This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
Park People

www.parkworld-online.com

Max Eberhard RCS

Q Lines

What services do you offer?

Often amusement parks engage the services of local engineering firms and steel contractors to assemble rollercoasters. Spotting a gap in the market, German ride operator Max Eberhard founded RCS (Rollercoaster

Construction Services) in 1999 to offer a turnkey solution to park operators and ride manufacturers. Now employing a flexible team of up to 50 foreman and technicians, his firm deals directly with most of the major coaster designers including

Intamin, Vekoma, Maurer Söhne, Mack, Huss and S&S. As several of the rides RCS installed this winter are about to go into operation, Park World catches up with Max (pictured above) to learn exactly what it takes to construct a coaster

It varies from project to project, but can include everything from the unloading of the coaster and checking of parts to mechanical steel assembly, electrical and hydraulic assembly, testing support and commissioning. It’s also about quality assurance. You will not find this range of services with any other company. We have broadened our capabilities in the last two or three years and now have two complete container villages consisting of workshop containers, tools containers, and even kitchen containers. One is in Europe at the moment; one is in Abu Dhabi. Tools are very important. Without the right tools you cannot work.

How did you get involved with constructing rollercoasters?

My family travels a number of rides in Germany, including a Mack Wild Mouse and a ride from Mondial called the Airwolf. We used to have a big Nauta Bussink ride called the Evolution and travelled that around the fairs for four years before my father sold it to Mirabilandia in Italy. Then the park part- exchanged the ride with Vekoma, who sent it New Jersey. Vekoma needed someone to install the ride, so that was my first job, as a supervisor to Vekoma. I quite enjoyed it and thought I would like to do more of this instead of working on the fairgrounds. The other thing was that we already has quite a lot of equipment, cranes etc, with our own rides and it was not really efficient to have them standing still all winter.

What advantages do you offer to park operators?

As showmen we are already used to working in a very limited time and space, and I think this is interesting for the parks. A good example was Insane at Gröna Lund last year. The space was only 20 x 10 metres and we did the steel structure in seven days. The whole project was done in two-and-a-half weeks, and the ride opened on time. A local company would have needed a minimum of six weeks.

What is wrong with using a local contractor?

Coaster projects can be very complex, and installation times have to be kept. It’s important not to have a local steel company that is doing it for the first time, but to use someone who has experience. We are installing a lot of launch coasters now where the tolerance is a lot more precise than standard steel structures. The tolerance of a normal steel structure is 1-2cm, with an Intamin launch coaster it is 0.2mms. That’s a real speciality.

It used to be that the local company would do the steel structure, then you had the lift, the chain, some brakes and that’s it. Now you have a lot of extra things. So a park has to hire another company to do mechanical things, then a third company for the electrics, company number four for the touch up and painting, and a fifth company for testing and commissioning. That’s four of five companies on one job, and you have to manage them all on site. This costs money, money, money …and time. From unloading to pushing a button to make the ride go, we do everything.

Construction on Mammut at Gardaland in 2007/8. The RCS container village can be seen top left

APRIL 2010

27 Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48
Produced with Yudu - www.yudu.com