I know that title is a red flag already, but hear me out!
Trying to figure out scenery management for our spring musical and looking at upwards of 8 scenic wagons that have to somehow maneuver around our stage. We do a children's show as well and often times I'll use that to experiment with new ideas since the cost of failure is much, much lower. For one last year we tried out the bullnose moulding track idea that's presented in Bill Raoul's book. I used 1x2 and mitred 45 degrees off one side to create the track and screwed it into the deck to use with a knife-edge that was bolted to the side of a platform. It worked out quite well under tech power and I'm considering expanding this idea for the spring show.
Things I noticed with our first try-
I've read through the forums and found that the push/pull stick seems to be the ticket with a vista moves (of which there will be at least one quick one).
There are two scenes where it would be advantageous for the wagons to turn 60 degrees upstage as they hit their marks. For that I'm debating adding a second track that curves up and designing the wagon knives to allow swivel. It may also be possible to just mount the knives at the proper angle so the wagon comes on at 60 already and use one track.
We debated for some time on building a raised deck and trying out true automation with a hand winch and kid power, but the cost of the deck alone would kill us. Maybe one day, but for now the bullnose should work. With the false deck I'm assuming that most designs including "parking" for wagons, meaning that you have to build out the deck anywhere you want a wagon to live. Just for my own curiosity- Is there any easy way to build a transition to the stage deck that works well?
Looking through the threads I couldn't find any that really discussed surface-mounted tracks- hence why I started this one instead of adding to existing. I do realize on face value this may appear to create trip-hazards, but in the previous show we mitigated it through choreography and training of the actors and for this particular show the tracks will have wagons on them for at least 50% of the time. In the test run we had no issues with actors taking a dive (thankfully).
Trying to figure out scenery management for our spring musical and looking at upwards of 8 scenic wagons that have to somehow maneuver around our stage. We do a children's show as well and often times I'll use that to experiment with new ideas since the cost of failure is much, much lower. For one last year we tried out the bullnose moulding track idea that's presented in Bill Raoul's book. I used 1x2 and mitred 45 degrees off one side to create the track and screwed it into the deck to use with a knife-edge that was bolted to the side of a platform. It worked out quite well under tech power and I'm considering expanding this idea for the spring show.
Things I noticed with our first try-
- Swivel castered platform "worked", but required a slight wiggle when changing directions, something that stressed both the knife and the track material, cause at least one failure if I recall.
- Pushing was pretty easy, but pulling we had to add a rope to the platform so they could bring it back.
- The knives were on the upstage edge of the wagon, which didn't help stability much moving in one direction. Will try to center the knives in this design.
- Overshooting the track end was a disaster. Need a stop of some sort to prevent that. Extensive spike marks helped (I work with HS kids).
I've read through the forums and found that the push/pull stick seems to be the ticket with a vista moves (of which there will be at least one quick one).
There are two scenes where it would be advantageous for the wagons to turn 60 degrees upstage as they hit their marks. For that I'm debating adding a second track that curves up and designing the wagon knives to allow swivel. It may also be possible to just mount the knives at the proper angle so the wagon comes on at 60 already and use one track.
We debated for some time on building a raised deck and trying out true automation with a hand winch and kid power, but the cost of the deck alone would kill us. Maybe one day, but for now the bullnose should work. With the false deck I'm assuming that most designs including "parking" for wagons, meaning that you have to build out the deck anywhere you want a wagon to live. Just for my own curiosity- Is there any easy way to build a transition to the stage deck that works well?
Looking through the threads I couldn't find any that really discussed surface-mounted tracks- hence why I started this one instead of adding to existing. I do realize on face value this may appear to create trip-hazards, but in the previous show we mitigated it through choreography and training of the actors and for this particular show the tracks will have wagons on them for at least 50% of the time. In the test run we had no issues with actors taking a dive (thankfully).