It's over. Time to move on.

September 5, 2012 10:43 AM

Building Pharoah's Fury. Yesterday I watched the New York State Fairgrounds shutting down for the year. A few midway rides remained, and the sight of them reduced to compact size for rail transport got me wondering how they are set up and disassembled, especially things like a giant Ferris wheel.

Shaky footage of some rides being disassembled, showing how some rides actually take themselves down. Here's the Palisades midway being set up. By way of contrast, here's a ride that sets up real quick.

posted by kinnakeet (4 comments total)

Carnival rides are pretty cool exercises in engineering and packaging, given the need to transport along regular surface roads.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:05 AM on September 5, 2012

The rides at the Syracuse Fair are part of the James E. Strates Shows, which is the last railroad carnival in the country. The rides travel by rail, hence can be larger than most.
posted by kinnakeet at 11:11 AM on September 5, 2012 [1 favorite]

This sort of construction could really benefit a lot of other areas. Forget about demolition we will just take it apart.

If it is modular and standardized it will also be able to be reused or modified.
posted by psycho-alchemy at 12:15 PM on September 5, 2012

I could watch the operator of the ride in the last video fall out of his chair all day.
posted by smammy at 6:20 PM on September 5, 2012