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.
12. The Viewliner
The area northeast of Fantasyland was just a big dusty bare spot after the 1956 Circus was removed from Disneyland. Walt needed to fill this space with something quick and simple. Adding Autopia Jr. and a small river connected to Fantasyland and a small railroad was the plan. Walt thought a small Streamline Train starting from Tomorrowland would work fine.
General Motors ran their experimental streamlined Aerotrain between Los Angeles and Las Vegas for a while in 1956......I thought it was the slickest looking thing on rails. I made a quick rendering of a Streamline Train based on the GM Aerotrain......if you are gonna steal, steal from the best! Walt liked it.
On February 1, 1957 I made the first construction drawing No. 3513-051-1 Proposed Coach Exterior. By February 20th I’d finished the (16) production drawings which were provided to Johnny Giltch of Standard Carriage Works on Bandini Boulevard in Vernon, a city just east of Los Angeles. Standard was contracted to build the train coachs while the Studio Machine Shop would build the two locomotives.
In designing the Omnibus, Autopia and Antique Cars, I used simple steel structural shapes and flat metal panels. But the Streamline Train was going to have a lot of light weight monocoque construction. Standard built lots of garbage trucks and had racks filled with all kinds of steel strips called “press broken” sections. These could be bent into curved parts called “carlines”, which could be covered with corrugated aluminum skins to look just like the California Zephyr. A local company, A.J. Bayer, could supply us with almost any press broken section I wanted. I was in design heaven with this new knowledge!
On February 22nd I started the surface development drawings for the Locomotive compound curved sheet metal parts. Now, I was getting deeper into vehicle manufacturing since I needed short-run non-tooled compound curved aluminum parts. I knew how race car bodies were built, having seen their parts formed by hand on shaping rolls at California Metal Shaping in downtown Los Angeles. They directed me to Mike Scott, builder of the body for the 1956 Indy 500 race winner. We gave the job of making the Locomotive body skins to Mike.
Between February 26th and April 19th I drew the major drawings needed to build the Locomotive, while draftsmen Tim O’neill and Chuck Schrader made additional detail drawings. In those day we never had time to engineer and completely document 100% of everything like today. We made lots of small sketches on the fly on the shop floor for the guys building everything. I’d never engineered a gasoline-engined Locomotive before, and the shop folks had never built one before. Walt wanted it and we were doing it. That’s how we all learned a new trade.
The hardest part of a vehicle to build is the cowl, windshield, front doors, and door opening body structure. I went to the local wrecking yard and picked out a couple of smashed 1954 Oldsmobiles to design into the Locomotive. Since I needed to make the Locomotive narrower than a car, the Olds was perfect. I could chop 14.25 inches out of it, remove the radio grille, then swap the instrument panel with the glove box. Now I had a proper right-hand drive Locomotive which could be rigged with hand controls.
The power train was a Chevrolet 327 with Powerglide connected to a Jeep drop case splitting into all wheel drive front and rear trucks. I even added outboard mounted V-belts between the drive and idler axles......now I had an eight-wheel drive. This combination had so much traction on the new rails at the park that when I gave full throttle with Roger Broggie aboard, his eyes popped. Locomotives are usually driven very tenderly, but without pulling the coaches, this thing just leaped. Later, on smooth rail with loaded coaches, it was very touchy to drive without wheel spin.
The Studio Electrical Department insisted that they were to engineer and install all the electrical system. But I insisted on doing the Locomotive electrical myself since I was a “car guy”. The electricians tried to hook two DC alternators to a common system. This, and not using any circuit breakers resulted in an interesting opening day for the Streamline Train, now called The Viewliner.
In the few days before official opening, I was trying to get some testing done in between daily coach electrical fires. Came opening day and no progress on the electricals. I heard the band starting to play just as Walt showed up backstage. The Locomotive hood was up, electricians shooting a fire extinguisher into the smoke cloud, Walt said “shut it, we’re goin’”. So off we drove, Walt in the fireman’s side of the cab, me as engineer all dressed up in a ride operator’s uniform, made during the night......we had no time to train any ride operators.
I was so nervous pulling to the station in front of a horde of invited press that I overshot the stop by a few feet. I started to back up when Walt jabbed me painfully in the arm. “Bobby, don’t ever back up without tooting reverse first (three blasts)”. Well, I knew how to toot crossing (two long - one short-one long), but after that day I sure never ever forgot reverse.
oOo
Next month: Excursion Train
-- Bob Gurr
Bob Gurr began working with Disney in 1954. He retired in 1981 but occassionally consults for the Company. Since Disney he's worked on the sinking ship at Las Vegas' Treasure Island, Universal Studios' King Kong, Godzilla for the film by the same name and much more. Among his proudest accomplishments he lists "making Walt tickled pink that some of the things he wanted to build actually worked. You could tell how proud he was when he would show off things to his friends and the press. Lincoln and the Monorail were two big ones for him."
Designer Times is normally posted the second Wednesday of each month.
The opinions expressed by Bob Gurr, and all of our columnists, do not necessarily represent the feelings of LaughingPlace.com or any of its employees or advertisers. All speculation and rumors about the future of Disneyland and the Walt Disney Company are just that - speculation and rumors - and should be treated as such.
-- Posted April 11, 2001
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