The old-fashioned carousel at the Southeast Alaska State Fair isn’t that old or that unique, and it’s not worth as much as some have previously speculated. On the other hand, it’s easy to fix and should last a long time. And there’s still a company that makes replacement parts.
That was the word this week from Daniel Horenberger of Brass Ring Carousel Co., who builds, restores and sells the machines nationwide. His 30 years of experience includes making carousels for Disney and Six Flags amusement parks.
Horenberger, who was here to assess the fair’s machine, knows a thing or two about the model, a 36-foot Allan Herschel from the early 1950s. He owns 12 just like it, at locations all over the country, he said.
The carousel is a “half-and-half,” mass-produced in the early 1950s, when carnivals and fairs were booming and manufacturers were shifting away from all-wooden horses to ones with wood torsos but aluminum heads and tails. It came with 30 horses and two, ornately carved seats called “chariots” in carousel-speak. Calliope music came from a phonograph record, a modernization from organs that played music on earlier models. It was built with fluorescent lights in the “trim,” a decorative band above the horses.
“These were made to make money, not to make people happy. Running at peak, they could carry 720 riders an hour,” Horenberger said. The ride is also collapsible, built to be taken down at night, hauled to the next carnival site and erected again in just a matter of hours.
There are about 1,000 such carousels still operating nationwide, of 3,600 manufactured. A completely restored one is worth up to $500,000, but the fair’s machine, which Horenberger rates as in “fair to poor” condition due to weather damage, would fetch around $40,000, or about what you’d pay for a used Tilt-A-Whirl.
“The labor to bring this back to its original condition is the difference. It’s absolutely labor intensive,” with restoration of horses by his company running at about $7,000 each, Horenberger said.
During a Tuesday afternoon demonstration, Horenberger showed fair board members how the carousel is meant to work, where it needed repair, how it should be maintained and the basics of restoration techniques, including patching and refinishing carousel horses.
He also offered to provide repair manuals and catalogs for ordering replacement parts.
“I tell people if they can change the oil in their car, they can work on a carousel. It’s pretty basic. There’s just a few secrets,” he said. “But nothing here can be hurt. Everything can be rebuilt and you can keep it forever.”
The fair carousel’s most serious issue is sagging support beams, caused by hanger rods or “hooks” that were bent apparently by a big snow load when the ride’s deck wasn’t removed one winter. The metal rods can be replaced by ones equipped with turnbuckles, allowing for tightening over time.
The fair should consider replacing the carousel’s main bearing and shim up horizontal foundation beams that appear to be sinking into the ground. Also, wrapping the gears each winter with a tarp will keep moisture out of the drive mechanism, he said.
(One distinction held by the fair’s carousel is that nearly all older models like it are now kept indoors or at least under a roof, he said.)
Horenberger also suggested replacing pig and swan-shaped “chariots” made of plywood with benches that are more attractive, possibly featuring Northwest Coast-style Native carving or other local features. The original chariots – intended for heavier or less agile riders that operators didn’t want on horses – typically didn’t last, he said.
An eye-opener for fair board members was Horenberger’s disclosure that crankshafts (bent, horizontal rods that lift horses up and down) should all be at the same angle of rotation when the ride is set up so horses create a “flow” of movement instead of moving up and down randomly.
In addition, different styles of horses should go in specific locations on the carousel, arranged by color.
The manufacturer’s intended effect, he said, was for rows of horses to appear to be approaching, then jumping a stationary fence. The carousel also works better mechanically when the horses are at intended positions, he said.
“That’s how you time it. Everything flows when you do that. You want it all to be rhythmic, even down to the music and the German marches. It should look like a parade,” Horenberger said. “Right down to the colors (of the horses), all of it should work together. The original makers, that’s what they were thinking.”
While the fair’s carousel isn’t worth a fortune, some models are, Horenberger said, particularly older ones, in good shape, with horses made entirely of wood. (Carousels date to the 1850s, when they were turned by hand cranks.)
“The old, wooden ones, they only made so many of those and that’s all there are. Machines selling for $700,000 10 years ago now go for $2 million. It’s supply and demand and we’re out of them,” Horenberger said.
Horenberger said his customer base in recent years has shifted from carnivals and municipalities to collectors. He recently assembled an older, 60-foot carousel in a private home in Washington state, in a 100-by-100 foot addition that required a 30-foot ceiling. “Our main customers are people putting carousels into their houses for their own, personal use.”
The going price for a single horse from a classic carousel can go as high as $100,000, he said. Carousel horses are hollow and are fashioned from as many as 75 separate pieces of wood, typically basswood, a type of poplar.
About a half-dozen horses on the Haines carousel have been restored by fair donors in the past 20 years, at a cost starting at about $3,000 each. About as many horses have been left off the carousel during recent fairs, due to issues with fittings, said fair executive director Jessica Edwards.
The fair board will decide the extent of improvements to the carousel at an upcoming meeting, Edwards said, and those are likely to at least include replacing the “hooks” and main bearing. That work may solve a gear-grinding issue and also address some other concerns.
The fair acquired its carousel in 1974 from Juneau’s Glacier Valley Rotary Club. The ride saw a major refurbishment in 1986, when $13,750 was spent making it workable again after it was deemed unsafe and fell into disrepair.
The fair recently positioned a switch on the outer perimeter of the carousel area, where the ride’s operator stands, an improvement from a few years back when operators had to stand inside the spinning wheel and sometimes developed motion sickness. “It’s a common problem,” Horenberger said. “People get sick watching it all day.”