Food For Thought! Theme Park Rides?


vato loco

vato loco

Just a Foolish Saint!
Theme Park.....Working Coasters, Train rides, and what not!:confused::rolleyes: Intresting Idea:) Found this at Bush Gardens Last Night, The display looked & worked great...I never seen a good working coaster model before.... Worth looking into!

The box said 1/48 but IMO looked closer to 1/87:confused: The real Shekra is 200' tall which should(I Might be off here) 18"+/- tall and the diplay model was around 18-24" tall. The foot print was around 30"x36". Needless to say I was impressed with how well the model worked. If properly weathered and detailed I could almost hear the scale sreams comming from this Monster!(BTW, I been on the real deal!)

i checked out thier web sight.. http://coasterdynamix.com/ ....Nice models. Theme park RR would and could be done:) Either way just food for thought I would post my find some one might be looking for something like this!
 
And for smaller rides you could get some of the christmas village ones you see at lowes and walmart during the holidays, my grandma sets up a chrismtas village, she has a ferris wheel, a tilt a wirl and a merry-go-round, that could definately pass for HO
 
Now my brain is cooking:eek: Here's the sat. map of Bush Gardens http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=28.039796368922815~-82.42029231771107&lvl=17&sty=h If you look north of the theme park you can see a CSX spur north of BG and Below the spur just by the way the back lot road and building line up looks like some track could have once been there BG might of once had Rail service, which could lead to the excuse to having a theme park added to ones layout as a Industry! Hmmmm. Here's some Pic's of BG's Steam Locomotives showing the LP set up! Once again food for thought!:)
 
Chris, Faller makes an extensive line of amusment park ride kits. Most are European but, except for changing to the signs to English, they are really what we have in most of our parks here, since so many of the rides are made in Europe. Check out http://www.rmmridemodels.com/photos/ as well. The rides are static but come assembled and look pretty good for the price.
 
UP2CSX said:
Chris, Faller makes an extensive line of amusment park ride kits. Most are European but, except for changing to the signs to English, they are really what we have in most of our parks here, since so many of the rides are made in Europe. Check out http://www.rmmridemodels.com/photos/ as well. The rides are static but come assembled and look pretty good for the price.
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Ya! i remember those Faller kits now....but now there's a good running (AMERICAN STYLE)roller coaster model! If'n I were modeling in HO and had the space a theme park based Industry would be cool. Flat car loads of colorful new coaster tracks, Reefers full of food for both Bipedes and quadropedes being deliverd sounds cool! Either way food for thought!
 
vato loco said:
Ya! i remember those Faller kits now....but now there's a good running (AMERICAN STYLE)roller coaster model! If'n I were modeling in HO and had the space a theme park based Industry would be cool. Flat car loads of colorful new coaster tracks, Reefers full of food for both Bipedes and quadropedes being deliverd sounds cool! Either way food for thought!
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Take a look at the circus modelers Chris. Many include basic amusement rides in their setups.

I saw one model, in Eugene in 1987, that actually had a "parade" in the downtown district that moved on an endless belt. It was complete with the circus band and calliope playing, animal roars, the bigtop was setup and "peopled" and the guy even had the circus train it came in on. It was a large display!
 
The Canfield Family Circus, http://www.cfcircus.com/ has an amusement park, The Great Circus Train, and a Circus Parade.

IHC made a series of carnival rides that can still be found on Ebay from time to time.

There's a circus thread on here that may give you some ideas too.
 
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Coatser Dynamics builds the HO scale 'Comet' clissic wooden coaster. I did a write up on it for Internet Modeler in October '07. Very nice model
 
Are there any big top circus tents. Or for that matter, are there any circus tents out on the market for HO scale anymore? I was out of the hobby for the last 10 years until spring of 09 when I got back into it. Back then, there were a few tents available. Not sure about now. I see that Canfield website shows a few plans to build a tent yourself.
 
ChevelleSSguy said:
Isnt Faller the company that filed for bankruptcy earlier this year?
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Yes, in October of last year. It's the German equivalent of Chapter 11 and they are attempting to reorganize while staying in production. The main problem with Faller is that they pride themselves on making everything in their own factories in Germany. The cost of labor and value of the Euro versus other currencies has been killing them, as the price of most of their kits show. I think they will either have to move some production to China or they won't make it.
 
