a fairground life (twisting the years away)

The Twist.
I speak often about the old paratrooper but this is not the only older ride we had. We needed another ride. The new "Sizzler" type twist was on the go, but we could never afford one of those. So In 1987 we purchased an old twist ride from another Scottish showman, it was a Jacksons (1966) make. It was an odd design for this type of ride (one of only two built I think) as the whole ride ran on a track around the outside and it had a waltzer centre instead of a pole. Not surprising when you remember Jacksons were better known for Arks (speedways) and Waltzers. The ride had an aluminium floor of over 180 wedge shaped pieces. They started small in the centre and got larger as they moved out. The ride had no top arms only three broad bottom arms that had waltzer/ark type wheels on them. One of these wheels was connected to a worm drive and this drove the cars around on the end of each arm. The centre was a waltzer drive but with no paybox on top. It all packed into an 8 wheel Atkinson Borderer (split windscreen, old N reg) and Ford D series (old M reg). We took possession of the ride at Dunfermline in late October. It was quite heavy to erect and took a while. All the pieces had to be lifted into the lorry on a gib arm with chain block. So we decided to trailer mount it that winter. This would mean that much of the ride would be fold up.
We went to an engineer that my father had used to fabricate our fold up arcade a few years before.We would help out so as to keep labour costs down. They made a chassis first then we fitted the centre (drive) into it. Next a new floor frame was made for us to fit the existing aluminium floor to. The steel frame was from 50 x 50 x 3 box section. The floor was in 24 wedge sections divided by concentric rings. EVERY cut (hundreds) was made by hand using a hacksaw!!! How stupid were we? The cuts were so off square that it took the welder longer to fill the gaps than weld the joins! After the frame was made the hydraulics were fitted to raise it for travelling. Next we fitted the old aluminium sheets. To do this we removed all the aluminium spars and riveted the sheets to the frame. All the ally spars (50mm C section) were scrapped. The steel track was welded into position and the handrails fitted. A new control box was fitted to the rear of the trailer on runners so that it could slide in for travelling. The cars all packed on the arms in the centre of the truck. The floors folded up, wheels under and it just looked like a 40ft trailer. It knocked at least 3 hours off a build up or pull down. Job done in about three months. The ride was mechanically sound but the old tin clad cars were too heavy and old fashioned looking. So in 1995 we made new car frames (we bought a chop saw) , finished them with moulded metal flake fibreglass skins and seats (were getting cleverer too) and new handrail inserts . The ride looked a lot better, but nowhere near the look of a Sizzler Twist. So in 1997 it was back to the drawing board. We decided to do away with the waltzer center and track drive. Basically we done away with the top of the ride. We put in a slew ring centre with hydraulic drive, pole with neon lighting, new top and bottom arms, new stainless steel lighting panels for the top arms. It was a total re build. Most of the fabrication was from profile cut steel plates. I picked it up in a small lorry. When I got to the yard I said to my dad-"look a twist ride in flat pack!" All the welder had to do was join it together. It took a couple of months to do the conversion and the ride worked really well, more importantly it looked even better! Before we started out the river came up behind the yard and flooded where the twist was erected. The water got into the old 110v drive motor (now attached to a hydraulic pump) and not long after it burnt out. So by about the second fair that year we had changed to 3ph 415v. The ride worked fine for the next few years. Not finished there, it was still a 40ft draw bar trailer, so in 2002 we made it into a swan neck articulated trailer with new larger GRP panelled control box fitted, extra lighting, a sign and another new hydraulic drive with reverse motion. The ride looked even better, but not finished there in 2005 it was sold to an Irish showman shortly after my brother took possession of his brand new Twister ride. It is the bees knees. Is there a lesson here?? Maybe so, nearly twenty years of work, three rebuilds and conversions then finally replaced by a new Twister- basically the ride we wanted in the first place, perhaps it would have been cheaper to buy the new one in the first place?

The photos show the new twist and our old twist version 3.

P.S. blew a pipe off the miami ride today, I must be getting used to breaking down now as I nearly forgot to post it. That is worrying! Had a spare though so "r" had it up and running again in 30 mins. Only lost 20 lt of oil has he spotted the problem as the ride was ending its cycle but it will still take a bit of cleaning up (sigh)