The Model Cyclone Racer

[hillflyer]

Looking excellent! Your models are impressive!

 

That geometry drawing takes me back the 80s... looking at roller coaster pictures and magazines/books with a protractor, figuring out angles and super-geeky stuff.

 

Thanks and...

 

YUP!!

Edited September 24, 2018 by hillflyer

[hillflyer]

Another Maker Faire fast approaching.

 

Working hard to get the south turn frame built by the end of this week, and work on the middle and north section a little the next week.

 

Maker Faire is 10/6 and 7 in Balboa Park. I'll be on the property of the Old Globe theater which by TOTAL COINCIDENCE I happen to work!

Trains would be racing from right to left in this shot. The final curve before heading back towards the station.

Built the track outwards first, before sliding in a 9-bent section

I don't know what's up with the clips, turned out they were quite useless for clamping but they sure add pretty!

When it's trimmed and handrailed, I'll take again.

Can't wait to take this one on the beach.

[coasterbill]

Despite the fact that I have no interest in the effort to bring the coaster back, the model is impressive and you should be proud of it. Great work.

[hillflyer]

Despite the fact that I have no interest in the effort to bring the coaster back, the model is impressive and you should be proud of it. Great work.

 

Thanks for that.

 

Here's what someone with spirit can do!

[JT325]

^Heck yeah! Positive attitude and persistence pays off. Thank you for your big part in saving and getting the San Diego Giant Dipper back open. It sat there, completely dilapidated and now look at it! Good work.

[hillflyer]

Hi fans,

 

Maker Faire in Balboa Park in San Diego is coming up this weekend. This time, I'm stationed on the outdoor stage of the Old Globe theater...which by total coincidence is WHERE I WORK!! SOOO convenient I can't stand it.

 

Also, I just learned that today (10/03) would have been coaster designer Fred Church's 140 birthday and that he died just short of his 58th. It's funny I would find this out today, the DAY BEFORE MY 58th BIRTHDAY. Things have been SO weird like that this last week, twice having dreams of random things that actually happened the next day...and this one really spooks me.

 

Anyways, I was able to complete the basic structure for the Cyclone Racer's south turn in time for this weekend and I'll take photos of it in it's entirety!

The basic shape from tip to tip will have taken form!

[SixFlagsAstroworld]

I still get over how much detail your coaster has! It’s beautiful!

 

Btw, will it run?

[hillflyer]

I still get over how much detail your coaster has! It’s beautiful!

 

Btw, will it run?

 

It would be fun to try, but I doubt it will. Actually, I expect to be asked that a lot this weekend. I used to just say "No" but I think it's more interesting to say, "We'll see when it's done!, but I doubt it will work."

 

I really make the models to satisfy my own curiosity about the ride's engineering.

[hillflyer]

Maker Faire in Balboa Park was a hit. Thousands of people checking out all the attractions throughout the park, everything from giant fire breathing robots to little cup cake cars that putted around. Artists, engineers, scientists, this annual event attracts all kinds.

 

Had, for the first time, all made pieces of the Model Cyclone Racer were put together and displayed in its whole 10' tip to tip span.

 

Also, I have a really creepy story. Someone posted last Wednesday on a Prior and Church & Traver page on Facebook, that it would have been Fred Church's 140th birthday on October 3rd and that he died just short of his 58th birthday. Since 2012 I've been telling people that I somehow seem to be channeling Fred Church through my work, starting with the Belmont Dipper restoration and since then I seem to build models of coasters that are his and that he must be my guardian angel. Not picking them because they're Fred Church designs, I pick them because they're beautiful coasters, and I was already telling people about other strange coincidences (those are mentioned in a video I made last month).

 

Well, MY birthday is October 4th, and I turned 58 last Thursday!! OMG our birthdays are only a day apart AND I find out he died just before the age I was turning!! I must say my anxiety was WAY up there, I even called my dad to call me the next day to make sure I woke up!!

 

I hope you're satisfied with the progress. Events like Maker Faire are very validating to me as there was lots of interest, questions, answers, stories, contacts. All good!! Great weekend. Once I am done with this model, I'm moving on to writing and photography.

I was set up on the outdoor stage of the Old Globe theater, where I just happen to be employed!

Already started writing a book. Just playing around with the cover and titles.

