a fairground life (On the Run (AKA no rest for the wicked))

I'm sure I've mentioned before that I used to do a bonfire run. Well they used to be bonfires before the nanny state decided (rightly or wrongly) that the fires were too dangerous however the miniature cruise missiles called fireworks were still ok, I mean have you ever heard of anyone getting a bonfire thrown at them? Anyhow when I had the old upright paratrooper I only did one FW display at Bridge of Allan. Wind on ten years to the mid nineties with the skydiver I did three-BoA,Arbroath and Greenock. So wind on another decade later and with "r"s enthusiasm we will do four in four days and be open at the mall again on the fifth day! Maybe this is this industries best feature, when things are tough, you can work harder for longer and maybe squeeze out that extra couple of quid from an extra gaff?

Monday we pulled down the miami and dropzone ready for the coming displays. That night we went back to the mall to install the Santa train (its getting that time again). We could not start until after 9pm when the mall was closed. Again we used a trailer to wheel the ride in piece at a time but we still had to carry everything down the steps to the pad. I swear those carriages get heavier every year. It was after 2am before we finished for the night. It became aparent that there was not enough space between the santa ride and the previously installed jumpers (May). We would have to move the jumpers over about 5ft!!! That would be Tuesday nights problem.

Tuesday morning "r" and I took the DZ over to Cumbernauld's Broadwood stadium to build up for the following night. The rain fell in sheets and we got very damp setting up. We were home for 2pm and rested in prep for tonights ordeal. So again at 9pm we headed to the mall. When we got there the jumpers crew was ready to begin the move. The original plan was to pull about 60% of the ride down and then slide the centre over the 5ft then build the ride back up again. However showmen being showmen another plan was hatched. That day CT had a couple of brackets made. We attached them to the jumpers centre and using two bottles jacks we rasied one side of the ride up 50mm and slid in scaffolding tubes, then we repeated with the opposite side, sliding in more tubes. After that we just gave it a push. Lo and behold it rolled over the 5ft in a matter of minutes. Reversing the process the ride was lowered and the job was done in under an hour. That left us to carry on with the train until 2am again when it was finally finished.

Wednesday I head over with "r" to Cumbernauld for 4:30 pm. We dont open til 6pm but I would rather be early. It was wet again but managed to dry up for the FWorks. It was a good crowd and we did manage to knock out half a living. Again it rained at pulling down time but we were on tarmac so no worries and we were home for midnight.

Thursday morning we head over to Drumchapel for their winterfest celebrations. The tracking was laid out on the grass for the rides to pull onto and set up. The grass either side of the tracking was swampy. This was worsened when the weight of the rides on the tracking squeezed out the water to the edges. We built the miami and DZ up trying not to walk on the grass but it was impossible and within 2 minutes my feet were wet and the grass was mud. We were set up for 3:30pm and headed into the Butty pub for a bar meal. At 5pm we opened and the crowds came.Similar to last year there was a stage show with live acts on. The music was deafening but the crowds didn't seem to mind. The queues for the rides grew and the whole of the park turned into mush within an hour. The queue lanes for the rides were about 6-8 inches deep! At the end of the night when we closed, I stepped off the DZ at one end and went into a hole about 8 inches deep where the ground had been slushed away. The rides were thick with mud, it was all over the floors,steps,handrails,shutters and seats! It was literally half an inch thick. The miami was even worse, the whole of the seating was mud over halfway up. At 9pm we closed prompt and were on the road again taking the rides back to the mall for 11pm.I was glad to get out of that quagmire, I've never seen mud like it for a while. All credit to the organisers though as they put on a better gig than the Glasgow Green. Again it was 2am before I got to kip, just can't switch off at night like I used to.

Friday, up at 7am and off to pick up the DZ to take it to Ayr for their FW night. On arriving at the mall it is again raining and we decide to build up the miami before going to Ayr so that the miami is ready for Saturday morning. The mud was not as bad as I thought, it was worse! The whole machine was covered in a layer of brown slime. It was an embarrassment to leave it like that but it would have to wait until the next morning before I could get to wash it. Anyway we had to get to Ayr to get the DZ built up for tonight and it needed washed too! It was on after 10am when we pulled into the racecourse carpark. Again the rain fell but at least it was softening the mud. We ran out about 150ft of hose and got the pressure washer fired up. With the two of us on the job it took just over an hour. Right around the ride was a brown line on the black tar. We headed into the jeep to try and get warm and a couple of hours kip before opening. The rain stopped just in time but it was still a poor show, not attendance or display wise but the punters were just not spending. Again we pulled down in the wet, I was sick as my feet had been wet for three days in a row now and I was running out of footwear. Back home for midnight, in bed for 1am but didnt get to sleep until well after 3am I guess.

Saturday up at 7 am again, this time we go and pick up a mate of "r"s as he is off to Glenrothes with the DZ for yet another FW show while I head off to do the miami at the mall. At 9 am I start washing the ride with the pressure washer , another 3 hours later and the job is almost done. Wet through from the overspray I put on my last pair of dry shoes. Six changes in three days the jeep looks like a Chinese laundry inside. I was late opening by 45 minutes but at least the ride was clean. "r" called by then to say he was was set up and ready.It did stay dry at Glenrothes and the location was red blaze so no mud. Later at 11:40 pm he calls me to say he is nearly back at the mall so I could go out and pick him up. Again it is 2am and I'm not in bed yet.

Sunday we get a lay in until 9:30 am then head over to the mall in a rush to get the DZ up for noon. At last bright clear sunshine and with a little heat too. We are feeling the effects now and manage only to get the ride up for half past 12. Never mind I can get Monday off--wait a minute,I'm on the santa train that day! As for Mrs showman, her and a few others are enjoying a girls weekend in the Big Apple and someone has to pick them up from the airport at 7am Monday morning, I wonder who that unlucky sod will be? I must be doing something wrong.

Sorry no photos , just didn't have the time so I pinched this one from an excellent site, hope Niall doesn't mind.

a fairgound life( stirling castle)

The last couple of weeks have been slow slow slow. If it wasn't for the two breakdowns we had there wouldn't have been any work done at all. The first was during the October break week. It was the pinion mounting bolts that went again on the skydiver. Since we were only one man to a tool, "r" had to replace them all himself while the rest of the kit stayed open. It took him 3 hrs to strip out the pinion. I went and picked up the new machine cap screws. I got a box full this time so I calculate that it will be at least 18 years before I run out, based on 6 bolts every 2 years. When I returned "r" fitted the bolts and built the whole thing back up again, another 3 hours later and the ride was ready for opening just as we were closing! Anyhow we have put a reminder in the log book to change these bolts in two years time, hopefully before we lose another days trade.

The second break down came the next week. The DZ lost oil pressure. I thought it was a pipe but it turned out to be another pipe manifold stud. A repeat of the problem the skydiver had in July. The head of the cap screw popped off letting the oil flow past the o ring destroying it in the process. It happened just as the light was fading and "r" had to wash under the ride using a torch to see. With the spillage cleared up we left it over night. The next morning we located the culprit stud. It was Sunday morning but luckily Bills Tool store at the Barras had the correct studs in stock. Again I purchased a few extra. Another bit of luck was an o ring from the miami being the right size to fit. There was still plenty of oil left in the tank so we got opened. The next day we topped it off with 60 lts of oil. I guess we lost that much.

This week I was at a reception held for the Scottish section of the showmens guild. It was in Stirling Castle's great hall and was hosted by the First Minister himself- Mr Salmon gave us a fine speech that was responded to by our Chairman who spoke equally well. It all went rather splendidly and ran on an hour longer than expected. The finale was a couple of reels played by a band of kilties. Out side the Castle there were two juvenile rides , candy floss and a set of Jumpers. Many thanks to these operators who arrived on site at 6am, built up in the rain and dark. Then opened for free during the afternoon for school children, waited until the gig was over then pulled down in the dark and even more gusting rain. We also had fine examples of working fairground models presented by AG. The guest list included many councillors, provosts, senior police officers, education heads and achievers from our own ranks. I finally got to meet Mrs VM M.B.E, if your reading this V, it was good to meet you in the flesh, keep up the good work. LM was also there with his three medals from the special olympics held in Leicester this year. It was 1560 something since a reception was last held in the great hall! I bet there were a couple of showmen there too, probably juggling or jesting.

Yesterday "r" and I fitted a spare tyre and rack to the miaimi truck chassis. I have had the ride for 7 years with no spare and I've been lucky not to need one thus far, but no worries now, unless I blow out two at once!

a fairgound life

The last Saturday at Stranraer was dry. The fair opened a little after 2pm until 5pm when most closed again for Tea. It was at this time I decided to start the lorry to thaw it out for that nights jouney. It started alright but it did seem a bit smoky and off beat. I just dismissed this as the engine being cold, stopped it and went for my tea. Having a quick tea we coupled the Hobby caravan to the jeep and Mrs showman set sail for the yard in Glasgow. It was 90 miles away and by her leaving early she would be able to do the first 30 mls (the worst) in daylight. I opened the DZ again after teatime until 9:30pm. There was a decent crowd on the fair for the last night, no doubt helped by the fact that the previous night was a total wash out. "r" arrived just before pulling down and we were all set. I had positioned the DZ on a slight angle when we built up so that the tower would lower into a gap between a side stall and a caravan. It did this perfectly but we had to wait until the side stall was moved before we could swing the tower around along the truck length for travelling. There were also several hoopla stalls in the way too and we assisted the owner of one to pull down. We coupled up the unit and it was at this time that the smoke problem hit home. The lorry had run for 10 mins and shunted the ride out of its position but the smoke still persisted. We decided to change the fuel filter but this had no effect. I was wondering if the new exhaust silencer could have been put on the wrong way or if the intercooler had got a pin hole? No time to waste now, I just decided to get in and go. At 11:48 pm we pulled out the gate of the fair onto the main road. About 1 mile or less and the smoke had cleared, I guess it was a sticky injector. The lorry pulled like a train and a little after 2:15am we arrived at the mall.We only stopped once at Prestwick for fuel. "r" wanted to build up right away as we were to open here at noon the next day, but I had other ideas and we went home for a shower and kip. The next day at 10am we started to erect the tower again. We missed the noon opening by 15 mins.

a fairgound life (Stranraer)

I don't know how long I have came here. My earliest recollection is from 1978, and that is only because I was at school writing the date in my jotter and noticed that the number that never changed was now 7-8 and not 7-7. Its funny what thoughts stick in one's mind from days gone by. So we were attending from 78 for sure, but then I found a picture on the net from www.photo-transport.co.uk/lorries/fair73/fair73.htm.

The picture claims 73 (which is probable) and the old AEC on the right of the picture is my fathers. I can remember this vehicle well, especially painting the front passenger wheel,hub and wheel cap bright red! (I'm sure you can still see the red tinge around the right side of the wheel in this pict) I can remember that day too (at Alloa), probably due to my mother shouting at my father "it's not his fault! you shouldn't have left the paint out!". (That body also got put onto our 4 wheel "F" reg ERF with a 5 cylinder Gardener 100 and Eaton Hi-Lo back end). Much has changed since then at this fair, losing this site and moving onto another then moving back onto the original site some years later. It is better now, cleaner with mono block instead of red blaze. We used to accept the Punt here too prior to the early eighties.

