a fairground life

The suspension on the skydiver had only two leaks. One was a blown olive and the other was a pin hole blasted into a metal air pipe from the sandblasting. My stick welder was too heavy for me to weld the pin hole, but JM repaired it with the mig. So after half an hour it was all up and running. We started on the Miami to remove one of the Hydraulic drive motors. It had been leaking oil from around the shaft seal. I had replaced several myself but they did not stop the leak so it was time to have the motor lifted out and taken to a specialist. We removed the grease guard,pinion,hydraulic pipes and finally mounting bolts. The crane was attached to the lifting eye and we tried to lift the motor out. It would not move. So I gave it a smack with the sledge hammer. No movement. I thought it may have been jammed by the crane so I repositioned it slightly. Bang! The motor shot out like an Exorcet missile and hit the rear panel of the ride. It swung about like a wrecking ball, the bang was so loud that everyone in the shed came running to see if we were ok. Luckily no damage was done. The motor looked small up on the crane,but when we got it down,( even though it was still hanging on the crane) it took three of us to get it into the van. It was safely delivered to the hydraulics place for service shortly afterwards. I will find out next week what the problems with it are. We seemed on a roll so next we removed the Dropzone lift cradle. This was so we could get access to remove the hydraulic cylinder cap. The ram was leaking oil around the rod seal and I wanted to replace these. The overhead crane again made the job easy and we soon had the old seals out. I had a spare seal kit for the cylinder, but it had only 2 of the 3 seals I needed. So off I went, cock sure I would get the third seal no problem and have it all back together by teatime. No such luck.It seems this is a special type seal. Eventually I tracked down a chap who made several calls and finally found someone in England to make a new seal from scratch. It should arrive next week too, I hope. So we returned back to more painting while we wait for these other matters to be resolved. "r" started to convert the diesel barrel rack on the miami into a tool box. We don't use it now since the new generator has a built in tank. Anyway I'm sick of climbing over all the gear we pack into the back of the ride so having it all in a toolbox will be better (for a while, until the gear migrates back again). Two weeks and counting.
The photos show both ends of the shed from the top of the Miami.

a fairground life

Two and a half weeks over my schedule,but the skydiver is finally finished.Tomorrow I will couple the unit to the ride to test the air suspension & piping. Hopefully the sandblasting will no of caused any damage (fingers crossed). I had a problem with the new hinge in the floors, this has cost me another week.Since the hinge was made from angle iron and not box section it was more flexible.The result was that when the floors were raised for traveling the front two ends drooped out 18 inches at the top and had to be pulled in by hand to attach the cross irons. I was not best pleased. We spent two days welding in braces, they only reduced the gap to 9 inches. So biting the bullet, I lifted the treadplate flooring again, cut out the braces and then a 50mm gap along the back of the hinge. Now we inserted 12m of 50x50x4 box section and welded it to the hinge. As soon as I started to raise the floor to test it I could see it as a success. The floor went up straight into place. We repeated the process on the other side. You live and you learn. If you haven't made any mistakes then you haven't made anything.
Onto the other rides now, will have to stick to priority jobs as all the time has been spent (and the money).

a fairground life(with a little help from my friends)