An example of my photography: Maiden of the Blue Forest

Mello Kitty

Tempest

Hipster Daddy-o

En Vious

[hillflyer]

Meanwhile, I just now realized my skeleton for the southern tip, the three tiered turn over the water, is this close to done. All I gots to do is fill on some minor detail and track. Lots of track.

[hillflyer]

Cyclone Racer plodding along.

 

I was SO tired of hearing people say, "Oh look, it's Belmont" when they walk past my home, coffee shop, or where ever I set up shop for a few hours. Understandable, since that's the one right here in town, "Expand the boundaries of your imaginations!!" I wanted to scream out. "Belmont isn't duel tracked you fool." But I smile.

 

Now, I'm hearing, "Oh look, it's Colossus!" At least that's much closer to an accurate description

 

All I have left to do, structure frame wise, are the EASIEST (saved the easiest for last) straight sections that run North and South on the East and West side of the Racer, and then fill in some gaps here and there. Oh, and a base too.

What I call the "WoW" hump

Made this whole thing in under 12 hours

I learned that those diagonals in this high-stress yet scantily build section were really made of steel so I replaced.

Sticks cut for the WoW hump

Where the WoW hump goes in relation to the South turn

Fred Church was a great engineer and an artist too.

"Oooh look, Colossus" is what I'm hearing from out my window as people walk by.

I should show this photo to people who ask, "Where do you keep it?" I should put Christmas lights on this since I don't have room for a tree.

[JT325]

Amazing work! Keep it up, the model is stunning.

[hillflyer]

Chain of wagons is how one Long Beach paper described the Cyclone Racer trains. I like it, kind of like chest of drawers.

 

One set of four "chains" lol near completion with only the side roll bars to install. Having to bend all those exactly the same will be hard.

 

Also put down, finally, another layer of subtrack around the innermost run around the top turn.

[hillflyer]

Hooray, I now have enough track material to finish this end completely! If I work diligently, it'll be done by end of Holiday this Monday.

 

Playing with the idea to sell seats to raise money for the table and case. Donors get a paper doll likeness of themselves seated in a car, for permanent display, photos, et al.

Hooray, I now have enough track material to finish this end completely! If I work diligently, it'll be done by end of Holiday this Monday.

Playing with the idea to sell seats to raise money for the table and case. Donors get a paper doll likeness of themselves seated in a car, for permanent display, photos, et al.

[SixFlagsAstroworld]

Woohoo! Can’t wait to see the finished product!

[hillflyer]

Well, its getting there, what more can I say. Decided to do a photo session yesterday. Aside from short runs of bents yet to be built, and the track, which from here on are just easy long-board construction, the next big challenge I face is making all the various sections fit into place.

The west side.

The south tip

The Cyclone Racer was a triple stacked racer, there was no other like it. Even Colossus is barely a double deck.

Exactly at the ride's halfway point, the trains split a level so they can switch sides

The way the cars exit down from this curve must have truley been like spiraling down into the funnel of a Cyclone.

Looking forward to when I can take this somewhere where I can get shots with no buildings in the background.

Inspired by the film Strike Me Pink

One train is completed

This is the original train for side A (if you're looking at the station, the left). Side B will be what the trains looked like after they were modified with higher sides and a different looking grill in the front. If I have it in me, I'll make a matching pair.

[chaos]

It's looking really good! I love the detail in those trains!

 

Also, do you anticipate showing this off to fellow enthusiasts in June?

[hillflyer]

It's looking really good! I love the detail in those trains!

 

Also, do you anticipate showing this off to fellow enthusiasts in June?

 

Thanks! I hope to have it done by the covention, absolutely.

[hillflyer]

I don't post a whole lot of photos of the real Cyclone Racer, but this one just came out yesterday.

 

Stunning, one of the best images of the west side in its entirety that I have ever seen.

 

There was no other coaster like it, and certainly no other like it today.

 

A triple stacked racer, from tip to tip. Colossus was barely a double stack. The switcharoo at the exact halfway point of the ride was a brilliant design.

 

While there was no extreme airtime, this ride was safely rideable using no lap bars, which was not all that uncommon back in the day, even Belmont's Giant Dipper had no moveable lap bars nor seat belts from 1925 - 1976.

 

Since everyone is used to lap bars, riding without them today, would certainly offer a really unsettling experience.