Fast forward 25 plus years....We have been here nearly 3 weeks now. I looked after the DZ while "r" and Mrs showman looked after the miami at a music event near Glasgow. The following Sunday they came up and "r" was left to hold the fort while the missus and I returned to the house. It was meant to be a week off but I ended up working 70 hrs helping to fit a kitchen for my in laws. That was a quick week for me. "r" was busy too at Stranraer fitting a new silencer,straps and tail pipe onto the EC10. He also bust a hydraulic pipe on the cab tilt mechanism. This he removed to have replaced. We did another change over this week. On the way down I thought we weren't going to get here. The A77 was closed at Cairnryan as a lorry had overturned so we were diverted via Newton Stewart which put another 25M on the trip. The this road was block too as a lorry had went off the road and ditched. I walked up the 1/2 mile to the front of the traffic just as "Devlins" recovery lorry had finished winching the artic out. It took another 10 mins to brush the mud off the road and we finally got moving. We arrived at Stranraer an hour late and the rest of the fair was open. I fitted the new pipe this morning. Just in time before the rain arrived. The Fire Brigade had to be called today as a boat tethered to the pier went on fire! Two tenders promptly arrived and put the flames out. It was too wet to go out and have a nosey. It looks like we will probably miss this last Friday nights biz as the rain is falling in torrents now.

Tomorrow will be the last day of the fair and for most this will signal the end of another season, except for a couple of bonfires. Hopefully "r" and I will get the DZ down and out tomorrow night and set sail immediately.

One month after putting the jeep in for repair, it finally arrived today. It went in for a distribution box repair but since Kia could not get the parts required they finally just put in another new box. Fortunately I only had to pay the re-furb price but that was still a high 3 digit figure. I'm glad we have our transport again as I was getting sick of Shank's pony!

I borrowed the picture from that mentioned web site (hope they don't mind), there are several more on there worth looking at.

a fairgound life (Egremont)

This would be my third visit to this fair. Since my Kia jeep was off road awaiting a transfer box repair, we decided that only one trailer could go down using the L200. There had been talk of curtailment at the fair due to the area of undermining. The organiser had not phoned us about this but we heard from other tenants who told us that they were going in to the fair later as there was a meeting with the council to find out what was available. So we decided not to go down until Monday morning. Late on Sunday night we did get a call from the organiser asking if we were coming. I did confirm this and he was surprised as he didn't know and had let our position! It seemed that there was a mix up in communication between him and his son who had taken our booking away back in May. Luckily our name had came up in conversation with another tenant at the fair and the organiser immediately called us to confirm our arrival.So disaster averted.

The next morning we headed down. "r" took the DZ and I drove the L200 with Hobby attached. It was a good trip down apart from the tailboard of the DZ having fell off a couple of miles from the town. The mounting bracket at one end had bust the welds. "r" had somehow heard the rattle and stopped in time to tie it up before major damage had been done or we had lost it all together. On arrival we set the trailer. The fair was re arranged to accommodate the larger area of undermining that was fenced off in the middle of the car park. We waited for the other rides to get set before we would set the DZ but then the fair was re arranged again and we were back on our original plot. Setting to work the DZ was erected for 7 pm, apart from the control box so that I could repair the tailboard bracket.

Tuesday afternoon and I decided to tackle that tailboard bracket. The whole problem stemmed from the fact that it was too low mounted and the air draining from the suspension had let it ground several times over the years resulting in the welds being torn. So I cut it completely off and started again from scratch. I had very limited tools with me so borrowed a 14" chopsaw, 4" grinder and cutting blade, welder,mask and rods all from "fatso". It give him something to grump about as he sarcastically asked if I wanted him to the job as well. I cut the brackets smaller and raised the whole thing up 40mm. Hopefully this will be enough to prevent further grounding. I would have went higher but this was all I could go without impeding the pay box door.

Wednesday was the first opening night and we operated from 6 pm til 9 pm. Biz was the same as last year. The only problem was from the amplifier that kept dropping a channel (sure I had this problem last year) so that would be tomorrows job.

Thursday, I remove the power amp from the rack and strip it down to component parts (literally). I begin methodically searching for any sign of a defective component. All of a sudden I become aware of a problem on the fair. I could see a meeting of some of the showmen in the middle of the fair. I go out to see what is what and it becomes clear that the council have informed the organiser (by hand delivered letter) that several rides have to move away from the fenced area before 5 pm or (there would be consequences). In the middle of the fenced area was a small orange painted dot, from this point was an outer circle diameter (also painted in orange) of 60 ft radius, that's 120 ft (about 36m) across. Literally the whole centre of the fairground.This area had to be totally clear. A quick measure up and discussion and a plan was formed. The superbob, Miami, Skyliner and Simulator would have to pull down, move and build up again for 6 pm opening! In the meanwhile a council chap was summoned by a "Crabfair" organiser so that the final positioning would be acceptable. The Miami ride was taken right out of the fair altogether and moved across the road from the gate of the fair into a row of 6 car parking spaces. The Supebob was set back onother 10 ft and closer to it neighbouring ride that meant it was almost built behind it. This meant it just cleared the orange line and no more.The simulator moved across the fair into the exit gate of the fair, while the skyliner moved down 20 ft onto the simulators old position to clear the exclusion zone. The skyliner was the easy ride to move as it was done with the ride still erected! The operator simply coupled it up, removed the packing and gingerly drove forward the 20 ft. "d" had his work cut out but they stuck in and completed the Superbob in time for 6pm opening. But think of this- Who polices the exclusion zone the rest of the year? During all this I was still tinkering with the amp. I found no obvious fault but I did lubricate a sticking cooling fan. The amp seemed to work ok but I noticed that all horns in the speakers were in-op and an 18" bass bin was no go too.

Friday I stripped out the 18" bass woofer. A test with the mega meter confirmed that the driver was blown. I stripped out the horns too and discovered that only one was blown while the others were in op due to a tiny bulb on the cross over circuit board being blown. I think this was from vibration on the road busting the filaments. I bridged this contact directly to confirm that the horn would indeed go, which it did for about 5 seconds before blowing!! ooops! obviously the bulb also serves as a resistor to protect the horn. So now I am down to two working horns. I remove the bulbs but there is no voltage or wattage marked on them. In a brain wave I bust the bulb, get the filament out and put the mega meter across it and get a reading of 1.2 ohm. With this info I get out a few bulbs from the drawer-60v 10w, 60v 5w, 12v 20w. The results were 35ohm, 72 ohm and 1.2 ohm. So 12v 20w was the right one. Now all I had to do was get two of these bulbs. I wasn't going to use the one I had as it was for under the carriage lighting. I walked up the street into the factory shop and bought a pack of the closest I could get- 12v 50w. Taking a chance I put them in and music to my ears ( pardon the pun) the two horns worked fine. The difference in the music quality is superb. So eventually I will track down another two horns and an 18" woofer, Its all down to budget or more accurately- lack of.

Saturday stayed dry until 4 pm when we got an hour of rain. It had dried up again for 6 pm but the families were away now. The teenagers hung around until 10 pm when the last of the large rides closed. I had shut the DZ at 9:30 pm. "r" had arrived from Glasgow for pulling down and at 11 pm the DZ was out, parked along the kerb ready for the next morning.

Sunday morning at 5am we get up to leave. It was still dark and didn't get light until 7am by which time we were past Carlisle. It seemed to take forever to travel the 150 miles to Stranraer. Just after 9am on a bright Sunday morning we arrived at the next fair. Right away "r" and I built up the DZ before the other rides arrived on site that would probably hinder the erecting of the tower on this very narrow fair. Job done it was back to Glasgow.

A fairgound life (Park Life)

So Thursday morning we head over to park life in Strathclyde park. The event was larger than I thought with four large tents/arenas. The fair was moved from prime tober to a part at the end of the event, in fact it was that near the end of the event that it was literally in its own fenced off pen. So at 4pm we headed in with the miami. The ride was set up on the end of the semi trailer that housed the Polish workers that had erected the tents. It was a tight fit , leaving only enough room for the tower to erect just inside the event gates. We erected the miami along the edge of the fence. I was relieved to see that we were on tarmac after all the rain we have had lately. The next day we arrived with the dz and set it along the fence too.The fire master decided that the polish abode was a fire hazard and needed to be removed from the site, only problem was that the miami was now in the way! Luckily we managed to shift the miami pay box to let the semi trailer out and away. We were finished for T time and headed home again. The next day was Saturday and we were due to open at 12 noon. The gig opened at noon but the punters didn't find their way down to us until after 2pm. It was a hard position where we where and it was even harder as the security would not let the punters in to us if they had drink in their hands of if they seemed drunk! Now lets look at this-- drinks were £4 a pop and every body had been drinking since noon!! not much scope for many clientele getting thru to us. To be fair we did knock out half a living but we lost three times as much. At 10 pm the gig ended and we got the rides down pronto. By 11:30 pm both rides were heading out of the park.I took the rides back to a lay by and left them overnight until the next morning.

a fairground life(21 and a half hours)

7am and the alarm goes off. I get up and shout "R" up. Its dry and bright so it looks like we may get a dry Saturday. I start to build the show up and "r" appears a few minutes later. At around 8am I went down to Tesco's garage and got Derv in 25lt cans to put into the lorries so that tonight after we have pulled down we can leave. At 9am I get in the jeep and head for Ingliston to mind the DZ there while "r" and the missus look after the rest of the kit at Blairgowrie. The jeep is messing about a bit and I keep it at 50 mph all the way to Edinburgh. It is bright there too and I do a little finishing off work before we open at noon. Skyliner "c" shows up to give me a hand on the DZ today (big thanks to him ) and at noon we open. The crowds are slow coming in but at 1pm we are riding full with a Q in the pen. I was worried about the 80 kva hire set not being man enough to run the DZ but it did so fine, even though its amp meters were maxing out on the big drops at over 100 amps per phase."C" looks after the DZ while I more or less take it easy. There was a lot to see and do at this gig and I watched the "Strictly" stars do a turn on the stage. The numbers were about a couple of thousand strong, they were also a nice class of people attending with their families. At 3:30pm we stopped for half an hour while they attempted to break the world record for the most people doing the air guitar. The record was set at Glastonbury so it was a tall order but they did manage to beat their sister event in London last month by 100 people with 1300 and odd people doing the head bopping, feet stomping air guitar. At 4:15pm we opened up again and rode full until we closed at 6pm. "Bjorn Again" was on stage and Abba music rang out as I left the event heading back to Blair, hopefully just in time for the gaff starting around 7pm.The rain started at Edinburgh and continued all the way to Perth , then it stopped. I was hopeful it would stay dry at Blair. At 7:15pm we pulled into the town. I could see all the crew had arrived and were at their posts. I went onto the skydiver and the missus moved over to help "r" on the miami. At 7:30pm the crowds started to arrive. It stayed dry until closing at 10:40pm. I had pulled the show down first and "m" took this away while Mrs showman followed with the trailer. Two hour later "r" and I left with the Skydiver and Miami. At Perth I lost all gears! The lorry was still in gear but the selector was sloppy, I realised that it was probably that bolt again that had broken two years ago and cost me a clutch. Having learned my lesson the first time I pulled into the kerb. "r" pulled in behind me. It was pitch black and I didn't have a torch but then "r" suggested the light from the Skydiver lighting set. He removed it from the case and attached it to the batteries on the lorry. The cable was just long enough to reach under and from the faint light I could see the sheared bolt laying on top of the gearbox. All we had to do now was find an 8mm bolt 50mm long with a nut. Eventually we removed one from the miami paybox chair. It was 50mm long with a nut but only 6mm in dia. It got us moving but the gear change was rough and the gear sometimes jumped out again. Around 2am we pulled into the services near Dumblane and put more Derv in the lorries. We continued on and after 3am we arrived at the next port of call and set the vehicles. Mrs showman arrived shortly after to pick us up with the car. Off we headed for home and at 4:30am I finally got into kip, 21 and a half hours after leaving it.

