I've loved theme parks ever since I was a child, and through all the jobs and careers I've had over the years, I've had a constant dream to open my own. Whenever I take the kids on holiday or I have some time off work, I'll take them to one; the driving distance is no object, and I really don't mind spending the money on it as it's a day we can really all enjoy.
I recently had a bit of luck on the lottery and decided that I could afford to live the dream with a couple of friends, so we decided to open up our own small theme park once we found some investors. As well as a dream, we had an idea for the park that was something of a unique one in the game, so we had no problem securing a substantial investment, meaning that although I was using a substantial chunk of my winnings and my friends were using some of their savings, none of us had to invest everything we had in it.
The thing we soon discovered was that although it was relatively easy to design a theme park, these venues live or die by their rides, and so we hired some top-notch designers to come up with a special kind of rollercoaster. Being privy to their design process was really eye-opening for me: for some reason, I always thought you could just buy these rollercoaster cars from somewhere, I didn't know that they were made from GRP casts.
GRP - or Glass Reinforced Plastic - is sometimes also known as fibreglass and is a surprisingly strong material considering its light weight. If made correctly, I was told, a GRP-moulded rollercoaster car would be more than strong enough to withstand the rigours of the usage our ride would be getting, and also wouldn't put as much strain on the track as the same shape made from most other materials would.
Watching the manufacturers make the GRP mould was genuinely fascinating and seeing the first finished car really helped my friends and I feel that our theme park dream was coming true. If I'm honest, this was probably the turning point with the business, more than finding investors, more than signing the contracts and even more than all the other aspects of building the park. I doubt I'll experience that feeling again, or anything comparable, until there are queues outside and the doors are opening, and I truly look forwards to that day.
Author Resource:-
Anna Stenning is a soon-to-be theme park owner who recently learned about fibreglass moulding. Find out more about GRP at http://www.stuartpease.co.uk/
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://articlepowerplant.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
