Designer Times by Bob Gurr
Page 2 of 2

From late 1955 onwards I did a lot of rehab designs on Arrow manufactured equipment, gradually being assigned to new attractions that Arrow would build new. Eventually Arrow's equipment was so good right out of the box that I did very little rework. Arrow eventually manufactured much of the ride equipment used on (15) major Disneyland attractions, to say nothing of the many jobs for the New York World's Fair and Walt Disney World.

Roger Broggie was responsible for manufacturing just about all the Attraction Equipment, from ride vehicles to Audio Animatronics. Disney started out manufacturing this equipment in the Burbank Studio Machine Shop, then expanding this capability greatly in the MAPO Machine Shop at WED in Glendale. Eventually we contracted out vast amounts of fabrication to a network of companies scattered all over the US. Sometimes a contractor would do the entire job, and sometimes MAPO was the final assembly plant, receiving fabricated subassemblies from contractors.

It just depended on the specific attraction requirements. Audio Animatronic Figures were always built in-house. The first Disneyland Monorail manufacture was started by Standard Carriage Works in East Los Angeles, but finished up at the Studio. The Disneyland MkII was a Studio job, while the MkIII was assembled at MAPO from subcontractor parts. This job was quite complex because it engaged dozens of subs making a range of parts from tiny components to big steel weldments. Many of these subs built parts for the WDW MkIV Monorails which had the final assembly work done at the large Martin-Marietta plant in Orlando Florida.

I learned early on just how magic the word "Disney" was. Any time I needed parts information from a potential supplier, a sales representative would rush right over to the Studio with the materials. Of course the visit would include a lunch invitation. This became the regular relationship with our suppliers even if they were going to sell us just one part. They wanted the Disney connection to their company. You have no idea how helpful this was to me. Not having any engineering education, I was steadily getting it from all the visiting salesmen who brought me copious amounts of part catalogs.

Whenever a serious engineering question came up, they always had one of their real engineers look at my job and then give me the answer...specifying their parts, naturally. I'm forever grateful to all those sales-engineer-teachers for my on-the-job education.

We developed a lot of trust with our local suppliers. I befriended many local auto parts counter sale guys who would let me prowl thru their parts inventory to find the specific part I needed. Sometimes they'd let me borrow it for dimensions I needed for my drawings, then return it later. Many times I decided we could use it right away. "Take it with you now, then have your Machine Shop call in the purchase order later"...that was the usual courtesy extended to me. We obtained so much stuff that way, avoiding the usual delays...write the requisition which then generates a purchase order, which then has to get finance approval, which then goes to the Studio transportation department for pick up, then back thru receiving and inspection. Maybe a week to get my part.

Some of our suppliers sold us large quantities of expensive parts. Some of these parts were quite special. Many times I would select an assembly that was close to what I needed, but required a lot of custom changes. Or maybe we were going to make the changes on their standard parts. This involved engineering approvals from the factory. This king of relationship was wonderful. The manufacturer could depend on a large order, and I would get my custom design based on something that was basically stock. This saved so much money compared to Disney engineering major service items from scratch then having it tooled up and manufactured. The tooling cost alone would cost more than the relatively small quantity of parts. The Monorails were done this way.

On the MkIV Monorail design I needed components which, when combined, would connect an electric motor thru a 90 ° gear reduction drive thence thru a steerable axle to a large tire and wheel. This would be a very expensive thing to engineer and build as 100% custom. But using the parts catalogs from a large axle manufacturer, Rockwell-Standard, I could get a steerable wheel end from a large off-road stock front truck axle assembly. This could be combined with truck differential gear to get the stock service parts.

These in turn could be installed in a chopped down and modified differential housing bolted to our own suspension arm.

The arm would have a mounting for the stock wheel end. We would then remove the unnecessary brake mounting parts on the wheel end housing. Thus we modify only the nonmoving housings which hold all the functioning inner parts. This meant that we can always get the normal wear and tear replacement parts which were stock items. Rockwell and Eaton, the differential manufacturer, would both concur on our proposed use of their parts in our custom arrangement. This basic technique of working with our suppliers to get custom assemblies using stock parts was my secret weapon to always have time tested service parts arranged in my custom configurations.

I always enjoyed the wonderfully helpful suppliers and contractors that were the heart of Disney-unique equipment built for Disneyland and Walt Disney World. They provided our folks with fabulous hospitality (and free lunches) as we visited their engineering and manufacturing facilities. I think they really enjoyed that they could brag that they were an integral part of Disney.

oOo

Next Month: Bob's Own Projects and Hobbies

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