This section of the Thrill Lab blog site includes posts from the TMU Thrill Club for its members and peer theme park clubs.
The club communicates with members primarily on Discord. Contact the club at thrillclub [at] torontomu [dot] ca
Category: TMU Thrill Club
Thrill Club project demo
Shortly after the Thrill Club began developing a scale model dark ride for its future activities, we had the opportunity to offer a demonstration for an audience of amusement ride safety inspectors, owners, and others at the annual TSSA Ride Safety Seminar in Niagara Falls. A smaller scale first draft model was quickly completed and packed for transport! Club president Jake Fulton attended the safety seminar and enjoyed great professional networking and continuing education hours as well.
Guest speaker
April 3 was an opportunity for TMU and local students interested in theme park careers to learn from industry veteran John Riggleman as he visited Toronto.
CNE 2017 construction week field trip
This year, three Ryerson Engineering students joined the CNE construction field trip (from left, Taha Simsek, Tyler Nagata, Meghan Keegan). Aside from posing with Squirtles (Pokémon game prizes likely to be the hot commodity this year), they had the opportunity to join me in shadowing some ride inspections and watching the assembly of Canada’s largest fair.
Continue reading “CNE 2017 construction week field trip”TEA webinar viewing 7 October 1p.m. RCC359A on Ryerson campus
CNE Eve
Twas the morning before CNE and all through the midway, … there were new rides arriving and still some spaces.
Some of the most labour intensive rides were going up today, like this. Can you recognize from the photo what it will be?
Wednesday, pre-CNE
The show opens Friday morning. The threatening rain yesterday did not catch us, and today was windy but dry. There were still many rides on the midway that had not been completely put together and fenced in, giving us a good chance to look at the machinery from all angles. We also had a chance to watch inspections of some rides, including the Ring of Fire and the Crazy Mouse spinning coaster.
These were great opportunities for the group to think about how to mimic the mechanisms of the rides for scale model club projects, and challenge themselves to spot key features like brakes, proximity switches, drive wheels, cables, and chains on a variety of rides.
Continue reading “Wednesday, pre-CNE”Tuesday, pre-CNE
The CNE opens on Friday, with a blast of confetti at 10am. On the midway, there are many marked spaces for rides that have not yet arrived. We expect more to see tomorrow, and a magical transformation on Thursday. Today’s site visit gave students a look under the new Tivoli Remix.
Continue reading “Tuesday, pre-CNE”Happy New Year
Every year, summer winds down and the CNE marks the imminent start of the new school year. Since 2002, the THRILL Lab has spent time during the CNE construction week observing and learning. Some years, we have one or more studies on the go, other times, we are collecting ideas for future studies or designs. We meet new people and reconnect with people we know who have been so generous sharing their expertise. Increasingly, the CNE construction week has been an extracurricular “course” in amusement design and technology. This year, 11 students will participate in parts of the week.
Continue reading “Happy New Year”2014 May Visit with Rob
During a little post-exams strategic retreat this Spring, I had the chance to visit and catch a few mid-day rides at Universal Islands of Adventure with alumnus Rob Kipping. Rob is a 2013 Ryerson Computer Engineering grad (participant in THRILL Lab CNE field trip 2012) now working as a ride integration engineer, designing and developing industrial electronics used in major theme park attractions, both as a subcontractor for major theme parks and supplier of turnkey attractions for smaller parks. After a busy year based in Orlando, he’s headed for Asia for his next project.