Disney California Adventure Project Tracker 12

[k_peek_2000]

I'm not a Chevy expert, but that looks good to me as well. Great work TreoFred.
I think I'd be safe to say that is one of those things most park vistors would never notice. I love stuff like that.

They absolutely nailed the tail fins. Great job to the designers and sculptors. Now I have a new appreciation for them.

[Daboltz]

Hi BuenaVista28,

No I don't currently work with the House of the Mouse. As I said when I posted them last week, all the stories I got were just that: rumors and stories. Some I trust very much (all the details about BVS, about RSR, etc.) because everything since has been confirming what I was told. So far. Other I liked because, while impossible to prove (and as such I very much tagged them as rumors), I found them fascinating. So I shared a few.

I stopped also to limit debate which was beyond the tracker. No harms done hopefully

Today, I went back to the park with a list of some of the questions that were raised here (curbs on BVS, will they open the fountain area and is it ready, the ever controversial west wall of RSR, etc.) and I just went ahead and try to snap away. Seeing Mater being tested was just a very lucky happenstance. And there are tons of people, between Mint, Fishbulb, Ron, etc who do wonders with their photographic reports so I tried to find more specific things and angles

Some are just for the fun of it, like the following four though:
.

Wait....I'm confused. Is the mater pic real?

[TreoFred]

Wait....I'm confused. Is the mater pic real?

Yes it is! You can also see the top of the tractor on one of my subsequent post as well as the gantry that was used to install the tractor on the track. Only one tractor was running today though, the others were just the connectors to test the plater switching.

[DisneyMickey]

Great pictures! Eager to see what Buena Vista Street evolves into by next year. I think it really be a magnificent entrance that will propel the park forward along with Cars Land. The scale and scope of it all is truly impressive and unseen in Anaheim for years!

With that being said, does anyone think/ hope they will dismantle the boxy, awkward "a bugs land" entrance sign closest to Cars Land/ the Winery? I'm not a fan of the sign and now it's close proximity to Cars Land makes it look a little out of place.

And one last rant, the elecTRONica crap in the backlot has got to GO!!! It completely destroys the already weak aesthetic of that land. And now that they have a chance to build on the view looking on from BVS, they need to get rid of it all.

HIDEOUS:
http://mintcrocodile.smugmug.com/pho...-F3Lgzgd-O.jpg

[SidVicious]

I notice there's so many new trees around Mater, which makes me think those will serve as some kind of berm. Not only blocking Mater but the Cadillac Range. Eventually they'll grow tall enough to block out the view coming from BVS.

Great job on the tailfins btw, never would have noticed that.

[markb1024]

New video by MintCrocodile:

At the beginning of the video, you can see both the fake red flags on top of the Pan Pacific entry to the park, and the real red flags on top of the construction walls. I like the real flags way better.

[TreoFred]

Great pictures! Eager to see what Buena Vista Street evolves into by next year. I think it really be a magnificent entrance that will propel the park forward along with Cars Land. The scale and scope of it all is truly impressive and unseen in Anaheim for years!

I keep saying I'm done posting pictures... but I have so many... and I said I'd post a bit of stuff on BVS... so I keep coming back...
...omg I need help

Anyway, this will be the view walking back up towards the Carthay and the entrance of the park.

As you can see, the new asphalt goes beyond the crossing path from the Carthay to the pump house and the transition to the old DCA concrete (not on this picture) feels a little abrupt. For now. It'll undoubtedly change

The other thing to consider is that on this angle, you're looking dead center on the new fountain. The work light peaking out above the Elias ad on the wall is roughly at the edge of the little park that is being built there, almost exactly where the new partner statue will be.


Getting closer, you can see the fountain on the left. Now remember that the whole Plaza is eccentric. In fact, not only will Buena Vista Street be longer through the curving idea, Hollywood Blvd itself becomes longer. As you can see from the second pedestrian crossing (going straight toward the door in the wall), this one is pretty close to the apex of the small triangular park (but not quite, the park expands a bit further).


In fact, looking at it a bit more you can see that the asphalt already expands below that wall. But notice that red concrete area, below the wall on the right, that was left over from the old DCA Sunshine Plaza? This will be replaced by the edge of that new park. The walls keep moving back and forth as construction requires

And once again, this wall is largely a moving one (misaligned on top and bottom). Soooo... let's take a peak and see how close they are to open the fountain area and let us walk through (since it was one of the other question/suggestion being made).

A lot of demolition happening, a massive lack of concrete (or anything but dirt !)... and not much hope for that area to be opened anytime soon, even to walk through.

Let's wait a few weeks I guess but since this is obviously the main pathway for the big construction engine (considering the size of the moving wall), it might be a while until they finish it enough to open the area.

