Disneyland in 3D!

[Datameister]

Originally Posted by Bruce Bergman

Data - You are aware that the very long due East-West building north of the Staff Shop and just south of the Backstage gate and road from the tram route to Vehicle Maintenance was the Original SF&DLRR Roundhouse, right? The one that has the higher roof on the east end, and has obviously been added onto several times and the roofline is a mish-mosh of different pitches - you did some very detailed turbine ventilators on it, IIRC.

Before they rerouted the DLRR track north in a big arc to go over the Small World flume 'tunnel' and made more room where Big Thunder Ranch went, the old alignment went almost arrow-straight east/west along the northern property line (before they consolidated all the backstage properties and Anaheim vacated Winston Road) and roughly 30' in front of the Small World load area fence.

The tunnel or cut (forget which) through the berm with the spur going to the oriiginal Roundhouse is still there, though they've torn out the tracks. Just look backwards on the train, there's still a service road grade crossing and light/bell.

Thanks, Bruce! I knew that the location and part of the building shapes were identical, so it seemed likely to me that they were one and the same. Thanks for confirming it!

What's confusing, however, is the tunnel/cut leading to it. I think you're thinking of this:



...but this is what is currently where the spur to the roundhouse was:



And you can see it from the backside in this photo, a little above and to the left of center, lit up in green:



All of these are links to the full-size versions, just like my renders. As far as what we're looking at goes...you tell me.

[Mojave]

Excellent new discussion!

From aerial photos I have, pre 1959, it looks like the spur from the 1st roundhouse, went through a tunnel. But in a later photo, during construction of IASW, there is a new cut just northeast of where the tunnel was and it "looks" like there were tracks there as well.

At this point, I don't know if the roundhouse had already been moved to its current location, but since it looks like there were tracks there, maybe both the cut and the tunnel were used for the spur?

[Bruce Bergman]

Originally Posted by Datameister

Thanks, Bruce! I knew that the location and part of the building shapes were identical, so it seemed likely to me that they were one and the same. Thanks for confirming it!

What's confusing, however, is the tunnel/cut leading to it. I think you're thinking of this:



...but this is what is currently where the spur to the roundhouse was:



And you can see it from the backside in this photo, a little above and to the left of center, lit up in green:



All of these are links to the full-size versions, just like my renders. As far as what we're looking at goes...you tell me.

I think the top one is the old spur line cut - see, the gate arm and bell is still there.

The second (front) and third (rear) shots are interesting - they have to be there for a reason, Disney never wasted effort doing ANYTHING they didn't have a reason for - but they did take the time to disguise things that had to be there.

That "tunel" is way too small for the steam train, but it's the right size for the Mine Train spur line to Backstage, or the Cast Member pedestrian access. The Staff Shop (the big green skylights) could have been the Mine Train service barn once upon a time - it would be logical.

In the second picture, notice the "Shepherds' Hook" vent pipe peeking over the bushes in the upper left corner? That's a casing vent, and a very good clue why that old tunnel is still there, although boarded up...

Behind that falsework or the planted shrubbery screen might be the original refueling station for the trains, and perhaps there is still a backup fill station and hose, too. The vent would be for the underground fuel line to the dispenser - they put a welded steel oil pipe inside a welded steel casing pipe in case of leaks - the leak would come out the vent and be rather obvious. Now they just extend the buried fuel line under the RR right-of-way over to Toontown where the fuel stop is done now, and another line has to get to the Mark Twain Dock somehow for the #2 Distillate to fuel the boiler. They can go clockwise around the ROA, or counter-clockwise, pick one.

The underground fuel tanks would be backstage, so the delivery truck can come make their drop during the day.

Another possibility is that's where the natural gas pipeline for the north end of the property (Hungry Bear, Big Thunder, ToonTown and Harbor Galley kitchens, the {Non-}Burning Cabin) heads into the park - when the made the berm they put the "tunnel" over an old street level pipeline for access, and next to the phone water and electric lines... Same thing, they put the gas line inside a buried casing to keep it from corroding as fast, provide extra armor, and make replacement easier.

The last possibility for that casing vent would be a buried petroleum or gas transmission line that used to cut across the orange groves - but I've walked the perimeter of the park a few times looking for interesting stuff, and a big pipeline easement I would have noticed the permanent markings - they are subtle unless you are looking for them... And they would have to put the route markers inside the park where it cuts across, too.

