it over to Autopia right away”. Two mechanics showed up with tool boxes and we all went to work trying to get some cars running. Now they would fix while I would think.
So many things were not lasting more than a few days the way the kids were bashing the cars together. We already knew too late that the bumpers would fail. And the recessed hub safety steering wheels had hard rims which were extracting little teeth almost daily. These two items were easy to fix, now that I had time to redesign them and the Studio Machine Shop could get the new steel bumpers built. The nearby Rubberite Company made a mold so that the hard rim steering wheels could be padded with a molded-on big fat foam rubber cover.
But the failing parts that disabled the cars from running needed a lot more thought. The Gladden engine had (10) horsepower and would get real fast when the speed governor quit working. The engine also vibrated so roughly that they would shake their carburetors off and stop running. The Salsbury centrifugal clutches were beginning to disintegrate. The timing belt from the clutch to the chain drive shaft would jump grooves and cause a violent chatter which loosened up more parts.
The chain drive would wear very quickly since it was exposed with no real way to keep it lubricated. Worst of all, the rear axle bearing housings would break allowing the brake drums to jam the brake shoes thus locking the car up on the track. The poor ride operators were worn to a frazzle trying to kick start cars stalling with vapor lock on the hottest days. You could always recognize the Autopia ride operators; they had bloody shins.
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