a fairground life

Thursday morning 7am and the rain has battered down all night. I'm still at Dunkeld with the Hobby caravan and about to leave to go to Ingliston near Edinburgh for a private event. When I look out I see that the ground is flooded. I couple the jeep to the Hobby and make a charge for the roadway. The jeep slips and slides but does manage to reach the road. When I look in the mirror the front of the Hobby is covered in thick brown mud that is running down the front and dripping off like a chocolate fountain. We cant go on the road like that so I get out in the teaming rain and using the washing brush I wash the front of the trailer with a puddle! The heavy rain finishes off the job and after 10 mins the trailer is clean again. On arrival at Ingliston I find the organiser. The rain is still falling and the location for the event is flooded, so we have to do a quick re think of the set up. About 30 mins later we bring in the first of the rides and start to set them. We do have tarmac paths to work from but some attractions still have to go onto the grass area. Fortunately the grass is hard underneath and we manage to get the DZ onto its plot. At that the other rides appear from Glasgow and we set them. The rain fell constantly all day and it slowed our progress as it was nearly 6pm before we were finished. I didn't plan on returning home but as we were soaked thru I left to return to the house for a hot shower. The next morning we returned to set the other ride that had came up from Newcastle. We were expecting a large crowd and I had arranged for 100 barriers to be delivered so that we could fence the rides and make larger queue pens for the patrons. At 4pm we left to return to Blargowrie for opening. En route the jeep made a couple of alarming clicking noises like a cog jumping and I could feel power loss for a second. I think this is more differential problems. I eased on the speed down to 50 MPH to make sure we got to Blair. It was 5:45pm when we arrived and Mrs Showman managed to rustle up a quick tea before we opened at 6:30pm. Friday night is usually short and sweet here and this year was no different as we were closed for 8:45pm.

a fairground life

Wednesday morning 5am and the alarm goes off. I hadn't slept since after 3am anyway. At that I heard my bros jeep pull up outside. I got up, dressed and knocked up "r" as I passed his trailer. It was still dark and very foggy. I headed down to the field where the lorries were parked and started up the Maimi's Foden and the show's ERF.I could see the twist side lights as it pulled up to the gate to leave. I got into the Foden to move it out too but it would not move, it was skidding. I pulled the show in front of it and wound out the winch cable. At that "r" arrived and climbed into the Foden. It was about 40ft of wire rope we had wound out and I began to tighten the rope. The winch pressure climbed to around 3500 Psi and the Foden slowly inched forward out of the ruts. "r" gave it a little help in first gear and the needle dropped back to around 2000 psi. So there we go the winch was tested a whole year early, how wrong could I be when I suggested next year? I headed to the gate but the twist was still there, stuck due to the fence on the corner. We reversed it back in again and took another angle out. This time it made the corner. So at 5:55am we headed off to Blairgowrie, me in the miami, "r" in the Skydiver and my Bro in his twist. I had only done about 1/2 mile when I heard a jingle, then a jangle then a rattle. It sounded like a loose wheel cap so I pulled over. When I looked out the wheel cap was ok so I looked under the lorry. One of the exhaust straps had bust (possibly caught on mud) and the silencer had drooped enough for the end pipe to scrape the road. Only option was to tie it up, so I looked in the cab for something pliable but non combustible. I found a 10m extension cable, so I tied up the hot exhaust with part of the cable and then wound the excess back and forth around the two front couplings to take up the excess. It did the trick and 3/4 of an hour later I was in Blairgowrie. Unfortunately the extension cable will now have to be trimmed to about 8m due to the extreme heat.The carpark was clear and we started to set up the rides immediately. We erected the Skydiver first then the Miami. After tea I went back and brought over the show lorry.

a fairground life( Tits n tyres)

Sunday at Crieff was very windy. As a result a small trade stand was party flattened by a branch that fell from a tree.Luckily no one was hurt. I don't know how but it managed to stay dry through out the day. I assume that the wind kept the rain at bay. Business was slightly back on the previous year but in this economic climate it was nothing to complain about. The crew had arrived and at 6pm just as the game's grand finale (motor bike stunt show this year) was ending we began to pack up. Since I was heading to Irvine in the morning with the DZ I wanted the Skydiver and Miami down and away to the next gaff, namely Dunkeld. They would be parked there on site for a week waiting until I came back up with the DZ to open for the games. So a little after 9pm we were heading for Dunkeld. It was pitch black when we arrived there. I was in first with the Skydiver and headed down into the field. I followed the new gravel road that the games committee had laid right into the site of the fair. I spotted the tree that marked my position and swung onto the plot. I pulled forward to straighten the load up and then reversed back onto the position again with the wheels starting to slip. I got out for a look and could see I wasn't quite bang on but was sure it would be close enough for the ride to set up on the following week. Meanwhile "r" had brought the Miami in and he too has set almost perfect onto it's position. It was after 10pm now and we headed back to Crieff. Monday morning "r" took the DZ and I followed with his pick up and trailer. It was just over 104 miles from fair to fair. When we arrived at Irvine we quickly set the trailers. The ground was soft in patches with all the rain that had fell. Some rides were already stuck in places. The DZ was set onto a plot about 90ft further along than last year. We built up as quickly as possible as we were hindering the next two rides as they had to wait until our tower was raised. It took us about 30 mins longer to build up as Irvine is very hilly in parts and the rear side of the DZ was an extra 12 inches higher on packing. So we had to lay good foundations for the ride to set up on. We didn't return to Irvine until Wednesday night for opening. The rain fell again in sheets and biz was poor. It is a large fair and this year there were 16 big rides,2 funhouses and a ghost train plus enough side stalls and juveniles to encircle the whole fair. Again it was raining on Thursday night and the fair was getting really muddy in parts. Friday stayed mainly dry but was well back on last year. Saturday started off bright and only threatened to rain after closing at 9pm. Again biz was well back on previous years. The drinking ban is still in force and this made the Saturday comfortable. We could not pull down on Saturday night as the Topstar ride was in the way of lowering the tower so we had to leave it until Sunday morning. That night the rain was torrential all night, I thought it was coming through the trailer roof!In the morning the Topstar was pulled down but could not move out of our way until the Energystorm had finished and moved. It was 2pm before the energystorm was towed out the way by a tractor. Then the Topstar was towed out by the tractor too. Finally "r" and I pulled the DZ down. At 4pm the tractor towed us out as well. Then we headed all the way we had come the week before back up to Dunkeld.It was raining heavily again. When we arrived there at 7pm the ground was soft. The two jeeps just managed to get the trailers onto the plots in 4WD. We left the DZ on the path as we knew it would be an operation in the morning. Monday and we begin putting the other loads into the field. Since the DZ is going to be set across the gate it has to wait until everyone else is in. To be honest it was only the gate of the fair that was soft and as all the other rides were set during the week it was not that bad. Only BJ's skyliner and TI's arcade were to come in and they did so quite easily. "r" and I built up the Skydiver first, had some dinner then went out to set the DZ. The position was muddy and we had to tow the DZ onto its plot. It's small truck tyres sunk thru the mud and didn't even turn as the mud just piled up in front of them. We put the show lorry on the front with a chain and luckily it managed to drag the DZ into position.It was at this time that we worked out what was wrong with the show gearbox (whining when air building up and hard to change gear), it was simple- someone had pulled the PTO knob to engage. So when the air got to 80 PSI it engaged, but since we didn't know it was trying to engage we were not holding the clutch out resulting in a whining noise until the gears finally meshed which then made it hard to change gear. Lucky we never blew it up on the road doing 40 mph!! We can only assume that someone engaged it during towing through the mud (at Bridge of Allan) thinking it was a crosslock for the axles as this button is next to the lock diff lever in the cab. We built the DZ up and left the miami until the next morning. Tuesday and the rain was falling lightly again. I built up the miami while "r" did maintenance on the DZ, fitting a couple of new brush contacts. Then we set up the show. I called JM the engineer to request the winch part be fixed for tomorrow as it had been over 18 months now. I had a feeling we were going to need it at the weekend. That night we returned to the house. I had a Guild meeting on Wednesday morning and my wife had a pile of washing to get done. My father in law came over and requested that "r" and I help him demolish his outside kitchen on the chalet as he is getting a new one built. So Wed morning at 7:30 am we head down to the yard with a sledgehammer and electric chain saw. It was raining heavily again but we just set to it and two hours later the outside kitchen was a pile of timber. I went off to my meeting while "r" ferried the waste away to the coup (civic amenity re cycling site in 21st century spin).Thursday and we pick up the winch part (hydraulic piston pump end cap). Oh no!! JM has machined the o ring grove too deep. The rubber ring sits below the face of the end cap, what a blunder considering he had a sample to copy. Nothing for it we decide to get a bigger o ring. So off we go to track one down. At Barnshaw seals in Bellshill it becomes evident that one o ring cant do the job so we double two up. Maybe it will work, maybe not. Back to Dunkeld for opening and the rain is torrential again from 5pm thru to midnight. We did open for an hour but only really to try out. Friday morning "r" put the winch together.We try it and the drum winds in the loose rope from 18 months ago. Well that seems ok but lets pressure test it. We wind the rope in and attach the end to the shows own coupling gab. Then we wind in until the rope tightens, we watch the pressure gauge climb and we stop at 2000 psi. No leaks evident but I've seen the winch working between 3500-4000 PSI! Time will tell. It stays dry that night and the local teenagers turn out to visit the fair. As in previous years they all turn up with carry outs. This is a growing problem here that we only used to see in the larger cities. There were around 80 youths and half were falling about drunk. There was only one incident when one threw a can of larger that hit a girl on the forehead and split it open. A deep cut about 15 mm across. "r" gave her medical treatment at the maimi pay box while I went over and had a word with the culprit (I later got his name and address from another youth for future reference). Thing is that they all seem to know each other and I suppose it will be sorted out at a later date. We never ever have had a wrong word at Dunkeld and the alcohol problem is going to change this. A lot of the youths also come from smaller towns nearby like Aberfeldy and Pitlochry. At 10 pm we closed and the crowd headed off. Saturday morning and it is bright and breezy. There is a lot on in this area today- Blair Atholl Bikers rally, Run Rig concert. So it was well into the afternoon before the numbers grew. The games finished after 5pm and at 6pm the youths returned with more alcohol, by the case. It seems that a bottle to share is not enough anymore, they all need a 40 oz each! At 7:30pm the local police make an appearance but they don't confiscate any drink, not even from the ones that are under age. There presence does quieten down the youngsters though. At 8pm the police leave with a promise that they will return around 9pm for the fair closing. The youths continue with their drinking marathon again. At 8 pm the side stalls begin to pack up as all the family people have left (wonder why?). The crew had arrived by this time and "r" packs up the skydiver at the bottom end of the fair. It was 9:45 pm when I closed up the DZ. "R" had just finished the Skydiver and had even got the unit coupled under it. Mrs Showman closed the Miami at 9:50pm as enough was enough. We began to pulldown as the youths headed off for their buses etc, the police never appeared again, maybe they were busy elsewhere. We pulled down the miami to get it out the way of the Tower. Then we tackled the DZ. It was too dark and muddy to attempt coupling up so at 11:45 pm we called it a night. Sunday morning and we start moving vehicles. The DZ couples up but can't move so we put the show on it with a chain and pull it out. Then the miami couples up and the Foden double drive pulls away, does a circuit of the fair to turn and gets out onto the path ok. Next is the skydiver, "r" had coupled it up the evening before, it could not pull out of its divots so we put the show on with a chain again and give it a tow out. Again no problems right onto the path. It seems that the winch will have to get tested at a later date (next year now as that is all the fields over for this year). So with everything out on the path earlier than expected we find time to change a tyre on the DZ trailer that had developed an egg (more expense). As an uncle once said-"anything with tits or tyres will always give you trouble!"

short days make long weeks!