Egad, this is turning into Disneyland After Dark Part VI...

--<< Bruce >>--

[Mojave]

Here are two closeups of that area. There's definitely a tunnel there, just much bigger than what is boarded up now. I was wrong earlier. The tracks don't look like they went through the cut. The later shot still has tracks going through the tunnel.

Late 1957/early 1958:



Late 1965:

[Bruce Bergman]

Originally Posted by Mojave

Excellent new discussion!

From aerial photos I have, pre 1959, it looks like the spur from the 1st roundhouse, went through a tunnel. But in a later photo, during construction of IASW, there is a new cut just northeast of where the tunnel was and it "looks" like there were tracks there as well.

At this point, I don't know if the roundhouse had already been moved to its current location, but since it looks like there were tracks there, maybe both the cut and the tunnel were used for the spur?

There would have been a year or more of overlap time, to allow for moving all of their stored "Stuff" to the new roundhouse - and to run the machinery still installed at the old roundhouse.

--<< Bruce >>--

[Datameister]

Fascinating! Thanks so much, both of ya! I'd say that second photo proves pretty conclusively that the current tunnel was the location of the spur--I brightened it up, and there's no sign of tracks going through the cut. Very interesting.

This isn't related directly to the 3D project, but it is Disneyland in 3D, in a way...I've just Photosynthed the Indy show building. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, though 17 of the 44 photos managed to stick together rather well. These are mostly photos I've already posted, but it's interesting to see them in a new context.

[Bruce Bergman]

Originally Posted by Mojave

Here are two closeups of that area. There's definitely a tunnel there, just much bigger than what is boarded up now. I was wrong earlier. The tracks don't look like they went through the cut. The later shot still has tracks going through the tunnel.

Late 1957/early 1958:



Late 1965:

They could have rebuilt the train tunnel portal to appear smaller, make it into a pedestrian tunnel, and then "board it up"...

Note that Wisnton Rd. is still there, and the rows of Orange Trees on the left side of the picture... And the big road cut is already there, and obviously a service road for the Park - possibly used to drive the Conestoga Wagons and Stagecoaches backstage.

Hmmm... This gets curiouser and curiouser...

--<< Bruce >>--

[hauntedmotion]

I saw this at Disneyland yesterday, and I was gonna tell you about it, but sure enough, you had already taken notice of it! I saw that one of the ladders near the Indy exit was missing two steps. I assumed that you might of missed that so I took a look at your photos of the temple on Flickr and my god, there was a two step gap in that ladder!



One day, I'll go to Disneyland to find one of the many lights on main street broken, and you'll post a broken light bulb from main street on your blog the very next day!



Great work, Data!

[Datameister]

I'm honored that seeing such an anomaly would inspire you to check my model for inaccuracies--and I mean that. If I've screwed up, I want to know. Though I'm proud that I didn't, in this particular case. Yessiree, I spent a long time studying every photo of the temple I could find. I made sure all the ladders had the right number of steps, tried to get the crumbled areas as accurate as reasonably possible, and so forth. I still need to add the ropes along the sides of the path, though.

[hauntedmotion]

Oops! I almost forgot! I found this, but I'm not sure what it is. Hope this helps!

[Datameister]

That is weird...I've never seen that before... Thanks, though!

[hauntedmotion]

I think one of the tough parts you'll reach during the process of making the Indy ride will be engraving that Mara font correctly into the walls, after you've found the font and decoded everything that is.

[Datameister]

Haha, yeah, in all seriousness, I've thought about the issue of the Indy walls many, many times, and I think I'll probably just leave out all the inscriptions and illustrations, sadly. Creating and properly lining up all those images would take forever. Maybe a new version of Blender will make this easier at some point, and then it'll be a possibility...but till then, I think I'll have to make do with undecorated stone textures.

[hauntedmotion]

Well the Mara font can be downloaded here:

http://www.bertino.com/disney/mara/MARAFONT.TTF

As for the images on the walls, you can... well..... yea that would be a pain to make!

[orbitalpunk]

it would be nice to see some scripture. wouldnt a bump map in conjunction with the Mara font do the job?