ChevelleSSguy said:
Are there any big top circus tents. Or for that matter, are there any circus tents out on the market for HO scale anymore? I was out of the hobby for the last 10 years until spring of 09 when I got back into it. Back then, there were a few tents available. Not sure about now. I see that Canfield website shows a few plans to build a tent yourself.
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Preiser makes a full circus set.... and from the looks of it, a very handsomely priced one.

http://www.figuren.de/showpage.php?SiteID=29&lang=1
(scroll down, look for Zirkus.)
 
About 10 years ago I bought out a small hobby shop in Lake Placid, Fl. that had about 30 pieces of carnival rides w/the electric motors. I tried to put some of that stuff together because I had the same idea some of you forum members have. The items were extremely fragile & if you weren't a seasoned craftsman in small models then I would say don't try it. I finally gave up & sold everything. I figured I must have had about 1,000 dollars in circus & carnival rides in kit form. I tried to put 5 of them together. The 5 never worked correctly & I ended up giving them to a young model builder. Don't know if he ever got them running or not. I never got the Walthers turntable running either, that's why I kitbashed it w/an Atlas. LOL
 
vato loco said:
Ya! i remember those Faller kits now....but now there's a good running (AMERICAN STYLE)roller coaster model! If'n I were modeling in HO and had the space a theme park based Industry would be cool. Flat car loads of colorful new coaster tracks, Reefers full of food for both Bipedes and quadropedes being deliverd sounds cool! Either way food for thought!
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Chris,

Funny you say there is finally an "American Style" roller coaster, when the company that designed the real Shekra (B&M) is from Switzerland. But I guess the track WAS fabricated in Cincinnati, OH.
 
Ho-ho, that's a sweet model!
I've toyed with the idea of a theme park along the line for quite a while, or at very least a roller coaster next to the line.... like so-

Glorious, innit
Yes it was a very sweet model I did add a few extra braces, details, and of course the landscaping, even out of the box it's nice. Cool part was when I wrote the preview article for IM, I posted that fact on the Coaster Dynamix company forum and they asked me not to do the full build review on the model I had purchased. It seems they had redesigned it to make the tracks easier to put together and they preffered I reviewed their improved kit. So they sent me one free! It's $169 kit. So I have still have the original kit in the box. I should e-bay it, but I haven't.

That shot is fantastic! Currently mine is across an isle from my layout but my plan (future layout) is to build an 'electric trolley park', but that steam engine got me thinking about putting it along the mainline.
 
Charles, any idea where that picture was taken? Must have been quite an experience to ride a coaster through a cloud of oil smoke. :) It looks like the old Playland in San Francisco. Could also be the Santa Cruz Boardwalk but the setting doesn't look quite right from that angle.
 
UP2CSX said:
Charles, any idea where that picture was taken? Must have been quite an experience to ride a coaster through a cloud of oil smoke. :) It looks like the old Playland in San Francisco. Could also be the Santa Cruz Boardwalk but the setting doesn't look quite right from that angle.
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It is the Santa Cruz Boardwalk, in 1947. Both railroad and coaster are still there. It doesn't look quite right because the area is completely paved now.
Here's a more dramatic view from two years later-

http://www.yesteryeardepot.com/SPSNTN01.JPG

An SP Suntan Special, shortly after it's post-war reintroduction.



Gary B said:
Yes it was a very sweet model I did add a few extra braces, details, and of course the landscaping, even out of the box it's nice. Cool part was when I wrote the preview article for IM, I posted that fact on the Coaster Dynamix company forum and they asked me not to do the full build review on the model I had purchased. It seems they had redesigned it to make the tracks easier to put together and they preffered I reviewed their improved kit. So they sent me one free! It's $169 kit. So I have still have the original kit in the box. I should e-bay it, but I haven't.
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Now that is good luck!
 
Charles, the Boardwalk coaster is more recognizable in that second picture. It's hard to remember that the Santa Cruz branch once had that much traffic.
 
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