Short days make a long week.
Bridge of Allan was dry for Wednesday night. We had swapped the DropZone and Miami positions over from the previous year. This was because we thought that the Miami would do better at the top end of the fair next to the waltzer and Crazyfrog. Not to be the case as the ride was down biz wise every night of the fair. The DZ however was the same as last year. The Thursday was also mainly dry but Friday and Saturday were a bit wet. Sunday was dry for a change, even though the numbers didn't seem up to the usual attendance.Its a shame but a sign of the times as this was a premier fair only a few years ago but it has fell away year on year and I doubt if it will ever regain its former glory. We weren't open long when "r" called in the first mishap of the day. One of the Miami motor shaft seals had sprung a leak and a steady drip of hydraulic oil ran down when the ride was in motion. Although we had a spare seal, it would take an hour to fit it and the gaff would be nearly over by then so we put 20lts of oil into the system to compensate for what we may loose over the day. The new seal will get fitted at another more opportune time. I had only just wiped my hands when the second mishap was to arise. On the skydiver one of the car shock absorbers went kaput so we had to fit a replacement. This took twenty minutes to replace as they are mounted at one end by welded in pins. So an hour after that, just when I thought things had settled down the water lasers sprung a leak. One of the hose clips on a pressure feed from the main pump had popped and water leaked out when the game was working. I found a hose clip in a drawer and a few minutes later this too was sorted. From 1pm-6pm everything seemed to run smooth. Biz was a wee bit better than last year for the DZ but the skydiver and Miami were not having a better day. Just on 6pm and crunch! Almost a year to the day and the DZ had done in another ball race! This time however the damage was worse as the centre of the nylon pulley that the race fitted into was also damaged. That was that, the DZ would be shut permanently the rest of the day. Now I had a major problem-it was Sunday and we were pulling down tonight and heading off to the Black Isle for Wednesday and Thursday. I sent an email to Italy right away to arrange a spare to be sent immediately even though I new it would not arrive in time for Wednesday. Then I called JM the engineer to see if he could help. "Bad news" he said,"I'm off to York tomorrow on holiday". I told him my predicament, almost pleading to get some help. "Ok" he said, "bring it to the workshop for 4pm, I'll see what I can do". That was a great relief as I know now that we would have half a chance of getting operational for the Muir of Ord show. That night we closed at 9pm. "r" and the crew tackled the skydiver whilst I did the Show and Miami. We did not even attempt to couple the units under as the ground was still sodden from the previous days of rain. When we went to the DZ we could not swing the tower around as the funhouse of EPs was in the way. He had tried to move it out of our way but his lorry was just skidding. I went and brought the show lorry up the rear of the fair on the path to tow him. We put a big nylon rope between the two lorries. The show couldn't pull him out from a dead lift so we used the nylon rope "bungee" fashion. Basically we backed the show lorry up to the towed lorry then drove away as fast as possible. When the rope tightens it starts to stretch and gradually slows down the towing vehicle to a stop. At this point the towed vehicle starts to drive and the bungee rope's elastic properties shrink the rope again and pull the vehicle out of the mud, in this case a whole 4ft. We repeated the process several times and eventually the funhouse was out and onto the path. We then completed the pull down of the DZ. It was just after midnight now, time for kip. The next morning we were up at 7:30am to get started. The first order of the day was to get the Miami out. To avoid the ruts we made when pulling in, we decided to couple up jack knife. Again we used the show lorry (double drive 6 wheeler) to push the Foden under with a straight bar and then pull the ride out with a long wire rope. This we accomplished without too much trouble and we placed the ride on the path ready for leaving. The DZ was already on firmer ground and the EC10 coupled to it easily and drove out onto terra firma. The skydiver was next. The EC11 unit got itself coupled under but couldn't reverse the ride out of the soft so we attached the show onto the back by hooking a chain onto the trailer chassis. The ride was pulled out no problem but in the process one of the mud flaps got caught under a wheel and resulted in the whole mudguard,arms and brackets getting ripped off! Now everything was out the soft we removed the damaged pulley from the DZ in preparation for getting it repaired.Sure enough when we got the pulley off the centre bore had grown from 60mm to about 120mm due to the failure of the races. I called the engineer to confirm again our meeting, but now he said 5pm not 4pm and I felt sure thing were about to go pear shaped, especially as I still had to find two replacement races. We helped out a couple more with the show lorry coupled to two tractors to get the Superstar and Superbob out. It was 2pm now and we took the skydiver,show and Miami to the yard to close up for the next week. When we arrived "m" complained that the show was hard to get into gear , crunching all the time-maybe the heavy towing had knackered the clutch? "r" commented that the Foden had a vibration, I checked the shafts and sure enough one of the hardy splicers was missing a cap retaining bolt for the rollers and the one remaining was loose. I tightened that one up but would need to find another before we took the Foden out next week. "r" and I headed for Glasgow to find ball races en route to the engineers in Ayrshire. Luckily the first place we tried had them. Wasting no time I headed right for the engineers arriving at his place at 4pm. I called JM and he appeared 15 mins later, at least that was 45 mins gained on the day. He looked at the job and pulled an old nylon wheel out from a corner. "This'll do" he said,"It's an old wheel off AD's wild mouse roller coaster". It was too big but an hour on the lathe and it was turned down, narrowed, bored and sized for the two ball races. Then the pulley was turned out and the new centre pressed in. It was a tight fit and the nylon grunted as it went home on the press. At a glance we could see the job was a good un! We headed off to BOA again to pick up the DZ and set of 184 miles to Muir of Ord. When we arrived back and got moving it was after 8pm. Mrs showman told me that many others who had left earlier had been pulled in by VOSA at Perth. A few were overweight and had been held until they removed some of their load. Every cloud has a silver lining and as we were leaving late now we had missed this potential problem. I headed over to the services and put in 220 litres of derv.It was a smooth trip up and just before midnight we pulled onto the show field. We set the trailers for the night and fell into bed. The next morning we started to build up. The DZ was ready for lifting the tower around midday, but before we could we had to fit the repaired pulley. An hour later it was on. Then we took advantage of the weather & time available and did a few other jobs to the ride. We fitted a second set of cables to the bands that had been causing us connection problems. We ran the new wiring up the trunking to make it tidy then drilled a 5mm hole thru each of the bands to attach the crimped cable ends to via M4 nuts and bolts. Finally we connected the wiring into the circuit using terminal block. Hopefully that will be the end of that problem. The lights were looked at and we put in 100 bulbs, we needed a few more but ran out. Next we jet washed the rides tower and floor.We also discovered a leaking air valve on the rides compressor. It was 8pm now, time for a shower at the onsite toilet block. You had to be John Wayne to use these showers as they were stone cold. It was the quickest shower in history then I found out too late that the new block had hot water at the other end of the site. Wednesday I went into Inverness, I had a shopping list- air valve, Foden bolt,ERF mudguard brackets,mudguard and spray grease.The mudguard was got at CV components for £20, the air valve and spray grease was from MacGregors Highland supplies for £18.50, I called Fodens at Elgin and got the thread type of the missing bolt-3/8 UNF which I got at a nearby fasteners company for 50p ( I was so happy to get it I gave the chap a whole £1!) Then I went to ERFs for the brackets. They had them alright, but I couldn't bring myself to spend £50.16p each plus VAT. No way, I would have to improvise something. That night we opened at 4pm for the preview night of the show. The weather was lovely and sunny but we did better last year in the rain. Thursday was good weather too. As I was walking around the show I spotted a chap demonstrating a Plasma Cutter on various plates of steel. He was generally cutting shapes and squiggles into it.I had a brain wave and went back to the EC10. Since it was the same as the EC11 I sized the mudguard brackets and made a paper template.I went around to the Plasma stand and said to the chap (bold as brass in front of all his potential customers),"do you want to do something useful with that instead of just cutting squiggles?". He looked up and asked what. I said "two of these from 10mm plate!" Now he had been challenged and no way was any of the onlookers going to let him duck out of it. So with a good banter being heckled back and forth from the crowd,myself and the chap (from Yorkshire), he cut out the two plates for my mudguard brackets. He was a sport and didn't want anything so I dropped him a fiver to get a pint. I'll see how good they fit (if at all) next week. Later that day UPS parcel force called me. The driver had tried to deliver the parcel in the morning but could not wait in the show traffic so he decided to deliver it later at T time. Only problem was that the traffic was now leaving the show and the Police would not let him enter the site, so he parked in a field across the way that was being used as a car park. I went out on foot as I spoke to him on the mobile and luckily found him just before he decided to leave again. The package contained my new pulley and a bill for €301 about £260 ouch!.Again biz was poor compared to last year, at 10pm we were pulling down. Just before midnight "r" and I went to Strathpeffer to check out the road. We would be going there on Saturday for the highland games but had to find an alternative route to miss a 13'3" bridge. This we managed by going around the town and coming in from the other end. It would be a few miles longer and as we travelled thru the hills we could see GS's new Inversion ride (at Muir of Ord) 6 miles away. The blue LED lighting was clearly visible thru the clear night. Seemingly LED lighting has a different wavelength from normal bulbs and can be seen from greater distances, this was first noticed by airline pilots who said that they could see neon long before streetlights when approaching cities. Any way we mapped our route and headed back to Muir of Ord. Friday at 6am and we are up and away with the DZ to Dornoch Highland games. Its only an afternoon so we left the trailers at Ord and "r" and I left in the DZ. We arrived on site at 9am and quickly built up ready for opening at 11am. The DZ is one of only two rides present, the other being SE's Miami. The rest of the fair is also mainly made up from Ord tenants. At 5pm we were closed again and pulling down. The day was not busy busy but a fair days wage for the work involved. At 6:30pm we were heading straight to Strathpeffer. We followed our previously mapped out route, which was just as well we did the recon, as we had prior knowledge of the 16ft arch bridge in the middle of a blind S bend! We pulled into Strathpeffer for 8pm just in time for the midges to hatch out and start eating us, they were worse than West Linton!We soldiered on and built up the DZ again, its not often that we do two build ups , two shifts and a pull down in the same day. At 9:30pm Mrs showman came over and picked us up and took us back to Ord. Saturday morning at 9am we head back to open. Again just after 5pm we are pulling down. "r" heads off for St Andrews 163 miles away, en route he stops and puts in 170 ltrs of derv as we don't want a repeat of last years fiasco. Meanwhile we head back to pick up the trailers at Ord then follow on to St Andrews. It was 11pm when we arrived at the town. "r" had parked the ride in the lay by across from the Old Course Hotel. The trailers all park on the Sands next to the Bay about 1 mile away by road. It was after midnight when we got the trailers set. The next morning "r" and I headed up to South St to check out our plot for obstructions. We measured the nearby lamp post and although it would be close we calculated that it would miss the tower by at least a few inches whilst we were raising it. Back down at the lay by we washed the ride again using DT's hose connected to a stand pipe. We all wait in the lay by from 4:30-6pm when finally the last two cars (lifted I believe) are cleared from the street. At that the WPC officer gives us the nod and we all head out of the lay by (like the wacky races) in a convoy into the town. The police stop the traffic at all junctions to let us in and even arrange that some can go up the one way street the wrong way to get access on to their plots. We were on a new plot this year and it was easier for us as it was at a less congested area of the fair.Alas during the build up another showmen accidently bumped my lorry and cracked the grill, but that wasn't the worst of it, oh no, Blakey was open directly across from me!! Within a few hours South St is filled with a complete fair. WM's Capriola (returned a few months ago from the states) is the tallest ride at 125ft! Monday morning at 11am we opened. Again as the trend has been this season we were back on last year. AT 11:15pm we closed for the night. Tuesday morning was wet, we replaced a sticky limit switch that had been giving us a problem the day before and opened a little later at 11:50am. Again it was slow in the afternoon but did dry up at night. The smaller stuff started to pull down just after 9pm, we started to pull down after 11pm. For 1am everything was in the lay by again ready for heading off to Crieff in the morning for another Highland games. I had a long lay in and didn't leave for Crieff until midday. "r" took the DZ and I took his trailer with the L200. We pulled in to the Games park and set the Trailers then headed off to Stirling to pick up the other loads. En route we passed my father in law coming up from Glasgow. Arriving at Stirling I prepared the show whilst "r" put the 3/8 UNF bolt into the Foden shaft coupling. We set off for Crieff again. I noticed that the show gearbox (fuller ZF 4 up 4 down) made a whinning noise as I started the lorry then it went away. The lorry pulled great but the gear changing was clunky n grinding and I started catching it on the revs to make the changes smooth. Maybe the slave cylinder is on its way out or maybe it needs some clutch fluid or gearbox oil? The lorry has plenty of pulling power so I'm not worried too much that it could be the clutch. We arrived back at Crieff and the committee were there marking out the plots. Guess who was giving them a hand?-- Ewan McGregor (star wars, down with love, long way around) as this is his home town and he has helped the games committee before. Not wanting to be a pest I resisted the urge to ask for a photo with him while measuring out the plots. We returned to Stirling again to pick up the skydiver and it was dark when we got back to Crieff. We just left it in the middle of the park until tomorrow when we would start to build up. It seemed like weeks since we had left BOA but it had only been 9 days. That's when "r" coined the phrase "short days make a long week!"
Thursday morning around 11am and we start by setting the show,skydiver then Miami and finally DZ on to the plots. I spied someone finishing off marking the plots for the rest of the games stances and went over to confirm that the end mark was correct. It was Ewan again but I hadn't realised until he look up from marking the plot with an aerosol.The positions here are very tight and if I'm short any footage it won't all fit in. Anyhow he was spot on with the marking off. That day "r" and I worked like Trojans building up the skydiver then DZ then Miami. Meanwhile my father in law had completed the funhouse. It was now 8pm and time to call it a day. Friday was a day off back at the house on the hill for a hot shower this time. Saturday- its stopped raining for a bit so we crack on with the jobs. First up was the oil seal on the Miami shaft. That only takes about 45 mins to complete. For a change all the bolts are free and the pinion slides off easily. There are a few slithers of metal laying in the motor housing so no doubt further investigation will be required when we get down time. Hopefully in the meanwhile the new shaft seal will stop the oil leak. Next we fit the mudguard onto the EC11. The two plates fit a treat and don't need the holes drilled out. Was that good luck or good judgement? I cut a couple of pieces of tube and welded them to the plates, next I slid the mudguard arms over them. When everything was lined up I welded it all solid. Being on a roll we did a few minor jobs to the skydiver and Miami before calling it a day at 6pm. It has stayed dry but the wind is gusting and I hope it dies away for tomorrow.

