This July marks 30 years since Steven Spielberg’s dino-romp masterpiece hit theatres. A summer blockbuster 65 million years in the making, with a stellar cast and cutting edge visual and special effects, Jurassic Park sparked children’s imaginations all over the world. Since then the Jurassic Park franchise has spawned 5 big screen sequels, millions of toys, multiple family friendly and thrilling ride systems and even an interactive touring exhibition. It’s fair to say we are huge fans and over the years we have had the immense pleasure of working on multiple of these Jurassic Park inspired ride systems and engineering projects.

Velocicoaster – RG-11 Gating System (Pictured Above) – Universal Studios Orlando Resort

During early 2020 Garmendale designed and built a selection of custom RG-11 gates for Universal Orlando’s most exhilarating ride to date. These specially crafted gates are complete with stainless steel frames and a brushed finish. However, the real challenge with this project came in Universal’s unique request for this gating system. Oppose to the traditional design, Universal requested glass in-fills for a sleek modern look. The glass in-fill RG-11 gating system was the first of its kind and has now welcomed over 1 million riders. The RG-11 gates were designed, manufactured and fabricated at our headquarters in Derbyshire, England before packing and transporting them to Orlando, Florida where the Garmendale site engineers installed and tested this state of the art gate system. This wasn’t the first time our gates were involved with Jurassic Park…

Jurassic World : The Ride – RG-11 Gating System – Universal Studios Hollywood

In 2019 the family classic Jurassic Park: The Ride closed its doors and was entirely relaunched as Jurassic World: The Ride. As part of this remodel the boats were re-furbished, as well as a truly immersive tunnel added to the opening of the ride introducing you to an aquatic beast. Whilst the remodelling work was being carried out it was also decided a brand new set of RG-11 entry gates would be created for Jurassic World: The Rides’ grand opening. For just under 5 years our gates have reliably and sustainably contributed to passenger flow as well as protecting riders young and old. Our gates must be dinosaur proof as we’ve heard no complaints.

T-Rex Animatronic – Jurassic World The Touring Exhibition

Finally, in our homage to Jurassic Park’s 30th birthday I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention one of the most unique projects Garmendale Engineering has ever worked on. Before the exhibits grand opening in Texas a few years ago, this immersive dino experience required a method of moving the dinosaurs in and out of show position. These complex animatronics had bespoke reinforced track systems designed, manufactured, and delivered. If you think designing these structures will be hard enough, the track must be designed so it can be dismantled and stacked ready for transport to the next location. Our incredible team of design engineers worked tirelessly to perfect this design, after thorough FAT testing and a matt black finish, the structure was loaded and delivered to Texas where the tracks began there journey, bringing dino-fun to families across the globe.

It’s been lovely reminiscing with you about a few roar-some moments in Garmendale history, however the above projects are also prime examples of our ability to adapt, working with clients to design and create bespoke engineering to there exact requirements. Our team of engineers, designers, welders, manufacturers, electricians, etc love getting there teeth into a new challenge and we would love to hear about your next project and how Garmendale can help bring it to life.