The Fury Fairground Ride
Built by Santiago Plicio in December 2021
Sometimes there is nothing more infuriating than having an idea in your mind of something you want to construct but the pieces you need most are tied up in other models.
I have a few models that I can’t consider disassembling yet as I’m still too attached to them, and with the recent upgrade of my Galacticus ride to the new Draconian ride, plus having also recently finished The Golden Horizon as my latest model ship, I think it’s fair to say that spare parts are in some short supply.
That still wasn’t enough to deter me from ploughing ahead with the idea for my latest model, and it had me going around in circles looking for the necessary parts and having to be extremely inventive when I found I didn’t have them at the ready.
I guess The Fury is rather different from so many of my previous rides in the sense that I didn’t have all the usual range of Meccano bits at my disposal and I found myself unwilling to take them from any of the other existing models and so I had to work with what I had available to hand and circumnavigate each shortage problem.
I was able to build a new strong base to hold a tall round tower with a platform on top, from where a rotating circular canopy was to rest attached to a motor that was fitted underneath that base. This was the trickiest part of the endeavour, as the main circular tooled plates that I needed were already employed in my other models, and so I needed to design a different system which would turn this heavy canopy with arms and its carriages. This canopy has 24 flanged sectors bolted together holding 12 flanged № 52 plates vertically, with additional supports holding the 8 long arms with the cars.
The motor rotates a circular plate on top of the platform, having long pins engaged in the detachable rotating unit, which then drives the model.
A gearing system of speed reduction is fitted to control the optimum velocity of rotation, but the ride can achieve very high, almost furious, speeds posing a daring ride challenge to those thrill-seeking on-lookers at the fair.
Now with the model finished I think the model is rather imposing, but equally attractive in green, red and yellow.
For ease of transportation the arms with its carriages and the whole rotating canopy can all be individually detached, and it’s a distant memory now despite it only being a week or so ago from the infuriating feeling of not knowing what parts could help me get the model to completion.
The Fury — going round in furious circles can drive a thrill-seeker mad!