a fairground life (river fest)

The river festival was the main topic of last weeks activities. I started on the Sunday prior by erecting signs in the carpark. These were to inform the drivers that the area would be closed on Thursday night from 7pm and vehicles left on site after that time would be crushed!(well not exactly those terms, but indicating that some difficulties may arise if the cars were not timely removed). It did seem to help and 75% of the carpark was clear on pulling in night. There were two rouge cars that hindered the setting of the twist until noon the next day. Apart from that everyone was onsite, set ready for building up by 9:30pm. We only had one major hiccup, the Energystorm broke a kerbstone pulling in. "r" and I returned early the next morning and repaired the damage by forming the shape with timber and pouring concrete into the mould. The repair is almost invisible to the eye, but I would not recommend driving over that one again. The event was popular as ever and at our end of the site (under the Finnieston crane) the fair looked inviting. I met with building control for an on site meeting for the funfair area license handover. Then we were joined by the Environmental Officer and finally by the Legal Dept Agent. After everyone was in agreement that the fair was good to go, I was presented with the License. How easy the showmen in England have it, not needing to have a license for a fair south of the border. It has taken since April this year to start the licensing procedure. I had to attend the licensing court, supply all safety certs , insurance docs , a scale plan and finally a police background check of all the showmen attending. We had to supply names, DOBs and addresses. Let nobody say that showmen are here today and gone tomorrow! The weather was glorious on Saturday and an estimated 50,000 flocked to the Clyde side. I assume this was because they knew of the bad forecast for Sunday. At the main pinch point of the event(along side the new BBC Scotland building), mounted Police had to control the crowds. By 4:30pm it had started to slow down. No doubt many people left early due to the congestion.

Sunday.

The rain fell into early afternoon and deterred many folk from the final day of the river festival. It was dry from 1 pm but too late as the main part of the day was over. At 6pm the fair was pulling down. I headed over to the mall to pull down there. At 7:15pm I was headed out to BOA with the miami. When I got there the ground was sodden and puddles laid on the surface. The plot was marked out but I got stuck in the mud and had to be towed into position. That would pretty much set the scene for the next day for all the heavier loads. I returned to the mall and "r" & the crew had the final loads ready to move. Again we headed off to BOA. On arrival it was too dark to see and to avoid any unnecessary damage we left the loads on the hard until morning.

the picts are of the river festival, look at those crowds.

a fairground life

The last couple of days have been spent testing some of the rides. Not much happening at the minute. "r" has received a second recall on his L200 for faulty U bolts on the rear axle. I don't know if I mentioned it earlier but in June we had to get two new leaf springs fitted under warranty as both were broken! This means that the U bolts will have been off 3 times this year alone on the L200. Went over to the carpark we use for the Glasgow River Festival and put up some closure signs to try and thin out the amount of traffic we have to contend with on pulling in day. Hopefully this will help. The dates have changed again this year and it is now another week later falling on the last weekend of July. We have been lucky for the last 3 years as it has been dry for the event. What's the odds on four out of four??? Apart from that all I have been doing is paper work, print,copy,print,copy so that I am all ready for moving again.

a fairground life

Ups and downs this week, I got the non return for the set and fitted it. No go, I mean no go literally as the set wouldn't start. Its possible I didn't spend enough time bleeding it but I think its possible that the lift pump was not strong enough to open the valve on the suck side and yes I did have it in the correct way (big arrow on side). So in a fit of temper I removed it and tightened up the pipes into the new filter extra tight. The kind of tight you wouldn't apply normally incase you break something. Put it all back together and got the set started for 12:30pm, a whole hour after I started the job. As we opened I got my first 3 punters on the DZ. It wouldn't go either. I checked all brushes, cleaned all bands,checked all lap bar limit switches,check fuse box, relays, check brushes and clean bands again (at this point the ride was for sale at a knock down price) and finally found a suspect resistor with a heat mark on its body. So I went off to RS components for another while "R" scaled the tower and started removing the wiring connections to the bands. When I returned we fitted the new resistor, "r" had cleaned all band connections except two that had the access bolts rusted solid. We tried the ride---no go. So "r" went up with a hammer and chisel and removed the two seized bolts the old fashioned way. He cleaned the last two connections. We tried the ride and it finally went, 6 hours after we started on the thing. By the way the heat marked resistor is working fine. On the bright side, for the last two days the set has started without bleeding-that fit of temper on the filter housing has did the trick.

Today Prince Andrew came and visited the Clydebuilt Museum, there was a small army of security and Police with him (just out of shot in the picts). I don't know if it was a secret of if nobody was interested but the crowd was only about a dozen passers by. I bet Di would have pulled in the crowds. Then again Andy fought for his country during the Falklands. HE IS SECOND LEFT OF THE LAMP POST, FACING THIS WAY SHAKING HANDS.

a fairground life

Since last week I have fitted a new bellhousing to the skydiver pump. This was to reduce vibration coming from the pump motor coupling as it was running very very slightly out of line. I had ordered the part a couple of days before but it was unclear whether the bellhousing would be correct as the motor plate number did not correspond with the measurements I took. So after closing one night at 8pm we decided to fit it. We cut off the old mounting brackets, removed the piping and took the pump off. After a couple of measuring sessions with the tape we calculated that the motor end of the coupling would have to come forward 9mm. So out with the pulley draws to do this. "r" removed the retaining grub and we drew the coupling forward. We inserted the rubber spider and tried the bellhousing on. Yippee it fitted (good job we went with measurements instead of plate number) as I did have visions of welding all the old gear back on again. After an hour and half we tried it out. With the new arrangement we have zero vibration and at least a 30% reduction in motor noise, plus it looks professional, a success I would say.

As for the filter arrangement on the set its not as successful. The fuel seems to be running back, but its too quick to be an air leak in the piping. No I think the two filter arrangements are creating some kind of vacuum. So I fitted a new lift pump again just to be sure but it still needs bleeding in between start ups. So I'm gonna try a non return valve between the filters. Failing that I might try a loop in the fuel pipe. Now that's an idea!, I could extend the fuel feed pipe and run it higher than the engine then drop it down to the new filter, this way the fuel can't syphon back to tank, plus that would be cheaper than a valve! decisions decisions!

a fairground life

So all the kit is back together for the next few weeks. Last Monday was spent fixing a wiring problem in my mothers home. It took so long that "r" and I only got to erecting the Skydiver at 7pm. We only did half of it and knocked of at 8:30pm. The next morning I was at licensing court in Glasgow for the hearing of my application for a PE license for the River Festival. It started at 9:30 am with Taxi drivers and continued until mine came up at 11am. There were a few other showmen attending too for other events around the city. Its always a worry that the hearings are left to the last minute as any problems wont have time to be overcome. After that I headed out to finish the Skydiver with "r". The next day was his graduation and although the fair at the mall was supposed to open at 12 noon the Maimi and DZ were closed until 4pm when Mrs showman and I arrived. It was quiet, just as well cos at 5pm the DZ acted up. It wouldn't go again, similar to the SECC problem, but this time it was only a blown fuse in the control panel. I think I may have caused this myself changing a bulb in the carriage lights. So 20 minutes later it was all systems go. Thursday was quiet a good day but Friday rained heavy for most of the afternoon. At teatime the set chucked it, it was dirt in the lift pump. This is getting to be a problem now so I'm going to fit another fuel filter before the lift pump.Saturday seen the skydiver develop a hydraulic leak. A pump manifold blew off a fixing stud. It was a 5/16" Whitworth thread so I had to go and source one. Being Saturday afternoon every major supplier was closed so I ended up at Bills tool store down at the barras. They only had a small selection of whitworth but I managed to get something to fit. Meanwhile "r" was washing up the 20-25 litres of oil we lost. We were all systems go again for 3pm. I had travelled 25 miles, spent £5 of fuel and lost two hours trade plus hydraulic oil all for a 15p stud!!!

a fairground life (graduate)

Congratulations to "r" who graduated today from Strathclyde University as a Bachelor of Civil Engineering with Honours, BEng (Hon). 