July 2006
It was a very hot July with soaring record temperatures. We were open daily from noon when the sun was at its hottest. A casualty of this extra heat (I believe so any way) was the Miami generator. It was a Gardener 230 (6LXCT) with an old 140Kva alternator attached. Most Gardener engines peak between 1750-1900 rpm. So when this was running at 1550 rpm to drive the alternator it was pretty nearly flat out, so it was LOUD. The other problem with Gardener engines is that they seem to leak oil from every orifice! That said the engine never puffed any black smoke during high load changes.(The miami ride is really hard to drive for a generator ( aka-set) due to the all or nothing demand it makes during operation. The load changes from all to nothing every 3 seconds-150 kva then 0kva then repeat )The alternator was only 140 kva but since it was "old" it was wound heavier with more redundancy. The thing worked well until this very hot July Saturday afternoon when it ran a main bearing. We didn't know what the problem was at first, only that after it run for a couple of minutes it produced clouds of white smoke back pressure.
First things first-How am I going to power the ride until we fix the set? Since no other showman on that fair had a spare set big enough I would have to hire one. It was Saturday though, I phoned around and another showman gave me the number of ML Hire near Shotts. I gave them a call and luckily got an answer. Yes, they had a set big enough-250 kva super silent all singing and all dancing. Yes, I could hire it and Yes, I could pick it up today if I got someone to deliver it. Now here is the problem, The set weighs over 4 tons, its over 4m (12ft) long, 2m (6ft) wide and 2m (6ft) high, so it aint gonna fit in the car boot! Where can I find a lorry and Hiab big enough to lift it on a Saturday at short notice to bring it to me??? On the phone again to a few showmen with lorries with Hiabs attached. Within twenty minutes I had arranged for a lorry and trailer to meet me at ML premises to get the set. Off I go and sure enough FF appears at ML within the hour. He has a step frame flat trailer about 10m (30ft) long and unit with Hiab attached. The ML chap uses their own fork lift to put the set onto the trailer for us, I sign the doc and we set off for the fair. We wait until 6:30 pm for the fair to close so we can bring the vehicle on site. Thinking that I will only need the set for a few days we leave it on the trailer and position it behind the ride. I connect the mains and try out. The 250 kva should eat this I thought. It did , but I found we had to drive the ride easier, especially from start up. This new set was more powerful but it only had a 7.5lt engine compared to the 10lt Gardener. It was a Volvo Penta engine, with an inter-cooler attached to give it the power boost. Problem was that it took 4 secs to charge the intercooler. The miami has a 3 sec cycle, so by the time the set had produced the power the ride didn't want it anymore! This meant puffs of black smoke during peak demands (start or direction change) and at one point we stalled the set completely! So we learned to control the ride softer for the sake of the set. The next day a Gardener mechanic came and looked at the old set. He concluded it was a main bearing as he could feel the crankcase get red-hot at one point and the white smoke was the friction from the bearing.
Now it was decision time- Do I replace the old Gardener engine for another at a cost of a few hundred pounds or Do I replace the whole set for a modern one? Further to this Do I buy a second hand set at a few thousand pounds or a new custom one at a cost of tens of thousands of pounds?? When it comes to decisions I usually make the wrong one that why I hate making them. Any how, after seeing this all singing brand spanking New hire set, super silent, better on fuel and with touch screen control my mind was made up--Brand New Set. The next day I made a few calls and spoke to a number of showmen with 'knowledge' of new sets. JM was very good and explained that I needed an engine that was after-cooled to avoid the time lag problem or an engine that was larger in capacity so had the power without any turbo, both of these would avoid the black smoke issue. He told me the name of a showman to call in England who had not one but two Miami rides and both had New generators on them. I looked in the Showman's Guild book and found the location of the other showman. I gave him a call and introduced myself. This man had never met me, but showman to showman it was of no concern. JW was very helpful, he put my mind at ease and told me the exact generator to buy for the ride and from where. So I called the Generator manufacturer in Pontefract. They could supply a generator for me but it would have to be a special rush job and would still take two weeks.I then arranged finance from a broker. Wasting no time I immediately got in the jeep and drove to the factory with my deposit to start the job. The return trip took around 10 hours but it had to be done. How do I get by in the mean time? Luckily FF was not using his lorry or trailer so we left the hire set on it.The next week he came and moved the hire set to the next fair for me. At the next fair I had my two rides together and decided to try them both on the hire set. Sure enough it powered them both no problem and even run better as it was working harder. FF came back to the fair and lifted off the old set from the lorry and put it on the trailer end to end with the hire set. When the new set was finished I would be ready to go and uplift it. On the thirteenth night from the generator being ordered I left from Bridge of Allan after the fair closed on Thursday night at 11pm to drive down to Pontefract. I was in the Foden, an A reg 6x4 unit with a 400 bhp 14ltr Cummins engine. I was a bit concerned if the lorry would make the long journey ok, but I had no other choice as the new set weighed in a 3 tons, far too heavy for a jeep & trailer. Any way since I was taking the lorry down they would fit the set right on for me. I'm pleased to say it was an un-eventful trip down and at 4:30am I parked outside the factory gates and got my head down for some kip. The next morning I awoke after 8am and went in. There sitting on the factory floor was my new shiny generator-painted to match the lorry as I had supplied the paint RAL number.I was pleased as punch. They lifted the set on and bolted it to the chassis for me. Just on 10 am I set sail back to Bridge of Allan, again another smooth trip home. The set was a Cummins 8.5lct after cooled engine with a 200 kva alternator.It was in a soundproof cabinet with a 1000 ltr fuel tank built in. At just on 5pm I pulled onto the funfair. I positioned the set behind the rides and plugged both in. I started it up and put the rides in motion, there was no smoke,no noise, it did exactly what they said it would. Another disaster overcome! That weekend FF came and removed the hire set for me.
The old Foden had made the trip, but I noticed that one of the drive shaft Hardy Splicers was breaking up. I had a spare and changed it. Just made it home in time I thought. At the end of the fair I left to go to Kirriemuir, the Foden had barely gone two miles when the main air supply pipe from the compressor blew. It took me all-day to make that trip while making running repairs, when I did get to Kirrie the lorry ended up with new re-inforced pipe right through, a blow off valve, wet tank, tanks straps and the compressor head removed and cleaned! I really did get back to Bridge of Allan with no miles to spare!! The new set is running fine, I only had a small hiccup-at Kirrie I noticed a loose bolt. It turned out that since it was a rush job they had put an apprentice on it and he had fitted the wrong length bolts. I changed them and that was that. The new set powers the skydiver,miami and Dropzone all at once and uses less diesel than the two sets I used to use (100 kva perkins and 140 kva Gardener). It seems I finally made a right decision. Thanks to FF,JM and JW for their help and information. I got by with a little help from my friends.

