Designer Times by Bob Gurr
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LaughingPlace reader John Walen writes:

September 15, 2005

65. Things That Don't Run Anymore

Walt said that Disneyland would never be finished. There'd be new things to add all the time. He didn't say too much about removing stuff. In the past (50) years we have all seen what time and guest experience has taught us about which attractions endure, which ones are no longer popular, and which are the ones that suffer old age. And there have been a few flat out duds along the way too.

A lot of anguish and thought go into the decisions as to which attractions will have to go away and why. Everyone can usually understand when an obvious dud gets sent to Extinct Attraction Heaven. What bothers folks is why their favorite healthy running ride gets the boot. Some of the reasons are not readily apparent.

Take the Disneyland Sky Ride for example. When this attraction was installed in the mid-1950s, it was typical of the wire rope cableway transportation technology of those times. Design and operating standards become ever more strict over time. This makes it tough to upgrade old equipment to the latest standards each time the rules change. At some point in time, some items of equipment become either uneconomical, or physically impossible to upgrade.

Another very real consideration is the wear and tear on machinery over the years. Many times the service replacement parts are no longer available. The existing parts have to be modified to accommodate different service parts (like bearings and such) and this kind of revision work can get pretty complicated. Pretty soon the basic framework parts begin to reach their ultimate fatigue life and require ever closer periodic inspections.

OK....Time out for Mechanical Reality 101. Ultimate fatigue life? Most materials, such as steel and aluminum, have a characteristic where as you apply more load and number of working cycles, the material will start out with an unlimited life span, but get shorter and shorter as the load increases. Everyone knows the "bend the paper clip trick". Bend it just a tiny bit back and forth and you might never hurt it. Now bend it back and forth harder...it soon breaks. That's a demonstration of fatigue life.

The trick in engineering anything is to make it heavy enough to last forever, but light enough to do the job you need done. Heavy as in, say railroad cars, light as in airplanes. Not all materials behave the same.

Some mild steels have average strength so you don't expect to make them carry big loads. Certain aluminum alloys for example are very strong, and can carry big loads as long as you limit how many hours or years it will safely carry the load before the fatigue cracking starts.

Now you can appreciate that not everything will last forever if it has to be light enough do a special job. Things that fly, or have to be very light will ultimately be life-limited in service. That's what we techno-heads call fatigue life limited. The Sky Way had a bit of that in it's original design when the Von Roll Company built it for Disneyland.

There are other special considerations too. We learned way early that manufacturers that supplied parts to Disneyland found their stuff to have a shorter life in Disneyland service. Wow, you want to improve your product?...take it to Disneyland. So we soon codeveloped a lot of components that worked super after a few years of understanding the severe service requirements on Disneyland attractions.

In the specific case of the Von Roll Sky Ride, we made numerous upgrades over the years to stay ahead of the severe service wear and tear. But eventually the combination of fatigue cracks, can't get service parts, much tighter new service standards...our wonderful old Sky Ride became a cranky old senior and had to go to the Extinct retirement home.

On the other end of the scale of why attractions go away we find the Rocket Rods. Now this is gonna be a bit touchy. As time rolls on, young designers are urged to come up with ever more innovative and radical attractions.

Every Park is so competitive these days...you have to always one-up the previous stuff. Our guests look for the latest entertainment. The reliable old PeopleMover had become a gentle sight seeing trip in the world of thrill rides.

Logic said "let's do some wild thing". Thus was born the Rocket Rods. When you have speed changes, accel and decel, collision prevention and such, you need PERFECT control systems. Add in tight turns, big on-board power, elastomeric tires on grippy rough surfaces, now you have DESIGNED your service problems.

Pretty soon everyone tires of the constant shut downs as a result of very conservative guest safety. Excess wears shows up in elevated maintenance costs. It doesn't take long for such an attraction to gather a lot of enemies. After a while there's no one who will champion the thing back up to good health, but there's lots of bean counters gathering like vultures with solid financial reasons for inevitable abandonment. I think the senior inhabitants of Extinct Attraction Heaven were very surprised to see this youngster join their list. Sure hope there's a lesson in there somehow.

It's sometimes said the the Gods of Gravity and Corrosion chew at your things (24) hours a day whether running or not. Putting equipment in water invites a whole new arena of problems. Rust and corrosion are constant expensive enemies. When any organization must respond to the corporate demands for operating cost reduction mandates, any attraction that has inherent extra costs becomes the sacrificial goat. The Submarine Ride was seen as the rusting bucket money sucker. No matter that it is one of Disneyland's prime classics. We gotta cut back...no one will notice...oh yeah!

Thankfully our guests believe they "own" these classics, and Disneyland and Imagineering have responded. In the last couple of years no one missed the fact that the Sub Ride had some secret activity going on. Sure enough, maybe Nemo will finally be found...why at Disneyland of course.

One of the first interesting trouble free attractions to go away was the 1957 Viewliner Train. Folks continually ask why this cute little railroad was removed. In 1955 the whole northeast corner of Disneyland was left pretty much wide open with just Autopia, the Phantom Boats, and a temporary circus show. Walt had eventual big plans for this area, but not until several years later, 1959 in fact. So the Viewliner was intentionally built as a "time filler" until the big 1959 project could be started.

The Flying Saucer was another favorite that went away. Part of the reason was that the 1966 Tomorrowland redesign was going to need the space occupied by the Saucer. Another reason was that while the Saucers were not really a maintenance burden, they were the trickiest attraction to keep running right. The basic problem was that the massive volumes of underground air flow required controls that hadn't been invented yet. It wasn't until decades later that adequate computer systems became available that might have made the Saucers easier to control.

Then there are the attractions that have provided a great show, but like Walt said, Disneyland will never be finished. It is inevitable over the long run that some attractions will just have to make way for the New Show. GE Pavilion of Progress gave way to America Sings, Monsanto went away so folks could take a trip to Endor with 3CP0, and Rainbow Caverns yielded to Big Thunder. Sure, it hurts to see your personal favorite disappear, but the newest attraction gets the chance to be adopted by the next generation of Disneyland guests. That's always been the plan.

oOo

Next Month: Designers on The Hot Seat - The Court House

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