We attended the "Barony Hall" for the ceremony, Mrs showman had me in suit and tie. The weather was scorching and with a few hundred people packed in to watch their offspring graduate the temperature rocketed. Everyone was sweating bullets for well over 90 minutes. That said it was something to see, all the pomp and ceremony including a Piper. As "r" was capped & hooded he walked back up the side aisle of the church and Mrs showman had many a tear in her eyes. When the show ended we caught up with him in the gardens of the campus were there was a Champaign reception. It was only then, when I saw him with his study mates & lecturers that I realised how he had been living two separate lives for the last four years. WELL DONE SON.

a fairground life (three wet in a row)

Three wet Saturdays in a row and three wet Galashiels Saturdays in a row too, thats three years in a row since 2007 that it has rained at Gala on the main day. There was also a music event on in a park nearby so as you might expect biz was well back on last year with the crunch piled on top of everything else. The rain fell as a fine mist all afternoon until about 5pm. After this it was too late as the families had all left. It was only the younger mob left and I do mean mob as by 10pm they were all full of god knows what and having running battles with each other. The five community wardens had did their best throughout the afternoon to keep the peace but by 9pm I reckon they either knocked off for the night or had just had enough and decided to let the rabble get on with it. The only police presence I seen was two officers on the fairground around 4pm. It was much quieter at the back of the fair where the DZ was positioned  and I never seen much of the troubles but at the front of the fair where the Miami was "r" and Mrs showman could easily see all the commotion as the youths ran riot from the waltzer up to the tagada. That said those rides didn't close until 11pm and by that time "r" and I had most of the DZ away and were about starting on the Miami. It was nearly 1am when we finished. Next day we left at 11am with the Miami and DZ heading into Glasgow. We dropped the rides off and I left "r" to erect the both of them himself (well he is a big boy) while I headed back for the trailers. That night at 7pm I picked him up and we headed off to Burntisland to get the show and Skydiver. He was well knackered by this time and it showed as we pulled the skydiver down. It was 11:20pm when we left the ground. I headed off in the skydiver while "r" took the show. About 50mins later I was near Larbet when the lorry began to die. I know it! bloody filter again, that's three filters since December about 500 miles. I must have the Diesel Bug. Anyway the cab wouldn't lift again, even with more oil put in the pump so I had to squeeze under the cab. I could feel the filter but couldn't turn it so I decided to knock it off with a hammer and chisel. Only problem was I couldn't see in the dark, then I remembered that a long time ago I had put a wandering battery light in the canopy of the generator. A few moments later after fumbling around inside the case of the set I had found it. I attached the wires to the battery terminals and hey presto, it still worked and shone brightly a whole 21w. Problem was that the 2m of wire wasn't long enough to reach were I wanted so I just let it dangle to the ground and luckily the faint glimmer was enough to work with. I tapped the filter round a bit then drove the chisel through the side and used it as a handle to twist the filter cartridge off. I spun on the new cartridge (primed with gas oil from the set, well needs must) and crawled out from behind the cab. Alas I packed away all the tools and light before I thought to look into the old filter to see if it was water that was the problem. This had all cost me the best part of an hour and it was 1am by now. "R" had taken the Forth road bridge route so had never passed me and was now sitting awaiting my arrival. Just before 2am I pulled onto the fairground. It was back to the house for a shower, meal and into kip for 3am.

a fairground life (newcastle)

We went to the Hoppings Fair today for a visit. A sign of the times is that the sellers on swag mans alley were few and their merchandise was even fewer. Also I've been told that 30 round stalls had given up their tober. This was plainly visible as there were large voids on the fair. The weather was hot, the earth was baked hard and the grass was completely worn away on some of the walkways so people were out in numbers just not spending. I've attached a few pictures, sorry that the TopBuzz video is sideways (how do you rotate video then???) but this ride is still impressive to watch in motion.

a fairground life

On Monday morning I was in Gala for 6:45 am. The ground was hard even after the previous nights rain fall. It was after 10am when the DZ was set on its plot. We erected this first before setting the Miami. There were a few light showers throughout the day but the weather turned nice at night. At 2:30 pm the miami was erected too, apart from attaching the weights. We headed off in search of a pipe. The engineer at Selkirk made a couple of calls and sent us to a chap in Bonchester Bridge. He had a small work shop but it was full of first class machinery. When we arrived he had already started the new pipe. Only five minutes later it was all finished. This chap does a lot of work for the forrestry chaps hence why he had the heavy duty hydraulic gear. An hour later we were back at Gala and the pipe was fitted. The ride was finished off and all systems seem go. Last night a few of the lads decided to have a party, live music from two guitar players come singers, strobe lighting, laser lighting, BBQ and beer. It sounded like (from my bed 50 yrds away) that it was going to be a real good night, only thing was 10 minutes in and the gig was cancelled when the boys in blue arrived due to a complaint. Maybe they over done it with two guitars or maybe it was just the awful singing?

Today was a real scorcher, like what summers used to be, not much chance of Gala getting messed up at this rate, but never say never.

a fairground life

It had been a short 18 years since I last attended Broxburn Gala. The fairground was on a different site then, which itself was a new site at the time as the fair had been moved onto several areas due to new development over the years. Back then it was the upright Paratrooper we operated. Presently we returned with the DropZone. This fair is much smaller than previous locations and the lessee did well to squeeze in as many attractions as he did. The DZ was a last minute booking and it went in edge ways to fit in a 20ft gap between the Waltzer and Superbob. As the Miami and Skydiver were open elsewhere I also had to hire a generator for the weekend. I did get built up though by tapping onto the Superbob set for an hour. Wednesday night was the first opening, the weather was fine and this turned out to be the best weeknight, no doubt due to it being cheap night. In between times we did a bit of visiting to Livingston to see a friends new purchase, a Tagada ride from Sweden (I think). Saturday started off with blistering sunshine but in a repeat of last week it quickly turned into heavy showers. As a result the gala was cancelled at 2pm. The fair did still hold good numbers until around 3pm when another heavy downpour almost cleared it. "r" called after 4pm to let me know that the Miami had a leaking pipe. It had developed a pinhole burst on the main motor hydraulic feed pipe. To avoid any chance of a full scale burst and oil spillage he closed the ride. At 9pm we were pulling down at Broxburn. I had to wait on the Superbob clearing its position before I could swing the tower around. For midnight I was pulled down. Sunday morning I was up at 7am to return the hire set to Glasgow before setting off for Galashiels. I met up with "r" later at Melrose and we managed to get the leaking pipe loosened. I did try to call out Hydrasun on their emergency line but there was no answer. I wondered if this was because it was fathers day or because it was Sunday or because their place is in Broxburn and its the morning after the Gala. Probably an accumulation of all three. Anyway we will have to sort it tomorrow after getting into Gala and building up. Passing by the ground I noticed that the tracking is laid at the gate, I hope it stays dry as we don't want a repeat of two years ago!

a fairground life

Two weeks to catch up on.

We arrived on the green at W, Linton on Tuesday afternoon. The sun was shining and the tober was rock hard. It didn't take long to set the loads as there were no changes from last year. "r" and I started on the skydiver first. It wasn't long before we had the ride set up. After a quick tea we erected the DropZone. While we had been doing these rides Blakey had set up his modern amusements. The weather was lovely, the Green was beautiful and it felt good to be out of Glasgow for a change.

Wednesday morning I raised the cab on the show lorry to see if I could find the boiling problem. Sure enough, a water mark down the side of the engine led me to a burst pipe. I took it off and headed for Edinburgh to get a replacement. Three hours and six stops later I finally got some pipe from Pirtek (hydraulics). By the time I got back to WL, "r" had arrived from Glasgow and a few minutes later the pipe was fitted. I wasn't sure if the burst pipe was the problem or the symptom but the next journey would probably tell.

Thursday and back to Glasgow to pick up the miami and take it out to the music event. The layout was different this time with the rides being split up and the miami was in duff tober. "r" and I set it up and headed back to WL for early afternoon. 

Friday, It was opening night tonight and at 7pm there were a lot of people around to watch the floats go by. Last year it rained and ruined biz but not this year and we enjoyed a fair nights trade. The marquee was in full swing until 2am when the music finally faded.

Saturday afternoon was quiet, my wife and "r" headed off to the music event at 2pm. I called them after 8pm, our fears had been realised with the miami being in duff tober and this reduced trade by 40%. I didnt get to sleep until 5am on Sunday morning until I knew that they were finished, the ride pulled down and moved away safely.

Sunday, quiet quiet quiet and as my wife arrived back, I immediately left to meet "r" at Selkirk. The fair was marked out prior and we erected the Miami right away. At 6pm we headed back to WL. That night and the next morning all the other gear would come in to Selkirk from Hawick.

Monday was a day off and we went on a short road trip down by Holy Isle to Berwick and on to Amble. 

Tuesday I called Kia in Edinburgh to order a section of intercooler pipe, that night we opened for the rugby tournament on the green and closed at 9pm."r" had left earlier with his trailer to go to Selkirk.

Wednesday I fitted the new pipe and yippee, no black smoke from the jeep as it kicks down. This night we opened for the pram race but it was poorly supported with only 5 entrants. In previous years there were so many prams that they had to race in heats.

Thursday back to Glasgow to set SE's miami at Back to the 80's gig.

Friday I spent the afternoons doing maintenance around the rides, a few bulbs, holders,wires and I also fitted a new hydraulic pipe to the floor rams.

Saturday morning was a heat wave then it was a wash out, by 2pm the sports day was cancelled, it was a long drag until we closed later after 9pm. The weather had knacked us again. The crew had turned up for the pulldown and we did the skydiver first. "r" arrived from Selkirk to help with the tower. For midnight we were all packed up.

Sunday morning 5:45am we were up. The rides were coupled first then we headed off to Burntisland with the skydiver. We pulled on site before 9am. It had been a good trip and also the show hadn't boiled so the pipe must have been the problem. Not wasting any time we built up the Skydiver and it was ready for opening shortly after noon. At that we left my father in law to look after it while "r" and I returned to WL to pick up the DZ. This ride we took to Broxburn.

a fairground life

We headed over to Drymen this afternoon to pick up skydiver. When I got there the gate on the field was locked. There was a car parked away over in the field. I walked thru the field upto where the ride was parked. All the marquees,fencing,etc etc were cleared away. I drove the ride down to the gate. I was going to cut the chain with the hacksaw but before I could a police car appeared, they had come to investigate the seemingly abandoned car. So one copper looked around the car whilst the other set off to get the keys to the field. About 20mins later the gate was opened and we were on our way. I pulled into the services at stirling and put in £140 in derv, "r" pulled in behind with the show and put £70 in that plus 3 gallon of water into the radiator!! For some reason the lorry was boiling, it was full when we left drymen 20miles ago. We headed off again and near Edinburgh we stopped and put another 3 gallon of water in the radiator. This time we kept going all the way to WL. We pulled into the ground and the tober was rock hard. I will check the radiator tomorrow to see if the water has dwindled or if it is going into the oil/ sump. There doesn't seem to be a leak so maybe the thermostat is stuck or the radiator blocked or maybe the fan is slipping???? Surely one of the above will cure the problem.

a fairground life

It was a mission for all involved, but we did manage to put on some kind of a fair. Friday morning and "d" had got the energy storm ride in on tracking. "jw" tried to move the miami in 1m to clear the path but couldn't do it. Mean while I flattened the ruts in front of the skydiver by repeatedly driving over them with the jeep. At 2pm "jw" took the ride out of the event to clear the path. He had sent for tracking. It came around 4pm, the miami came in again and eventually got set on the tracking. This is all said in a few sentences, but it took hours due to the ride getting stuck half in and half out of the gate,then having to be reversed along a roadway and up into the event field again so as to be facing the correct way. By 11pm that night the ride was finally erected. The sun did come and there were decent numbers at the event, although biz seemed slower. Again at pulling down most items needed towed out. I used part of the miami tracking to get the skydiver out and the tractor was used for some others. Even with the baking sunshine on friday and saturday the area was still soft underfoot.

a fairground life(rice pudding)

