To start things off this week I wanted to share a picture of the MVR project manager who brought me to the top of the Bay Beach Zippin Pippin Roller Coaster last week. MVR is based in Florida but their people travel the world building roller coasters for the rest of us to enjoy.
At about the halfway point of January the construction remains ahead of schedule, so far we've been really lucky with the weather, it's been cold and snowy but not much that has slowed progress at this point. This week the main activity has centered around the lift hill. Steel is starting to be added to the track and the tray that will carry the lift chain from the top of the lift hill back down to the lift house is being built.
Let's look at the steel that is being added first, here are some shots showing the steel on the top of the track, the inside of the track, and the underside of the track.
In the first picture above you'll notice a series of machine bolts, washers, and nuts. I believe these are temporary to hold the steel in place while it is being aligned and bent to conform to the track. Once the countersunk wood screws are added (you can see the heads of these in the third picture) I'm assuming these will be removed. You'll notice the screws are an interesting drive style, similar to a spanner but with three holes instead of two.
While the track on the top of the lift hill structure is having steel added under the track inside of the structure the tray that will carry the lift chain from the top of the lift hill back down to the lift house and it's sprockets, motor and gearbox is being fitted to the structure. Here are some pictures of that progress.
Coming out the other end of the lift house is a series of long boards laid end to end to carry the chain from the idler sprocket in the lift house to the idler sprocket at the bottom of the lift hill.
The shot below shows the idler sprocket at the bottom of the lift hill. This part was added later than the other sprockets, a new shaft needed to be created since the first shaft ended up being to short.
Work continues on the decking of the transfer station, the deck is nearly complete.
While at the transfer station it's worth taking a close look at turn #1. When the track for these turns are built they are constructed from straight boards pieced together around the turn. After the layers of boards are finished they come back and cut the final arc with a circular saw.
The wooden track in zone 1 and 2 now appears to be complete, at this point the track has not extended much into zone 3, the walkways are still being added.
The picture below is taken looking west towards the inside of the out and back turn around where the tracks split.
To wrap up this weeks update here are some panorama shots. First looking north.
Then two different panoramas looking south.
If you look very closely at the last picture you will notice a group of people standing near the area where the pass through for the train is. There were some reps from the
Western Great Lakes Region of ACE (American Coaster Enthusiasts) visiting the job site. Check out the site linked above to see their construction photos.
Good luck for this project.
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