dccradio
  •  dccradio
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  • Ride Supervisor Topic Starter
Sunday, November 30, 2003 10:10:12 AM
Again a curiousity of mine is how a show determines if a ride will fit on the midway or not. I know sometimes a crew comes in advance of the fair and marks out where the rides will go, but so often the rides are so close to each other. Do the rides ever get set up only to be torn down and moved just a few feet or inches to make room for the ride beside it? How does this work?
Mark H
BSA Mike
Sunday, November 30, 2003 10:37:33 AM
yupp, happens quite often, sometimes you will go and see parts of rides folded up (scenery and etc.) in order to make the rides fit, we have had to move rides a few times, you move the ride that is easiest or has less work done to it already, a few years ago we had to move the century wheel b/c it was to close to power lines at a fair, so they took it down and moved it and had it back up in 3 hours!
Scott
  •  Scott
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  • Operations Foreman
Sunday, November 30, 2003 11:27:23 AM
I once saw a guy book a Scat ride into the State Fair who made it for opening weekend then, come Monday or so Link Shows pulls in with their Huss Rides. They put their Rainbow up next to the Scat, only to find out, they had set it up too close to the Scat. So the owner of the Scat was told to move it over ( it only takes 45 minutes to set up) and BOY WAS HE UNHAPPY ABOUT THAT! I can't say I don't blame him, but he was demanding that Link Shows HUSS RAINBOW move since they set up too close to him. It wasn't a pretty sight!
LuckyStar
Sunday, November 30, 2003 11:38:22 AM
The shows that I have worked I have never seen that happen...it is like a science to them though....they know how far the rides rise in the air and how much space they take on the ground....Like last year when A of A had Raleigh its not like they went out and laid the lot out in one weekend....I know that took months of planning...of course if you play the same lot year after year it does make the job a little easier exccept for the new pieces you have coming in....

Now is you ask about the games....plenty of times have I seen the carrying a stick joint around the midway looking for a place to put it....granted that is not fun either...but they do overbook on the games quite a bit...
cny_chris
Sunday, November 30, 2003 4:08:18 PM
This is a tricky one...you the carnival operator may think that you have enough space between your rides, and set them up, only to have the state inspector say they're too close, and you have to move one before either of them operate.

Laying out a lot takes quite a bit of skill. You have to worry about the conflicts/being too close. You have to maximize the use of the space you have to set up in. You have to fit in all the equipment that you promised that fair board you would have set up, and still have room for all the games and concessions that you booked in to the spot. You have to make sure that you can get the wires run to all the places you need to, and make sure that you don't overload any of the generators or junction boxes (same goes for water for the concessions).

If a show has the same event for a number of years, they already know the lay of the lot, and can make some minor tweaks each year to improve the layout. Of course, when a new piece is bought or booked in, then the shuffle begins.

I recall about 4 or 5 years ago, at the New York State Fair, Strates set up the Top Spin and Giant Wheel too close together in the eyes of the State Ride Inspectors. They had to tear down and move one about 10 feet to get the Inspector's blessing. I don't remember which one got moved (neither are rides that I would want to have to tear back down and re-set up).

This brings up another question I have. Does anyone know if any shows out there use some sort of CADD (Computer Aided Design) program to lay out their lots? Wouldn't be too hard to do with someone who has the know-how to run the program. You'd just need to have a scale map of the lot in the computer, along with a template for each ride (footprint plus clear areas). Then you could drag and drop each ride onto the lot and shuffle them to see what works, and in the end, spit out a scale map to do the actual layout from.
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Hoffa
  •  Hoffa
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Sunday, November 30, 2003 4:56:35 PM
In the Spring I had a thread called "Moving Stuff Setup". We've done many things like that. We have a lot of tight spots that we put up a lot of equipment and sometimes we're just a little to close. When we are, we can often move 1 of the pieces partially setup.

Cammack Shows uses a CAD program to layout their spots. They print out the layout on a poster size sheet and put it in various informational kiosks spread around their midway to show the public where everything is. It wouldn't be hard to do...just setup a template for each ride, game, generator and the office... then enter the dimensions of the location and input the templates.