I left at 7am to get the first loads into Drymen. "r" is in Poland with uni pals so "m" an I are doing it all. The Skydiver was in Drymen for 9am. At 12pm we started to get set. After an hour we had the skydiver stuck just off the path. 2 hours later the tractor arrived to tow it. It managed to pull it back 20 ft to clear the path. The ride was now building up as landed, 45 degrees facing the wrong way. Next we tried to get the DZ in. The tractor towed it in but only 20ft in and it sank. The wheels were not even turning just dragging like a sledge. The tractor could not tow it out again but we got it out using a 6 wheeler on the path. With the dz out we changed angle and tried to come in down the hill. Again at 40ft in the ride sank, the tractor could not pull it in or drag it out, again a 6 wheeler on the path JUST managed to pull it out (after we dug the mud out from the front of the wheels). That was it we took it right out, end of for that ride. "d" tried to put the energy storm in on boards. It smashed thru them and promptly sunk. During all this I did get the skydiver built up but will have to do some gardening today. The ground is like a rice pudding, hard crust with mushy centre. At 8pm I brought the dz back to the yard last night, "d" is getting tracking today for the energy storm, I've had enough no dz this year.

a fairground life(worry)

Its been another busy week. I got into the mall a week gone Sunday. I built up the skydiver on Monday with "r". Tuesday I was all day in the (Scottish) section offices as part of the committee for a meeting. Wednesday "b" and I were up at 4:30am to catch a flight to London for a Tribunal hearing of our complaints regarding other members conduct. So we were in Staines at Guild House for 10am. Unfortunately thing were running late (as usual) and we didn't get into the hearing until 2pm. So we argued our case with our opponent arguing his position. The matter is decided by a Barrister with two ex presidents (of the Guild) to advise. How we fared I do not know at this time, but it doesn't matter if you fight and lose, it only matters if you don't fight at all! Thursday we opened at the mall, I was tired from the day before's activities and closing time couldn't come quick enough. Friday at 5pm and we headed off to Bellshill with the DZ and Miami. Again we got on the street at 6pm, but this time there was a curtailment of ground due to paving work. Some tenants even lost their tober altogether. Since the street was dug up and a new oneway system installed, we had to reverse the DZ and Miami onto the street after turning them up a side street. This was the only way to get them onto the plots facing the correct way for setting up. At 9pm we were heading home again. Saturday at 11am we opened. Biz was poor but the fair did look better with the new layout, basically squashing everything up into one end. At 7:30pm we closed, that's how quiet it was. Sunday we opened at 12pm and closed at 6pm. The football may have hindered the turn out and again biz was poor. Monday was no better and at 6pm we started to pulldown. Right on cue the heavens opened up and we got wet into the bargain. The DZ was last off the street as we had wasted half an hour waiting on other equipment getting out our way before we could lower the tower. "r" and I were just leaving as three local neds walked by and bib us a fond farewell with the taunt of-"aye yer shows are sh_t_!" We were back at the yard for 9pm. Up this morning and back out to the mall to pull down the skydiver, again intermittent showers plagued us. The real problem is that the next gaff-Drymen is in danger of being cancelled due to the rain. I hope not, even if it is re scheduled for August, I need the income now! Its a worry. Oh by the way "b" has knacked the Net (top half of ride) lorry on the Dodgem, I don't know the exact details but it could be a big end or con rod!!! So Hawick for him may be iffy???

a fairground life(40s a magic number)

I called a few tyre suppliers for quotes on the miami tyre, an odd size 275 x 70 x 22.5 . The prices ranged from £170-£320, what a difference! I decided to go for a dealer that quoted me £186 inc vat, not because he was the cheapest but because he had one in stock and he was the closest. So "r" took the blow out off, we stuck it in the pick up and off we went. On arrival at the depot we bumped into the owner, he knows a lot of showmen and offered me a part worn tyre instead. In two minds I had a look at it and it was nearly new, it had only been in for a puncture repair, plus it was only £40 now that's what Dickinson would call a "Bargain". Later in the afternoon I called fatso to see if he had paid my debt for the brake chamber. Good to his word he had been in and settled up with the head mechanic. I asked in trepidation how much? OHHHH! he said, it was dear, £40 for cash! Now that was a lot cheaper than I could have got the chamber for. So 40 is my magic number today and as I've said before- a penny saved is a penny earned!

a fairground life

It has been interesting the last two weeks. I enjoyed my time at Langholm, my father used to come in the 60s, but this was my first time to open there. The miami (different time of year) had been there before with J Collins (the previous owner). The small fair consisted of waltzer,miami,arcade,2 juveniles,stall and a snack bar.The majority of the local kids were polite. There were a few teen drinkers the first weekend and a couple from a nearby village had to be dealt with, however they did not return for a second helping. The weather was mostly unkind and business was poor as a result. The fair was advertised from opening as  £1 all rides, but this didn't seem to help (and my fuel costs were still full price). There are a couple of good scrapyards nearby and I did enjoy perusing them and picking up a couple of bargains ( airline hose and munitions casing now used to store welding rods in). Biz was quiet this Saturday. "r" was open in Dumbarton with the DZ. It was raining there too but he was still doing better than me. He finished at 6pm and started to pull the DZ down. Looks like he can go solo now. I started to pulldown at 8.30pm on Saturday night. When I coupled the Foden under the trailer I noticed the air pressure dropping. I got out and discovered the front axle near side brake chamber was leaking. Now where was I gonna get one of those for Sunday morning??? I made a few calls and a friend in Silloth had one but I would have to go and take it off in the morning. Another Showmen TH suggested that I stop at Armstrongs Haulage en route and ask the head mechanic. It made sense as I would have to pass them anyway. I also tried MAN /ERF in Carlisle just in case they had a 24h service desk, no such luck (my grandad always said Carlisle was a graveyard with lights! sorry, but that's what he said). So up in the morning at 6:45 and away. By 7:15 I was standing in Armstrongs yard. It was Sunday morning and as you might expect it was deserted, but then I spied a cab door move away at the bottom of the yard. I walked down and met a man standing next to a Jag. I explained who I was and what I was looking for and that local showmen had suggested I pop in. The chap told me that the head mechanic was not in. I asked if he knew of any motor factors that would be open in Carlisle. He replied not likely, but suggested we take a look in the stores. It turned out I was talking to Mr Armstrong himself, a few minutes later we found a new brake chamber on a shelf in the small store room. I asked him what I owed him for it, "I wouldn't know what to charge, just take it", he said and "phone in tomorrow to get the price". Since he new the local showmen well, he told me just to get them to sort it out and I could see them later. He would not even take a deposit, I know we are not all angels but its good to see that showmen in the majority have a good reputation with people they deal with. So I have left money with "fatso" so he can clear my debt and I will sort out the difference with him later. I headed right back to Langholm and started to fit the chamber. There was a slight hitch in that the old chamber was imperial and the new metric, but fatso got out his box of odds and ends. We found one length of threaded pipe about 40mm long. I cut it into two and improvised a couple of adapters, I even mocked up a couple of "O" rings to make a good seal. It took about 4 hours in total by the time I nipped up both front axle chambers and made other minor adjustment to the chamber. I tried it and yippee no leaks. So off we headed for Glasgow, all the way I was expecting a hose to blow off or something, but all was fine until I turned the corner into the yard. BOOM! I jumped out to have a look and could hear air hissing. Not another one, I thought, expecting to see a blown chamber or pipe. No, this time it was a blow out, literally right at the gate of the yard. So tyre hunting tomorrow.

a fairground life

I'm down in deepest darkest Langholm, no mobile internet not even my mobile phone will work. So this is only a quick blast to let everyone know I'm still alive while I was in Carlisle getting supplies. I was back in Glasgow yesteray, but only long enough to set up the DZ in Dumbarton for the Scottish pipe band championships. It was a glorious hot sunny day, just as well as the pitch was a lovely grass park (just a pity its as level as the side of a mountain). The rain is falling in buckets today, it won't bother the tober here as it is a car park, but we really need the sun to shine tomorrow in Dumbarton. Back up the road on Sunday to civilisation, well at least mobile communications.

a fairground life

The last few weeks have seen the miami develop a severe oil leak from the hydraulic motor shafts. The oil was being pushed out of the shaft seals and dripping down the front panels. This had started off as an intermittent problem over a year ago but now had reached the point of needing to be addressed. The motor that I had serviced in the shed last year was the main culprit and I had fitted several new shaft seals over the last couple of years to try and solve the problem. I can't believe how easy a fix the problem actually was when JM told me what the problem would be (he is one clever guy), no need to remove the motors or have parts machined etc etc. It turned out that the drain line from the motor had become clogged and this led to a pressure build up in the motor casing that resulted in the oil pushing its way out through the shaft seal. All I did was put on a second drain line with a bigger bore back to tank. Cheap too, total cost £17.50. The last two days have seen nil oil drips from the motors and I can tell you I am VERY pleased. I also tweeked the drive mechanism today by cutting a massive 1mm off of the dynex lever to adjust the parking position speed, minute adjustments indeed. Hope the weather holds out until Monday..

a fairground life

The last few days have been busy. 

Friday morning I went and got the tyres fitted to the jeep, all the diff problems have disappeared. To say I'm happy would be an understatement. The rest of the day was spent doing minor jobs around the equipment. Over 30 this week for me and "r" has completed a few others too, including touching up the Foden paint, washing all the lorries and waxing the cabs, repairing some loose earth wires on the taillights and more. Not bad when you think he is still attending Uni.

Saturday started off quiet, a long lie in before starting a few jobs and fuelling up the lorries for moving this weekend. At 5pm however I got a call from my father in law. He and his wife had went up to Granton on Spey to a caravan site for the weekend. From there they were touring all the towns and villages they used to travel when they were first married. Unfortunately whilst out with the car they were victims of a bad driver. They had to swerve to avoid colliding with this other car and in the process damaged theirs. They had hit the kerb, broken the near side wish bones, coils springs, tyres and discs. The other driver quickly sped off before they could do anything. So when the dust settled they got the RAC to uplift there damaged car and drop them back at the caravan site in Granton on Spey. I drove up to take them and their caravan home while the RAC took the car away for repair (unless it written off). So at 9pm we set off from Granton. The jeep was quarter full and I thought this would get me to Perth where I could re fuel. Wrong, by the time I was approaching Pitlochry the red light was on. It was 10:20pm and I pulled of the A9 into the town to get fuel. The garage was closed and I also knew that the next two garages in Dunkeld & Birnam were closed too. Luckily we have friend in Pitlochry who keep Derv in their garage for such emergencies. An hour later with 20lts we set off for Glasgow again. It is strange that in this day and age there are no 24hr service stations between Aviemore and Perth, also there are no A9 service stations directly off the A9, you always have to  drive into small towns for local services that close early. I tell you we were close to spending the night on the A9.

When we finally got down to Dunblane (after midnight) there was a patrol car sitting on the roundabout. A few minutes later he pulled me in to the hard shoulder. He asked if I knew why I was being stopped. I told him yes, because the trailer number plate doesn't match the jeeps. He asked why this was and my father in law explained. He took my details which he undoubtedly already knew before he let us go on our way again. At the back of 1am we were finally back home.

Monday, the tenants of Burntisland summer fair met in the Scottish sections guild office to discuss issues of this years fair. It was a meeting of a few hours that covered items such as fencing ,stewarding, promotions and advertising.

Tuesday, attended a meeting of the Scottish section committee, I didn't get home until 7pm.

