Designer Times
Page 2 of 2
I had a ball laying out both tracks in a plan view and a side view by hand with pencil and paper. I had to design a new track every day just trying to get everything to fit inside the Matterhorn mountain model. Every day but the last day, the track layout ran out of space or had hopeless interferences. Each time I layed out a hundred feet or so of plan view course line, I had to design the side view slopes so as to have both tracks clear each other. I made up a template of the track, car, and swept area with guests holding their arms out wide so they could not hit any of the Matterhorn structure. This swept area had to clear everything everywhere.
With each hundred feet of layout, I had to stop and do endless hand calculations (no slide rule, no electronic calculator, long division) to determine the speed and bank angle at every point. This was very tedious. Thankfully, all the recent coasters have been designed with fast and sophisticated computer software allowing almost unlimited designs. Darn, I was born about 40 years too soon. I still have copies of all my hand calculations showing the variety of factors I had to consider; braking - both friction and water scoop designs, every combination of friction factors, probable force and speed limits. All of these had to be figured out first so I would have a menu of design criteria for the track layout.
Arrow was waiting for the track layout. Our construction folks were waiting for the building column foundation plan. Every day I moved the column plan in order to fit a new track plan without any interference. The worst feature was that the chainlift had to pass under the Sky Ride, but the track had to go over the top of the Sky ride after a real sharp slow 180 degree turn at the top. The usual chainlift angle was about 22 degrees. This was impossible to fit. So I drew a 30 degree chainlift and put a slight kink in the track plan so that no one could see into the Matterhorn and see this awful steep hill.
One day I was able to give the concrete foundation folks a design that looked like it would all fit. They called back the next day to tell me "no more changes, the concrete mix trucks are on their way to Disneyland right now". I could then give Arrow a track plan that just cleared the main building columns and they could finish the rest of the track plan as they built it. The top of the track was to be at an elevation of +208 feet and drop 65 feet to a final elevation of +143 feet. Our neutral slope was 0.375 inch per foot of travel, or about a 3.125% downgrade. Arrow came up with the brilliant idea for the top-of-hill booster/brakes. This meant that most of the speed variables could be easily compensated for. Little did we know that the Matterhorn would be the first steel pipe coaster and later turn out to be a classic.
Today the coaster enthusiasts discuss in great detail the designers intent on each new design. I enjoy their analysis of all their perceived Matterhorn features. Yeah right. The whole thing was just the result of a wild hand drawn space battle with no consideration given to it's ride characteristics!
oOo
Next month: Autopia Mk V - Gurrini's Edsel
Discuss It
-- 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 October 10, 2001
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