Steve Dobbs, a retired engineer, bought a small electric train for his grandchildren. But the simple train quickly got boring and so he built a tunnel to rekindle interest. That worked for a while, but eventually the kids found it boring again. So Dobbs built a whole miniature amusement park in his own backyard to amuse the kids and himself again. In Dobbsland, for example, there is a small roller coaster, a toy submarine, animatronic dolls and the kids' favorite characters, including Cinderella and Winnie the Pooh. The roller coaster was developed by the local engineering students. The Orange County Register to:
They used engineering principles to design the track's trajectory, which had to fit the lawn's 30-by-13-foot imprint.
"My main requirement was that I wanted it to be safe for little kids to ride, but also fun for teens and adults to ride," Dobbs said.
Built at Cal Poly Pomona in three months, the coaster was dismantled by the student crew and moved to Dobbs' home. (When disassembled, every Dobbsland attraction can fit in the home's garage.)
Dynamic Testing Solutions' chief financial officer rode and certified the coaster, which can support riders up to 185 pounds, goes forward and backward, tops out at 12 mph and is equipped with mechanisms measuring weight and g-force.