Wednesday, attended a meeting on behalf of the Scottish section at Bradford in the Yorkshire sections offices.Drove 470 mile round trip.

a fairground life (eco or not eco that is the question)

Today's mission was to sort out the Kia's problem. So at 9am I drove it down to the mechanic who MOT's our cars. We took it for a spin then we put it up on his ramp. His conclusion was a distribution box problem but suggested I took it around the corner to the automatic transmission specialist (who repaired my mothers old Pajero twice) for his opinion. So I did, luckily he was in and remembered me, so we took it for a spin. He too put it up on his ramp but this time he stripped off a flange mounting plate on the distribution box and put in over a litre of oil. Confident this would surely solve the problem we took it for another spin. Alas it was just the same, possibly due to the damage already being done??? Not giving up here I took it to East Kilbride to a diesel specialist there (who also had done work on my mothers old Pajero). He too was in and remembered me, but this time he could not help as he only worked on the diesel fuel injection side of things. He did offer a few words of wisdom-DONT BUY A KIA SEDONA and I should consider getting rid of my Sorento. Feeling less confident than this morning I headed off to the nearest Kia service centre for answers. I arrived at Parks in East Kilbride, the service centre was busy and after a few minutes I was front of the queue at the Kia desk. The chap was sympathetic, "if only you had kept up the service history" he said, "maybe we could have gotten Kia involved". Aye right I thought, as the car was out of warranty time by a whole year! Anyhow for £60 plus VAT they would diagnose the problem. This seemed a waste as I already new the problem was the diff winding up and it was coming from the distribution box! So I took their number and headed off home a little dismayed. Now this is where Mrs Showman comes in handy, she always seems to say the things that are too simple to be the answer, but always seem to come thru! "Why don't you phone the man from the garage where we bought the car" she said. Doing it to get peace rather than answers I did. The service chap came on and told me very confidently that my tyre tread depths were out of range. No more than 3mm tread depth difference between tyres. So not having too much faith in this I needed to test the theory before forking out hundreds on new rubber. I decided to borrow tyres to try out the theory. I knew I could not get 18" alloys anywhere, but I decided to get everyone else's brand new spares. So I took my bro's,mothers, Blakey's and mine. Four brand new tyres (245/70 17") all with the same tread depth. Over an hour later I had fitted the 4 new wheels to my jeep. Blakey and I took it for a run. Was it a wasted effort? Immediately we were out the yard and stopping at the first corner, I knew it had worked!, No whining noise, no shudder from the diffs dis-engaging. So I promptly ordered the other 2 new tyres I would need to balance my tread depths between front and rear. It is wasteful but, my two front tyres are only at 50%, a good 6 months life left in them, but I have to ditch them for new ones. The ironic situation is that I would have been better off financially by fitting two part worn tyres to the rear way back in December!!! In this world of eco friendly recycling and minimal waste to save the planet- some idiots designed a drive system that can't cope with  odd sized tyres to zero point 5 percent (0.5%) of their diameter!!! 

But hey- problem solved, mission accomplished. Wait a minute, may be I got it wrong, maybe this is an eco friendly car cos you are only meant to fit part worn tyres?

a fairground life

All the equipment is in the yard at the same time, I can hardly believe it. I've been taking full advantage of this (and the sunshine) the last 3 days doing all those wee jobs that never make it to the top of the list. I drained the tank on the EC10 and the diesel looked fine, the water and dirt that came out of the bottom was very minimal, not even 1/2 a pint so what's the verdict on the diesel bug?Hey I though bio diesel was meant to be cleaner thru the engine so how come it is more corrosive??? I got the cab tilt working again, it only needed topping up. On a different note the miami was running crab after me replacing that bush & spring. When I measured the axles centre to centre there was a 16mm difference between off & near side."r" and I tried always to re align the axle by loosening the spring's U bolts and pulling with a strap, but no go. In fact somehow we made it worse to 25mm difference. At that the only solution I could see was to cut the torsion bar on one side, then pull the axle into alignment, mark the torsion bar again and cut the remainder out. So 9" grinder later we had removed 20mm  then I welded it all up again. It looks good on the tape but I'll only really know when we are out on the road. My Kia's diff is making a whining noise again, I had a look under and I'm sure its lack of oil in the distribution box, but I can't see anywhere to replenish it, mind you it was lucky I looked because two shaft bolts were so slack I could turn them with my fingers!!! Just made the last payment too and I really needed this year off to try and get the overdraft down. Hope I can solve this cheaply. 

As for Blakey, he's been painting painting and painting his wee machine chassis. A nice colour of Hammerite Black which is in fact GREY???? Anyhow it looks pretty good.

Blakey's Blog (interrupted by showmans travels)

It was a lovely sunny day today, a perfect day for pulling down. At 6pm we started, the crew had arrived from Falkirk and "r" &"s" got right into the skydiver while "w" and I tackled the show. After that (35 mins) I moved onto the miami while "w" helped "r" finish off the skydiver. The miami came down well and only had the packing to pick up when I moved onto the DZ. I thought that by lowering the tower before the team came down from the skydiver I would give them a head start. Sure enough, as the tower dropped the last couple of inches onto the cradle they arrived from completing the skydiver. Another hour later and we were already for the road. "r" wanted to take the DZ so I could take the skydiver and listen for the bump bump bump. I'm pleased to say it seemed A ok. The new hub,wheel nuts , studs etc etc had cured that. Lucky for "r" he did take the DZ because as I crossed the Kingston Bridge the engine started to die. I knew instantly -filter or lack of fuel. I pulled into the hard shoulder and dipped the tank. It showed a quarter of fuel, so filter it is. It took me a few minutes to find the spare. Then the cab would not tilt (probably lack of oil) so I squeezed in behind the front wheel. I struggled to remove the filter, then realised I was turning it the wrong way! Sure enough when I finally got it off it was thick with gunge. That is the second filter in about 130 mile (going to secc in Dec). That means the tank needs cleaned out. Probably after effects of the East Kilbride saga way back in August. Any how I have only travelled about 14 mile and have created another two jobs-good job the yard isn't further away.

As for Blakey's Blog--well you lot seem very pleased to see him back. The only good thing about him being back is that it implies he was away in the first place. And his story of knocking in a couple of fence posts is no where near as exciting as my traveling escapades. Don't encourage him, lord knows he doesn't need any.(and if you hadn't bought a mutt- you wouldn't need a fence!!!)

A fairground life

So the big news last week was how the homecoming music event at Irvine was cancelled. Even bigger news to me, as I had 2 rides booked up for it. Luckily I have a fall back option, but maybe not so lucky for the other 8 rides booked to attend. I told you all in Januarys posts, that 09 would be an unlucky year. Anyhow we finish here Sunday, a week in the yard then out again, only not to Irvine as previously planned.

a fairground life

Sorry its a bit dark, I took it on my phone. 

I'm a bit out of touch with the kids cartoons today. I wonder if they know of  yogi, the flintstones or sylvester and tweetie??? "r" did the bugs on the front its very good and impressed me that he had hidden artistic talents. Need to do the top up now. Probably a re-colour and maybe some vinyl stickers instead of painting onto the PV material.

Easter was very quiet for us too, every one must have been at the sea side. Pity KLM wasn't last week eh? Not much happening, spending a lot of time on paper work for coming events, at least  I'm feeling the benefit of my mobile b/band. Everything working well (don't jinx it) , only had a couple of tack welds to do as repairs, one on a speaker hinge the other on a motor bracket. Closed next week, but have plenty of wee jobs to do unless find a last minute gaff. Replaced 1 weekend of the time capsule, just working on the other now.

a fairground life (264 easy payments)

I've lived in the house for six months now. I love it, she hates it with a vengeance. Not the house its self ,but the life style of it. When at the house you are away from all that you have grown up with, being in a yard surrounded by familiar faces in close proximity.No one popping in for a quick chat or cuppa. There is also the security of the yard, no one enters without a reason and there is no passing traffic by your door. Our house neighbour had his house broken into while he was inside sleeping, they took his cars keys and stole both cars from his drive!!! It is also a bit harder being in the house due to the fact that during down time the rides are no longer parked outside and this means commuting to do any small maintenance jobs. I myself miss walking around to Blakey's to watch his Sky, drink his beer and eat his biscuits (even if he's at home or not). In fact since I left the yard he doesn't buy beer anymore! (and if he told the truth he would say he misses me too). But surely the benefits must out weigh these annoyances. Six months and I've never changed a gas tank, filled the kerosene tank, had to defrost the water supply or empty the WC tank, BLISS!  And I'm sure that if I keep it long enough (depending on making those pesky mortgage payments) it will eventually come back upto the value that I paid for it 24 months ago. I should have known that the market would crash as soon as I got on the ladder.

So I do feel like I have achieved something, worked hard enough for all these years to get myself into mega debt, but I don't think it will stop the NEDS calling me a gypo. Only another 264 easy payments and it will be mine.

a fairground life

If ever I needed a reminder of how frail this business is, it came today. A phone call to say that the Timecapsule fair is cancelled in Coatbridge. The swimming pool is being done up and the contractors are using the car park for storing their container bodies in. Unfortunately for us that means 2 weekends closed. The funfair organiser did try for an alternative site but 3 complaints from local bodies put paid to that. I've been on the phone most of the afternoon trying to dig something up but the fact is we are too many and events too few (at this time of the year anyway).

Now where did I put that old UB40?

a fairground life

   Went to start the (generator) set yesterday. It spun & spun & spun but did not kick up. I changed the filter, no go. I tried the lift pump to no avail. So I put it on a 1 gallon can  to gravity feed the injection pump. It ran for about a minute until the gallon was used (it had no return line to it). This was only to confirm the problem was indeed the lift pump. Luckily the local supplier had a replacement on the shelf. So off I went to pick it up. I returned an hour later and had the replacement fitted in a few minutes. I turned the key and the engine growled to life, perfect timing as the rain started to fall and fall. Oh well.

Got the tyre for the jeep this morning so we will be back to full transport now. I have been sharing the pick up with "r" and begging lifts from everyone else.

Biz is very very quiet.

a fairground life( ying and yang)

Yesterday afternoon the other skydiver lightbox went down too. So the ride was almost in total darkness apart from the coloured spot banks (AKA traffic lights). While I was trying to determine the problem, which turned out to be a loose connection, I had pulled a wire out of a small transformer on the logic board. So a quick surf of the net revealed that this was a "sub miniature transformer, mains input,100 ma load, 9v-0-9v" (great thing this internet) and Maplin around the corner had 1 in stock. This I picked up at 10am this morning. While en-route,  I had a discussion with "r" about the top light box (10x4 matrix). I told him a story about how 25 years ago me and "bk" had reversed the ribbon cable inside by mistake one day and that this resulted in no lights working". OH! he said, I had the ribbon cable off by mistake and thought it would only go back on one way. Well not being too optimistic, "r" reversed the cable while I fitted the new transformer to the other light box. "Hallelujah"(hope thats not a racist remark these days), not one but two working light boxes! A few minutes later the cosmic balance was restored when my wife called and told me that she had a blow out on the jeep. One of those expensive new tyres that I put on in December. The spare is back on and yes the diffs are winding up again, top speed 10 mph!!! So I've ordered in another for Monday. I almost thought Kia's were perfect.

a fairground life

Again up and away for 9am. I took the tyre to get the disc swapped over. While that was being done I nipped away for more aluminium paint then picked up some bulbs for the top of the Tempest. The sun was splitting the sky today and we started on the top lights of the skydiver ride. Already the day started bad, the running light box was frozen on with all lights illuminated at once. "r" opened it up and spotted a blown triac. I had none spare so nipped away to RS components to get some. Meanwhile "r" painted the rest of the floor. I came back with the triacs and promptly fitted one. We put the power on again to try it out----NOTHING,NIL,NADA,ZERO,ZILCH not even a flicker. For the last 27 years I have patched this thing up and kept it going, but today after 6 solid hours it's got me beat. There is power in, the transformer rectifier is producing 12v DC for the logic controller, there is no visible signs of any damage. I even tried a spare set of EPROMS I had. Looks like I bought those new bulbs in vain. Maybe the tooth fairy will fix it tonight?

"r" put on the lorry tyre and did numerous other small jobs while I was tinkering inside the RL box. At 8:40pm we headed home and put out the ad billboards en route.