Spaceship Earth

lifeguard1020

Active Member
Originally posted by woofboy111
What I've figured out from that diagram is that you go around the building twice, and then go down the center.

Okay, just curious here. I'm a little confused. How can you go up the spiral twice and only come down once? Doesn't seem like that'd work too well. :)

Dan
 

The_CEO

Well-Known Member
Originally posted by the ceo at wdw
HOW DO THEY FIT ALL THAT SCENERY AND TRCK IN THE BALL CAN SOMENE SHOW OR DRAW A PICTURE OF THE TRACK SO I HAVE AN IDEA HOW THEY DO IT DOES THE TRACK SPIRAL? OR WHAT? LET ME KNOW THANX LEAVE A NOTE OR ANY COMMENTS OR SUGGESTIONS THANX AGAIN


LATERZZZ
LA

Jesus - someone delete all my posts. I sound like a damn 2 year old!


I contradict myself.

* Shoots old name *
 

isnet396

New Member
No one travels through the center of SE. The core contains the cargo elevator and emergency stairwells. To my knowledge, you go up, sprial to the top, and then descend on a more rapid approach to unload, not through the center. There's a yahoo group that's out there the WDW Modelers Club, or something to that effect, that has a great blueprint of the inside of the attraction. Check it out.

Ian
 

enfilm

Member
Actually the fire stairs and elevator shaft aren't in the center, they're off to the side. It's more like a donut where you spiral up around the outside and go back down through a tube in the middle. The stairs and elevator are attached to the tube in the middle but they're not in the center .

Ed

The guy who drew the plan in the disney modelers club mentioned in the previous post
 

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
If I remember you come down around 2 floors at a time, then level out, then come down another 2 floors at a time - thats why the return is so steep. Imagine a forty five degree incline, then a flat section, a=then another 45 degree part - like a zig zig.

BTW - the upright section right under the base of SE dosn`t take any structural weight - thats the fire exit.

Also - the track only actually uses 1/3 of the geosphere - the top 1/3 is the planetarium area, and the entire section below where the legs attatch dosn`t contain anything of note. In the 70`s it was impossible to design a suspended complete geosphere, so they built the top 2/3 on legs, then underslung the bottom third onto this, hence why nothing is in there. Or something like that!
 

Dr.Seeker

Member
I love that planetarium bit! But according to that great pic, SE comprises a large spiral with a hole in the middle. Is that just the perspective, or was it changed? Cos it would be IMPOSSIBLE to have guests decend at 180 degree angle!

Does anyone have any plans of SE to clear this problem up? Thanx.

Seeker Out.
 

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
I have a few unofficial plans, but they don`t help much. From what I can tell from the various construction pictures, and from my ride videos (Tomorrows Child is a bit brighter than now - easier to see the turns) I would hazard a guess and say the return track spirals either around the outside of the main show floors, or spirals round the inner tower - whichever, it must do at least 2 floors at a time before changing direction. Think I will have to look deeper into this... :)

BTW - welcome to the boards Seeker!
 

enfilm

Member
I did a few drawings of how the building works the lower portion has a plan like this
http://photoalbums.wdwmagic.com/showphoto.php?photo=9155&password=&sort=1&cat=500&page=1
the ground level is to the right with the loading turntable above and the unloading turntable below. the caveman scene is at the top of the plan and the down ramp is in the doughnut hole in the middle, it flattens out to go past the dioramas at the bottom of the plan, the city model and around the bend back down to the ground level.

The other levels look like this
http://photoalbums.wdwmagic.com/showphoto.php?photo=9156&password=&sort=1&cat=500&page=1
the left plan has the spiral upwards from the phoenicians to the sisteen chapel and is continued on the right with the scenes of the newspaper to the internet then to the big space scene where it turns around and goes back down the hole in the middle. you can also see the two fire stairs and the service elevator

Cross section looks something like this
http://photoalbums.wdwmagic.com/showphoto.php?photo=9157&password=&sort=1&size=medium&cat=500&page=1

Of course this is just an approximation I could be wrong and the whole thing could be done with just a bit of pixie dust, But this is my best guess :)

Ed
 

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
Totally cool! I think there is a bit more than just guesswork here... especially if you are the artist behind the similar diagrams at Yahoo!s Disney Modeler Club? :)
 

kandyapplebleu

New Member
while we're still on the subject of se construction...
i heard somewere that there are tubes that run along the triangles on the outside of se that act as a drainage system so the ball doesn't drip on guests under it when it rains. i've been to epcot a hundred times, and i've never noticed them. does anybody know if this is true? thanks.
 

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
Yep. I`m not quite sure how it works, but the majority of rainwater falling on SE is collected - so it dosn`t just run off onto the concourse - and is funneled into World Showcase Lagoon. Another of those `they thought of everything` moments...
 

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