And one last rant, the elecTRONica crap in the backlot has got to GO!!! It completely destroys the already weak aesthetic of that land. And now that they have a chance to build on the view looking on from BVS, they need to get rid of it all.

100% agree.
They said it was staying till the end of the year and I think the main reason is because it draws people (and a lot of money) to this area which is less than appealing in it's "Welcome to Wall-Maze" current appearance. Then again, it will be pretty problematic when they'll start installing the catenary for the Red Car Trolley and since Electronica is set to stay till end of December, that gives you a pretty good idea of when that piece of work is set to begin

[Ursulalvr]

I thought ElecTRONica was staying till april again? It will be bittersweet for me when it leaves, it's gotta go, but I have such fond memories of it.

[Mojave]

Why was it necessary for the track to take a little jog to the left in this photo? I can't think of any geometrical or other reason. Unless they laid the track around the fountain before connecting it to the Hollywood portion of the track and the curve coming off the circle was not sharp enough, so they were forced to go out a little bit then come back. Stumped

[TreoFred]

I thought ElecTRONica was staying till april again? It will be bittersweet for me when it leaves, it's gotta go, but I have such fond memories of it.

Oops! Actually, you're correct: through Spring 2012.

---------- Post added 09-01-2011 at 02:20 AM ----------

Why was it necessary for the track to take this little jog to the left in this photo? I can't think of any geometrical or other reason. Unless they laid the track around the fountain before connecting it to the Hollywood portion of the track and the curve coming off the circle was not sharp enough, so they were force to go out a little bit then come back. Stumped

It was on the blueprint all along. It's for turning radius and clearance reasons when the trolley is making it's right turn as the separate bogies make it stick out to the left or right during turns (like a normal train wagon.) I had the same question when I first noticed it on the blueprint

A picture is worth a thousand words (which means I've written 'War and Peace' 17 times today ) so here's yet-another-picture:

As you can see from the blueprint, the zig zag is present. I mentioned it before but one of the concessions they did to authenticity was to make the RCT ADA friendly. To avoid having some load ramps, the trick was to have a load platform which is almost level to the curb so you can wheelchair in and out.

To do that, the RCT gets REALLY close to the curb in the turn (red arrow) and so needs to get away further before making the right turn out of the plaza into Hollywood Blvd for necessary clearance (green arrow)

Hope this helps!

Update: don't mistake my Red Arrow for the stop, it's just to identify the tight clearance!

[mickeyfan42]

Is it just me or are the DCA construction walls much more entertaining to look at the the WDW Fantasyland walls?

[Mojave]

It was on the blueprint all along. It's for turning radius and clearance reasons when the trolley is making it's right turn as the separate bogies make it stick out to the left or right during turns (like a normal train wagon.) I had the same question when I first noticed it on the blueprint

OK. So the turning radius can't be any tighter? But I don't understand the clearance reason. What does it have to clear? Is it that the distance between the trolley and the curb becomes too small and they're concerned about crowding pedestrians?

Anyway, what amazes me (and I'm sure they thought this all out) that if the center of the fountain/circle was a mere 2-ish feet to the south, it would have lined up properly with the Hollywood track and the jog wouldn't be necessary. Or if whatever is causing the clearance issue wasn't an issue. Little things like that in the engineering of the whole project are very interesting to me.

[TreoFred]

OK. So the turning radius can't be any tighter? But I don't understand the clearance reason. What does it have to clear? Is it that the distance between the trolley and the curb becomes too small and they're concerned about crowding pedestrians?

Anyway, what amazes me (and I'm sure they thought this all out) that if the center of the fountain/circle was a mere 2-ish feet to the south, it would have lined up properly with the Hollywood track and the jog wouldn't be necessary. Or if whatever is causing the clearance issue wasn't an issue. Little things like that in the engineering of the whole project are very interesting to me.

Sorry, I went back and added the illustration on the previous post. The short story of it is that, when you take all the requirements into account (the size of the carthay, the size and turning radius of the RCT, the ADA requirement and proximity to the curb, the building and safety code including size of pathways for fire escape routes behind a building like the Carthay, the pre-existing location of attractions like Tough to be a bug which were not removed, etc...) well, doing a small zig zag is the Occam's razor option for engineering: the easiest and thus the best one (and if you really want to go into details, it is actually a minimalist S-curve, a very common solution found in trolley and street car implementation that had to manage tight radiuses imposed by their environment... so technically, it ADDS authenticity ).

[mark]

I wonder if the Carsland tail fins begin with 1957 as a hidden tribute to John Lasseter since it was the year in which he was born.

[mickeyfan42]

I wonder if the Carsland tail fins begin with 1957 as a hidden tribute to John Lasseter since it was the year in which he was born.

Thats probably a good bet