Doom Fairground Ride

It’s not the end of the world, I know, but it still feels a little like doom, the thought of attending a Meccano club meeting without a new model to show, and for the first time ever I found myself actually contemplating it.

With June 2018 only half done, it had been a busy month of attending Meccano meetings already, and I found myself without a new model to show at the coming SELMEC meeting. I wondered how to conjure up something new in just a few days and decided instead of starting completely from scratch that I would try to evolve my Cylindricurse model into something new.

I had exhibited that model last year at the Eltham Park Festival and had not yet got around to dismantling it, and now with just five days available to me I started changing it to something new, saving a lot of time by saving some of its features.

I started early on Monday by dismantling all the cars, arms, and base of the model and decided to use the same tower and part of the rotating canopy, but not before changing a few fittings for the support of the new eight long arms which I was planning on adding, and set about building a set of axles instead of using strips or angle girders.

At first I increased the height of the tower by 1’ using new flanged rings to be attached to a new and very strong base, but I realised that the present construction was going to be problematic for easy transportation and the eventual spread of the long arms when at speed would require a very large space, and so I aborted the extra height and finally attached the slightly diminished tower to the base.

Each of the arms used four 12’ 5” axles joined by couplings with the length of about 1m each, but again I realised the diameter of the arms as they travel at speed was going to be big, so I once again restricted the swinging of the arms by attaching two built-in rings as a temporary measure for the occasion.

I built eight cars, each for one rider, to be fixed in the bottom ring which will only swing slightly on rotation. I was busy for parts of the next four days until by Friday the whole new model was finished, and this included a new front entrance bridge with steps, kiosk, lights and a few other embellishments which changed the former model into something quite new, and just in the nick of time, averted the looming feeling of doom.

I still hope to evolve it a little bit more and in the future I will remove the two supporting rings so that the full potential of the ride will be truly realised.

Just when you thought you said goodbye to the Cylindricurse, someone’s introducing  you to Doom.

 ‘Doom’ was imagined on Monday the 11th June and finished being created by Friday the 15th June 2018.