RavenLiquid
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2016
I'm hoping this is the rights place to put this, but here is my idea.
I've got a house with a garden, and I've always wanted to have something Disney in the garden. One of the things is a model ride.
After a lot of thinking I wanted to do something like the jungle cruise and have moving boats and everything, but then I thought why not one of my favorite rides: Big Thunder Mountain.
So I now have this crazy idea to build a scale Big Thunder Mountain in my back yard.
And it's many levels crazy. I don't have any experience in modeling, model trains or painting.
I also have a lack of skill in doing with my hands what I'm seeing in my head. Seriously, I can't draw anything more complex than a stick figure.
I also have a lack of spare time.
The weather sucks here, so it needs to be somewhat waterproof (at least the track/building), and it needs to come apart somewhat easy and be able to move it inside for the winter. It's not a problem if this takes a while but should be possible.
And probably some other issues.
What I do have, is plenty of ideas, and a few ways to bend some of these lack of skills in to solutions.
I also don't have anyone to oppose me doing this in my back yard (well, there are people who will probably try, but they don't live in my house).
I have RC cars and experience in driving and maintaining them.
I'm a software engineer and want to apply this to the ride system.
I can do some 3D modeling, so I want to 3D print some of the things I can't make (like the train body).
I don't need to have this finished in any due time, so multi year project is not an issue.
I have plenty of ideas on how to scope small and have some manageable goals to keep the project moving and fun/interesting.
Some of the problems I ran in to is what I'm actually trying to do and finding some base to work off.
First is, I don't want to build any BTM but the one in Paris. It's build on an island and this makes it 110% better/cooler than the others.
I'm currently not planing on doing any water, but the part where the train goes below ground from the station is in scope. My garden slopes upward, so the station would be lower than the mountain making this easier as the track does not have to be dug in as deep from the station point of view. Hopefully making the track on the mountain part at somewhat level with the station.
I'm not going to do any internal scenes on the mountain part. Only external facade.
But while there seems to be heaps of info on most Disney (US) rides, I can't really find any info on the track layout from Paris. I know the layout and how it goes, but I don't have any actual figures. Mostly the hight is a bit of a guess for most of the track.
It does not have to be pinpoint accurate, but some approximation to the real thing would be nice. The station will not be in the correct area, due to positioning, but because they are separated by underground track this will not look off I think.
Scale wise I was thinking of going 20:1, this would make the mountain (excl. station) fit in aprox a 5 by 7 meter area.
One other problem is that while it's a train on tracks, I don't think any scale train parts are going to help. They are not made for scaling hills and going trough curved bends.
Also, because a roller coaster works mostly based on lifts and gravity it's a bit hard to match the speed on a model ride. They would go to fast.
So, in light of all this I was going to try to approach it like this.
Phase 1:
Spend probably most of the year building a prototype that drives on the mountain part of the track (and build this track of course). This should help getting the track right and the train right.
Phase 2:
Build the track that can stand outside, with only one train.
Phase 3:
Build the mountain over the track
Phase 4:
Build the station building
Phase 5:
Build the maintenance building + switch track (this will double as shelter/locked storage)
Phase 6:
Add a second train (this includes sensors to make sure trains don't crash, and a switch track in the station)
Phase 7:
Add details to the mountain, like the buildings and trees
To be honest, I would be happy if this project ever reaches the end of phase 2 and a it's a reality that it dies in the first phase.
Well back to reality and actually start.
Somethings I came up with to solve some of my issues include using a Mini-Z type model car as a prototype chassis base for the train, and the reason is that this would give me the option to power the train instead of the track/lifts and also allow the train to brake on downhill sections to keep the (scale) speed close to the real thing. It would look more natural than when I let gravity take it's course.
Another option would be to supply the whole track with a means of moving/slowing down the train.
And a third option would be to have the track use lifts like the real thing, but have the train drag on the way down.
I was thinking of building the mountain part of the track prototype out of wood or something, at least something cheap or easy to assemble/take apart.
So, besides the obvious comments telling me I need psychological help, does anyone have any experience at this and maybe some places to look for inspiration/examples.