a fairground life

Saturday
Up at 9am and to the shed.I worked on the skydiver until 2pm then left to open the miami at the music event."R" and I arrived on site at 4pm. We went early to check the ride over and tidy the personnel barriers around the ride. Around 5pm we could hear the queue chanting in the distance. At 6:30 pm the gates opened and there was an almighty roar as the patrons began to file in. Every person was searched by sniffer dog and it took 5 hours until the last people were admitted. It was slow starting for the rides and never really got busy. Maybe it was the time of year, maybe it was the cold weather but business was slow compared to other events. If I knew it was going to be like this I would have let my wife and "r" do it and I would have stayed working in the shed.
Sunday
At 4am we closed and pulled down. At 4:50 am I was driving out the gate with the miami taking it back into the shed. We got there just after 5am. We moved a few vehicles and began to reverse jack knife the ride through the doors. There was a lorry parked just inside the doors that I had no keys for. We tried to squeeze in past it. The angle was wrong so we got the ride half in and removed the lorry to couple up on another angle. We got in a bit further but there was not enough room as the other lorry was in the way. We tried for nearly two hours and just before 7am I had no choice but to phone the owner of the other lorry (sorry to him for calling so early) as we had got jammed unable to get in or out and I could not leave the shed doors open. He arrived shortly afterwards and with his help at 8am the ride was finally back in where it had started from a few days ago. I was in bed for 8:30am and awoke again just before noon, so back to the shed again until 9pm. Got to get his ride finished. I'm stripping out the cars again and checking the frames, after that I will paint the floors so I can fold the ride up.

a fairground life

Took the miami out the shed today as its attending a music event this weekend. Got it erected for noon and then headed back to the shed. Getting flap on now as the skydiver is not finished and stayed working til 9:30 pm. Must call it a day on this ride this week so that I can move onto the Dropzone and miami. The sand blasting of the chassis has come up really well, I'm so pleased I have attached a photo of the primed result. The dust from the job was unbelievable. Under the ride looks like a beach and the lorry looks like it has driven through the Sahara Desert.