Edited February 22, 2019 by hillflyer

[hillflyer]

When I stole my copy of The Great American Amusement Parks from local library in 1977, little did I know 42 years later I would become good friends with the author Gary Kyriazi! He spent a whole weekend at my small cramped apartment among my model Airplane and Cyclone Racer roller coaster parts and we all got through unscathed. He's a really cool guy. I've only three months to finish this thing, before the upcoming ACE convention.

Tim and Gary throwing one back at the Coaster Saloon in Mission Beach

Gary Kyriazi, from Arizona, enjoying getting his feet wet at dog beach in Ocean Beach, right near where Wonderland used to be.

The climb up into hill #3 after the turn and second drop.

Hill #8 in the foreground, before I painted the track.

Uprights cut

Bents made as well as the subtrack.

Ledgers, measured, scored and drilled.

The next section I’m working on in the blue square, an extension of the previous photo.

A photo of the real Cyclone Racer and the section I’m working on.

Gary and ACEr Jay Margot and I about to do some dippin'

[hillflyer]

Only three months to go before Coaster Con! Turning up the heat on getting this here model done of Long Beach’s Cyclone Racer. All I have left are three small sections of uprights, and track, mending all the gaps between the three main sections so they’re flush, and going back and doing lots of detail overlooked.

Mapping out the middle section for placement of three main sections.

Comparing...

Tracking climb up third hill.

The drop coming down the third hill, heading towards the flat then around over the station. On the left is part of the double down on the east run.

Third drop tracked.

Interesting composition shot mixing sections together. Would like to do more of these.

Tracking the double down.

Using my map to place pieces for fun for now. The lift hills would be in the middle and the big hole in the structure is where the bottom of the first drop slices through.

The red are bents I still have to build and yellow is track nearing completion.

[Kw6sTheatee]

Amazing job so far!! I wish I was this good at models — if I made one, I would want to have it functional

[hillflyer]

Amazing job so far!! I wish I was this good at models — if I made one, I would want to have it functional

 

Thanks!

 

Those are fun to watch but it's very difficult to accurately make a scale model coaster and have it run, especially one with a really shallow rate of decline like the Cyclone Racer.

 

My models are all about the art of the structure anyways, which nobody notices if all they want to see is a train zipping around, but I'd like to give it a try some time! I have a design stored away years ago.

[JT325]

When I stole my copy of The Great American Amusement Parks from local library in 1977, little did I know 42 years later I would become good friends with the author Gary Kyriazi! He spent a whole weekend at my small cramped apartment among my model Airplane and Cyclone Racer roller coaster parts and we all got through unscathed. He's a really cool guy. I've only three months to finish this thing, before the upcoming ACE convention.

 

That is hilarious* as I stole MY copy of The Great American Amusement Parks around 1987 from the Oak Forest Public Library. A few years ago I spoke to Gary across facebook (and told him how I got the book!), and thanked him for such a great book. He also shared some great Colossus 1978 stories with me.

 

Last year, I did a true "amends" and returned the book to the library's current manager and made a financial donation/financial amends as well. Yes, about 30 years later...

 

I worshiped that book for a couple decades.

 

*Not saying that stealing anything from anywhere is cool...

[hillflyer]

When I stole my copy of The Great American Amusement Parks from local library in 1977, little did I know 42 years later I would become good friends with the author Gary Kyriazi! He spent a whole weekend at my small cramped apartment among my model Airplane and Cyclone Racer roller coaster parts and we all got through unscathed. He's a really cool guy. I've only three months to finish this thing, before the upcoming ACE convention.

 

That is hilarious* as I stole MY copy of The Great American Amusement Parks around 1987 from the Oak Forest Public Library. A few years ago I spoke to Gary across facebook (and told him how I got the book!), and thanked him for such a great book. He also shared some great Colossus 1978 stories with me.

 

Last year, I did a true "amends" and returned the book to the library's current manager and made a financial donation/financial amends as well. Yes, about 30 years later...

 

I worshiped that book for a couple decades.

 

*Not saying that stealing anything from anywhere is cool...

 

Wow that's great you did that...return the book that is. Did they frown upon you or just take it in stride? I wondered about doing the same thing. But considering it really pushed me over the top in my love for roller coasters, enough love to spend 10 years actually SAVING one from being torn town, I figure its the least I can get in back return. LOL.