Carousel riders should feel a smoother glide at this year’s Southeast Alaska State Fair.
The 70-year-old ride has a new foundation, suspension and carriage, due to a months-long volunteer effort.
“It was kind of rattling, shaking and out of level,” said Jim Jurgeleit, a retired ferry engineer who reworked 24 rods that suspend the ride to a timber carriage above. “It was kind of wore out, the wood was, anyway.”
Jurgeleit cut the steel rods, previously attached to the carriage by hook ends, and refitted them with threads and turnbuckles. That will allow the fair to adjust them individually, raising or lowering specific areas.
Mason Jim Stanford donated labor to rebuild and beef up the ride’s concrete foundation. The former one had been sinking into the ground, also causing complications for a ride that needs to be level to function well.
Carpenter Spencer Douthit fashioned the new timber carriage, rebuilding its sweeps and cross-beams and adding plate washers to keep suspension rods from sinking into the wood.
“The whole machine moves. There’s a dimension of flex that’s built into it,” said fair maintenance chief Alan Jones. The project started last October, removing years of rust and greasy gunk, then taking apart its gears and motor.
The ride’s electric motor was rebuilt in Tacoma, Wash., but a recommendation by an expert a few years ago to replace a main roller bearing – which allows the carousel to spin – wasn’t completed, due to a cog that’s rusted together. That work will wait until after this year’s fair, Jones said.
The machine’s main mast – or “king pole” – will be erected July 17 to make sure the improvements work, Jones said. “We need to make sure it’s back together and working the way it’s supposed to.”
Fair executive director Jessica Edwards said the machine’s “crown,” a metal cap, will be fitted with mosaic mirrors and plans are to cap it with a disco ball that will glimmer in the sunshine. “In the sun, it will be amazing.”
The work was funded in part by a grant from Lucy Harrell, but volunteers have provided most of the muscle, Jones said. “We wouldn’t be where we are without a ton of volunteer labor.”
Some parts of the carousel are no longer manufactured, but the machine has held up well, said engineer Jurgeleit. “There’s some history there. Things were built sturdy. It held up really well, I’d say, and it’s still in pretty good shape.”
Maintenance chief Jones said restoration work will continue on the ride’s horses, and some can be rebuilt ess expensively than commercial restoration, which costs several thousand dollars per horse.