Ferociousness Fairground Ride
Built by Santiago Plicio in January 2021
This is a re-imagining of my Ferocity model, which was originally built in 2018 and was an original concept idea for a fairground ride at an amusement park.
That structure consisted of a large rotating arm supporting a boat at one end for the riders, supported on top of two towers which fully rotated the passengers repeatedly upside-down on each turn.
The model was displayed many times at several Meccano clubs, was featured on the front cover of the Runnymede Meccano Guild Magazine (issue 96, February 2018), and it has always felt like one of my favourite constructions.
I think the model was one of my best and certainly one of biggest and heaviest too and I’ve always resisted the temptation to disassemble it, so it’s stayed while so many others came and went far more quickly.
During the period of lockdown for Covid-19, I finally decided that if I was still not going to deconstruct it any time soon, then in the very least I would at least rekindle my love for it further and re-imagine it with an upgrade.
I started removing the two kiosks at either side and replaced them with new ones that I deliberately placed further outwards and further forward. As well as making them bigger I also changed their design, creating pointed towers on top of them.
I changed the railings at the main entrance, re-positioned the signs, and changed the position of the main top arch, which is removable for transportation.
The main long rotating arm was redesigned with a new V-shaped double arm to support the passenger ‘boat’ and then I completely reshaped the counterbalance end, improving it aesthetically.
With these changes in place, I decided to add two similar towers at the rear with the same shape as the two new kiosks at the front.
These new units were supported to the back tower arch by curved struts with the same idea as the ones that feature in Tower Bridge in London but rather smaller.
A few additional supporting parts were added to reinforce the whole new additional units.
The previous red flexible plates covering the back towers were removed and changed with a new look.
The model’s centre light illuminates the front main entrance and model name plate, and an additional light has been fitted at the very top of the main arch to provide additional lighting to the model’s frontage.
Finally, the big boat itself was also extended with curved strips, increasing the overall size of the unit.
If I was already very fond of the previous Ferocity model, then I am now in love with its upgrade. It looks bigger, better and more aggressive than ever and a ferocious effort in Meccano model-making is helping me escape the confines of lockdown boredom and whenever the time finally allows, the new Ferociousness is ready for 2021.
Move over Ferocity — Ferociousness is a passionate work of Fury!