I noticed that there are inverted metal barrels behind the blast shields on La Ronde's ramp #1.

Are they used to cover mortars bigger than 12" (I read somewhere that a 24" shell was fired at the beginning of the competition in 1985, I may be wrong though) ?

Example below (look at the upper left):



The amount of rust on these barrels would be consistent with them being there for a while.

Another hypothesis would be that they would serve as a working surface of some sorts for La Ronde crew.

Does anyone has an explanation ?

STL

Hey STL,

Actually at first I never knew what they we're.

Are they used to cover mortars bigger than 12" (I read somewhere that a 24" shell was fired at the beginning of the competition in 1985, I may be wrong though) ?


No, they are not to cover mortars larger than 12". I believe it's just been there, for 25 years or so. Probably they are used to go over 12" mortars that have been in really bad shape. I don't necessarily think they dig the 8-12" mortars out of the sand if ones in bad shape. So I figure they are just there to show that (maybe) a bad mortar is beneath and out of use. I'm pretty positive that the inverted barrels are just there and probably won't be touched for a while. They must have gotten rid of the 24" mortar long ago, because at the angle that barrel is positioned, there's no way the mortar would be positioned that way as well. It would more likely be positioned to burst above the water and not above the audience. Thinking 12" shells have loud lifts, I can just imagine something double that size would be like.

Here's a reply Paul wrote to Trav in the topic "Video about everything in pyro":

Trav: I thought the 24" shell was the largest, but it seems there are larger! I guess we don't see these used in the competition since they become so wide upon exploding, and are therefore dangerous.

Paul: 24" shells are not so uncommon and 16" are relatively common too outside of Canada. There was a 24" shell used in the first year of the Montreal competition. Apparently it exploded somewhat low over the Monster and scared people in Longueil as well as the people at La Ronde who didn't want the wooden Monster to burn down in its first year of operation. Since then, 12" shells have been the maximum permitted. In general in Canada, 12" shells are the largest used, though bigger shells have been fired on occasion.


Either this shell had a large burst radius, or this shell was fired near the Monster. Still I don't believe the 24" mortar is still in Ramp 1, and if it were, it would still never be in use anytime in the future.

Here's a video of the last 24" shell fired in United-States, or so the description explains...

Pat