a fairground life

The 4 week period has come and gone with no end to the skydiver maintenance in sight. All the lighting has been repaired -broken wires, over 100 defective bulbs and 30 burnt out holders.It took me two days on these alone as the ride has over 1600 running lights on it. Then I decided to lift the truck treadplate flooring to check the wooden floorboards underneath. OhNo! I expected to see a few rotten planks and replace them. What I found was every plank rotten and wet. So we pulled them all up.They were so bad that they crumbled in our hands. Even worse the chassis members underneath were badly corroded.So we began to chip off the rust. A few minutes later and we had knocked several holes in the chassis!!! So a phone call to the steel stockholder and I ordered up material for 3 new chassis crossbeams and two large plates to repair the holes. Using oxygen and gas we cut out the rotten material oversize to weld the new plates in position. Its not finished yet, but will be this time tomorrow night. When we re-lay the tread plate it will be onto a new steel frame,no wooden planks this time. The wood seemed to hold the water which caused all the rot.The shot blaster came today to see the job.He will blast the chassis back to clean steel, removing every trace of rust, then apply several coats of primer. So the job will take another week or so. I'm not bothered as it will be a good job done.When the gloss coat is applied the chassis will be back to good as new. Anything less would be sending the ride out with fur coat and no knickers.

a fairground life

The ride has been NDT tested. I'm pleased to report that it passed "A" ok as it has done for the last thirty years. 30 years! surely the ride is not that old? No, it's OLDER, but as Trigger said in Only Fools & Horses-"I've had the same broom for 15 years, Its had ten handles and fifteen heads." The point I'm making is that 99% of the ride has been replaced over the years. Maintenance never stops. As for testing, I knew the welds were ok, I would have to be blind to miss a crack (the ride is inspected daily when it is in service). The real part of testing the ride for me is the ultrasound testing of the shafts & pins, I don't have xray vision to see inside them. A probe is placed on the end of the shaft and sound waves are passed through the metal. An oscilloscope shows the length of the shaft with a high peak at the start and end. Any flaw in the shaft is shown by a peak between these points (brief explanation as the device also has to be accompanied by a trained technician who can interpret the results) . So testing done we re assembled the bobin. The radial arms were painted and attached again. I used a grinder with sanding pads to remove rust and flatten the old paint. When I was finished the floor of the ride was under a couple of mill of red paint flecks. Trig, give us a lend of your broom.

the picts show the bobin being removed, the top of the ride in kit form and the old floor frame as a pile of scrap (no jokes Blakey)