A man's legacy isn't the business he leaves behind; it's the family he leaves behind.

carnygirl
Sunday, January 4, 2004 11:53:54 AM
i was just wondering where someone could pick one of them up at? and about how much does it run for? thanks
with-it
  •  with-it
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Sunday, January 4, 2004 12:04:23 PM
Kevin Nolan had to move his Dragon Wagon at a spot here in Ohio so They hooked a chain up to it (set up) and Dragged it 10 feet or so. Then spent the next day re-welding all the welds that broke. I don't think Wisdom had that in mind when naming it. DRAGGIN WAGON....lol 2ndGen could probley go into more detail about the pull. I heard it from a State Inspector.
Hoffa
  •  Hoffa
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Sunday, January 4, 2004 12:26:05 PM
Quote:

quote:


Originally posted by carnygirl

i was just wondering where someone could pick one of them up at? and about how much does it run for? thanks


A CAD program? They're available at any computer or office supply store. They are drafting programs but you can apply it to a midway layout. They do take a little practice to figure out what all of the buttons do.
A man's legacy isn't the business he leaves behind; it's the family he leaves behind.

2ndgencarnie
Sunday, January 4, 2004 3:54:27 PM
there was no chain involved, just a truck and a trailer. The way it sat we could kick it sideways and forward about 6 foot. So we hooked up sloughed the fence and the front steps and took her for a ride. We went through 3 spools of wire on the welder and about 7 straight hours of welding took place, little did we know that the inspector was still there. It would worked just fine if we woulda sloughed 2 or 3 pieces of track, the back pieces were fine. As for moving a ride in general, if it is the shows fault then ya i would say its gotta move, but as we always say around here, " if that one comes down they all come down and don't stop till the next town".[8D]
Da Bair
  •  Da Bair
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Sunday, January 4, 2004 4:00:05 PM
Quote:

quote:


Originally posted by 2ndgencarnie

We went through 3 spools of wire on the welder and about 7 straight hours of welding took place

Sounds like a much better alternative than just tearing down and setting back up.



UserPostedImage

carnygirl
Sunday, January 4, 2004 4:32:36 PM
thank you hoffa for the info. i think i will have to check this out.[:)]
powersbt
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Monday, January 5, 2004 1:44:00 AM
Quote:

quote:


Originally posted by cny_chris


I recall about 4 or 5 years ago, at the New York State Fair, Strates set up the Top Spin and Giant Wheel too close together in the eyes of the State Ride Inspectors. They had to tear down and move one about 10 feet to get the Inspector's blessing. I don't remember which one got moved (neither are rides that I would want to have to tear back down and re-set up).



It was the Giant Wheel. Believe it was '99, but to make sure, I would have to go and get my photo album out. Went there on opening day that year. At that point, the towers and center hub were reassembled. Sweeps, and gondolas were back on the trailers. These trailers were sitting over in the spot where the Starship 2000 was this past year.

The only rides that we ever had to move were the Star Trooper and Hurricane. The Hurricane only was moved once when it was too close to the Tilt. Had the cars gone any higher than they did at that point and it would have knocked the one Tilt sign off. It was a pain lifting up jacks and outriggers because of the platforms being down, but a lot easier than moving the Tilt. The Star Trooper was moved a few times which was pretty easy to do. The hardest part was moving the fence from one loc to the other. The one year that it went down to Bloomsburg with Reithoffer, they moved it from one end of the lot to the other.

Brett
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RRSHOW1
  •  RRSHOW1
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Monday, January 5, 2004 8:14:16 AM
Way back when I was the lot man for Reithoffer, I started using a CAD style program in the late 1980's. I used it until I quit a few yrs ago. It wasn't as fancy as the newer programs, but served the purpose & really impressed fair boards back then.
bladerunner
Monday, January 5, 2004 8:27:53 AM
i remember a few years ago at the local fair, christianis darkride was set up real close to a funhouse, they ended up leaving the right side if the darkride folded, and being that it was folded it was still inches away from the funhouse. lol