And does anyone have some info on the actual track?
Any help is appreciated!
I've got a house with a garden, and I've always wanted to have something Disney in the garden. One of the things is a model ride.
After a lot of thinking I wanted to do something like the jungle cruise and have moving boats and everything, but then I thought why not one of my favorite rides: Big Thunder Mountain.
So I now have this crazy idea to build a scale Big Thunder Mountain in my back yard.
And it's many levels crazy. I don't have any experience in modeling, model trains or painting.
I also have a lack of skill in doing with my hands what I'm seeing in my head. Seriously, I can't draw anything more complex than a stick figure.
I also have a lack of spare time.
The weather sucks here, so it needs to be somewhat waterproof (at least the track/building), and it needs to come apart somewhat easy and be able to move it inside for the winter. It's not a problem if this takes a while but should be possible.
And probably some other issues.
What I do have, is plenty of ideas, and a few ways to bend some of these lack of skills in to solutions.
I also don't have anyone to oppose me doing this in my back yard (well, there are people who will probably try, but they don't live in my house).
I have RC cars and experience in driving and maintaining them.
I'm a software engineer and want to apply this to the ride system.
I can do some 3D modeling, so I want to 3D print some of the things I can't make (like the train body).
I don't need to have this finished in any due time, so multi year project is not an issue.
I have plenty of ideas on how to scope small and have some manageable goals to keep the project moving and fun/interesting.
Some of the problems I ran in to is what I'm actually trying to do and finding some base to work off.
First is, I don't want to build any BTM but the one in Paris. It's build on an island and this makes it 110% better/cooler than the others.
I'm currently not planing on doing any water, but the part where the train goes below ground from the station is in scope. My garden slopes upward, so the station would be lower than the mountain making this easier as the track does not have to be dug in as deep from the station point of view. Hopefully making the track on the mountain part at somewhat level with the station.
I'm not going to do any internal scenes on the mountain part. Only external facade.
But while there seems to be heaps of info on most Disney (US) rides, I can't really find any info on the track layout from Paris. I know the layout and how it goes, but I don't have any actual figures. Mostly the hight is a bit of a guess for most of the track.
It does not have to be pinpoint accurate, but some approximation to the real thing would be nice. The station will not be in the correct area, due to positioning, but because they are separated by underground track this will not look off I think.
Scale wise I was thinking of going 20:1, this would make the mountain (excl. station) fit in aprox a 5 by 7 meter area.
One other problem is that while it's a train on tracks, I don't think any scale train parts are going to help. They are not made for scaling hills and going trough curved bends.
Also, because a roller coaster works mostly based on lifts and gravity it's a bit hard to match the speed on a model ride. They would go to fast.
So, in light of all this I was going to try to approach it like this.
Phase 1:
Spend probably most of the year building a prototype that drives on the mountain part of the track (and build this track of course). This should help getting the track right and the train right.
Phase 2:
Build the track that can stand outside, with only one train.
Phase 3:
Build the mountain over the track
Phase 4:
Build the station building
Phase 5:
Build the maintenance building + switch track (this will double as shelter/locked storage)
Phase 6:
Add a second train (this includes sensors to make sure trains don't crash, and a switch track in the station)
Phase 7:
Add details to the mountain, like the buildings and trees
To be honest, I would be happy if this project ever reaches the end of phase 2 and a it's a reality that it dies in the first phase.
Well back to reality and actually start.
Somethings I came up with to solve some of my issues include using a Mini-Z type model car as a prototype chassis base for the train, and the reason is that this would give me the option to power the train instead of the track/lifts and also allow the train to brake on downhill sections to keep the (scale) speed close to the real thing. It would look more natural than when I let gravity take it's course.
Another option would be to supply the whole track with a means of moving/slowing down the train.
And a third option would be to have the track use lifts like the real thing, but have the train drag on the way down.
I was thinking of building the mountain part of the track prototype out of wood or something, at least something cheap or easy to assemble/take apart.
So, besides the obvious comments telling me I need psychological help, does anyone have any experience at this and maybe some places to look for inspiration/examples.
And does anyone have some info on the actual track?
Any help is appreciated!