a fairground life

Jan 1987.
We were wintered at Bridgeton.Opposite the yard was an old dis-used building. It was about 70ft (22m) wide, 300ft (100m) long and high enough to get a lorry inside. Another showman had taken let of it to build a new bottom for his Dodgems ride inside. For some reason my father had taken a notion to start doing up the engines in his lorries. They were all 6 cylinder Gardeners. The first two were done the year before, both were Atkinsons with Gardener 180 (6LXB) engines. Did they go any better for it? I didn't notice any speed increase. Any how it was the turn of the Paratrooper lorry, an 1965 ERF with a Gardener 150 (6LX). We took the lorry inside and began to strip the engine. The building had no lighting inside or windows. It was so dark inside that the only pockets of light were from lights beside where people were working. There were several dotted about. We had a couple of halogens on trailing cables that we moved about with us like hand held torches. We had to lay under the engine to drop the sump and change the main bearings.The concrete floor was like ice, it chilled you to the bone.The floor was greasy and the whole place was damp and smelly. We de coked the engine, glaze busted the cylinder walls, new fuel injectors, gaskets, piston rings, big end shells. After about a week the lorry came out job done. Then we were all in bed with the flu (I had contracted jaundice also). Several more showmen were ill that month too. All had been in that building working, I'm convinced it was the cause.
Feb 1987
We start out early compared to most and were heading for Mayfield near Edinburgh. On the M8 near Shotts the lorry started to knock. It got worse very quickly and eventually my father had no option but to pull over on the hard shoulder. With no hesitation he and "b" drained the engine oil and dropped the sump to see what was a matter. One of the big ends had began to knock. They dropped it and found that the top shell had rolled around over the bottom one and both had ended up under the crank shaft. This probably happened when it was being built up again by us, but we had not noticed.When we put the big end on again and tightened the bolts, we had clamped both shells together on the bottom of the crank shaft instead of around it. So they rolled one shell to the top and tightened everything up again. My father had came out from under the lorry while "b" was under putting all the sump bolts in again. At that the police had stopped to see what was the problem. My father gave some excuse and said he would be going again shortly (this was all on the hard shoulder of the M8). I couldn't believe it, if the copper had looked under the lorry he would have seen "b" tightening up the sump!!! Any how after a short while the lorry was started again and we set off. A bit further along the motorway and we pulled into Harthill services.The lorry was still knocking and to try and minimise any further damage to the crankshaft we decided to tow it to Mayfield.
Uncle "j" came back from Mayfield with our we Foden( taken in earlier with the first trip). They towed the Paratrooper lorry with the wagon on the back from Harthill to Mayfield. The next day we built the ride up. Then we started on the engine. Sump down again. It was decided that the crankshaft was knackered and we needed another. My father and uncle "j" went off in search and luckily found one at the bus garage near Portobello (buses all used Gardener engines at the time). The head mechanic in there said we would have to take the whole engine out to change the crank shaft. Aye, that will be right!, we will be changing it in! That's impossible! he said.
Mayfield is on a hill, it is windy and cold, especially in February.This year was no exception and we even had an inch of snow for good measure. My brother had just returned from a holiday in Teneriffe, he was tanned and frozen to the bone as he felt the cold more.For the next week, working about 5 hours per afternoon, we worked on the engine. We started to remove the main bearing and big end caps. We took off the radiator and exhaust systems.We removed the gearbox,clutch & pressure plate and flywheel, we removed the front and rear engine mounts.By now the engine was sitting on three bottle jacks.We removed the cylinder heads so we could extract the pistons and con rods to create space above the crank shaft.Then we raised the engine up into the cab a few inches to create space between the crank shaft and front axle. Eventually four of us juggled and twisted it out of the engine,over the axles and out from under the lorry. Then we had to do it all in reverse again to fit the new one. We had did the impossible, but to be honest, every connection between lorry and engine had been removed, the lorry was just like a cover around the engine. My father did take great pleasure in telling the mechanic that we had done it though. The lorry went fine after that until a few years later, while I was driving it, a con rod went through the side of the crankcase...oops. So the moral of the story must be DONT FIX WHAT AINT BROKE!
The Gardener engines are 99% gone now, replaced by the mighty Cummins. I asked my dad once, what's the difference between a Gardener and a Cummins? He replied, by the time the Gardener decides if it is going to get up and go, the Cummins has already got up and went! Having driven both, the real difference is about 20 mph on any hill or 2.5 hours from Sauchie to Stranraer!

a fairground life

The floor is completely constructed now. A couple of days over my guestimate. It only takes a couple of seconds to cut a plug off, but several minutes to re wire one and that is what I have been doing all around the flooring. Now all new wiring is attached to the floor for the spotlighting and speakers around the ride. This is how the last couple of days have been spent.My wife came in last week, she said have you done the floor? It looks exactly the same! I thought (to myself of course) if it didn't look the same then It would have been done wrong! "r" has been helping out at night after his uni classes. "b" has been there working along side me everyday. He is in every morning just after 8am, nearly a full hour before me. The new handrails are started by way of all the steel being cut to size.It will only take a day to weld them all up. Then we will have to fit them. I hope to get the ride stripped for NDT testing this week too. When all the mechanical stuff is finished we will start painting.