a fairground life(back from the wilderness)

Its raining again, my heads is splitting as I'm suffering from a head cold. No doubt from the wet pull down at St Andrews, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Rewind back to BOA Games.....

Sunday morning was dry but dull and overcast. The crew- "s" and "s" arrived before opening so we were all set. At 1pm the fair opened and although dry there were not the numbers of previous years. Perhaps the music festival at Balloch or Inverkeithing games had an effect? Probably not, I think people are tightening their belts and days out are the first things to go. We slowly pegged away all day and at 8:35 pm I noticed that the set (generator) was starting to smoke a little. This is the first sign that the filter would need changed and usually meant within the next half hour. I looked at the time and decided to leave it, we would be closed at 9pm and by the time I changed the filter it would be closing time anyway. So at 9pm prompt "s" and I wired into the DZ. We lowered the pole first, right across the top of the frogs, I was a bit worried that they would forget the pole was there and lift their cars, causing some damage, but this didn't happen. We had to get the pole down and folded away quickly cos if not, the frogs would be in our way when they raised their arms. For 11pm the DZ was finished and we walked down to the Miami. "r" was just finished the skydiver and came over as I was removing the weights from the miami. At this I left him to it and went to finish the show off. About 30 mins later "r" came over. He said "ho! you done it again, one weight up and one weight down!" I had forgotten to remove 1 bolt from a weight, this meant that when they were lowered for travelling one had stayed upright. "r" had to build part of the maimi up again to rectify the problem. He was not best pleased, worst was this is the second time I've done this, must be dementia or something. At that the rain began to hammer down. I finished the show off and "r" run the crew home. The rest would be done the next morning.

The next morning and we couple up the rides. We took the show and skydiver to Stirling for parking then the maimi to Glasgow to park. Next we were off to pastures new- Muir of Ord. One hundred and fifty four miles later we pulled onto the site of the Black Isle show with the DZ. I had never been here before but as tales go it used to be one of the best gaffs in the country with opening hours from 11am right through to 4am (mid eighties). Now there have been a few changes, the fair opens around 12  noon until 11:30 pm. The hours were reduced due to noise and the relocation of the dancing venue in the showground itself. The ground was marked out before arrival and we had the DZ erected for 8pm. The Hobby caravan was set along the back of where the market traders would be going. It is a big fair with 12 large rides, a funhouse and enough side stuff and centres to en circle the whole fair. Just to the rear of the fair is the very large area of the show.

Tuesday was a bit of an easy day, we washed the ride and fitted some new spot lights. Wednesday and the market traders arrive on site. Unfortunately for us one trader needed some extra room for a vehicle so we move the Hobby and "r"s trailer to accommodate him. He was thankful and gave me a free pair of working boots from his stall! The show was impressive with exhibits that I had never seen at other shows-hot tubs , lorries, hiabs, tractors,JCB's,power tools, plasma cutter demonstrations and agricultural machines that fed hole trees in at one end and produced planks of timber out the other and many more too numerous to mention.There was enough plant and machinery at that show to build a city and that's no exaggeration. That night we opened at 6pm (preview night for the show) and the rain came on heavy all night. During the first run cycle "r" noticed a noise on the ride. Sure enough there was a rumble and I said to him jokingly-"better hope that's not a ball race or we're f*@$%d!". The rain was really heavy now and we only had a few more rides that night and closed for 10pm. The next day was the gaff. It was dry with bright spells and just before noon we opened the DZ. Oh No! that noise was back and it WAS a ballrace! "r" traced it to one of the top pulleys on the ram that guide the wire ropes to raise the carriage. We got the ride schematics out and found a diagram, the pulleys have 2 races in each. There was no grease hole as they were sealed and ran until end of life, which unfortunately for me was right now. While we were investigating further, "d" got on the phone and tracked down some races at Bearing Services in Inverness. Not having spares and not being able to lower the pole to change the race anyway, there was only one course of action to keep opened and salvage any earnings. I got a can of spray grease with a straw attached. Through the small gap between the pulley and mounting plate I sprayed the grease into where the race would be. We ran the ride- no noise! So I sent "r" to Inverness to get new ballraces, the traffic in and out of the show was so great that it took over 3 hours, but he got 4 races. In the meantime we ran the ride half loaded and I sprayed in grease every hour or so. We got the day over and closed at the back of 11pm, the thing is that we were due to open at a private hire on Saturday where I knew the ride would work hard for 6 hours! What would we do? Should I try to fix the problem on site or change to the skydiver for the hire? 

Friday morning at 7am we leave to go to the hire venue at East Kilbride. I check the lorry for oil,water and diesel and set sail. The journey was 198 miles and I wanted to get onsite early to tackle the ball race problem. As I leave I call "m" in Glasgow with a shopping list of items- 1m of  24mm threaded rod, 4 nuts ,4 washers, 3/4 in chisel, 1in chisel. "r" has instructions to stop at Stirling on the way down and get the chopsaw, 9 in grinder and cutting blade, electric drill, extension cable,big socket set,welder and a 600mm length of 80mm diameter steel pipe that are all in the skydiver tool box. A few hours later and I'm nearly at the park in East Kilbride, only about 1/2 a mile to go. Then the lorry starts to die, instantly I guess- I've ran out of fuel, I was sure that 1/3 a tank would be enough! I pull into a bus stop on the dual carriage way, I dip the tank- bone dry. There is a garage directly across the carriageway but I have no diesel pump or 5 gallon drum so I phone "m" for a mayday call out. He arrived about 15 minutes later with a can. I said,"did you not fill it up, there's only about 2 gallon in it?" He replies " its derv in it, clean as a whistle, you only need a gallon to get off the road". So I start to pump it in, after a few pumps I think "this diesel is too clean", that's because it was pure water!!! A few choice words later I had poured out the remainder on the verge- all pure water!! This means I had pumped in about a gallon of water into the tank!! Ok, dont panic we will just drain the tank- wrong! on inspection there is no drain cock on this lorry. Ok, I will walk across the dual carriageway with the can into the garage and fill it with 25 ltrs of derv. After dodging the traffic I walk onto the forecourt and lift out a nozzle. The lady comes out and informs me that she wont sell me fuel. Why not? I ask. That is not a petrol can, she replies. I explain to her the whole situation of being out of fuel and am desperate to get off the side of the road, anyway its diesel that I want and this is a proper 25 litre drum with a sealed lid. NO GO, so I thank her very much in my best sarcastic voice. Stupid woman!, if that would have been a bloke I'm sure he would have sold me the fuel. So I dodge back across the 4 lanes of traffic again, get into "m"s car and drive 2 miles to another garage and get diesel in the same supposedly unsafe can, then drive back again. Arghh all because of a stupid woman! Anyhow I'm in a hurry now so I decide not to pump the diesel. We get a nearby road cone and use it as a funnel and pour in the fuel in a few seconds. I start the lorry up and pull out the bus stop. Ten yards later we are stopped again, that's how long it took the gallon of water to reach the fuel filter. So I don't tip the cab, I'm in a hurry as we have blocked one lane of the carriageway, I crawl in behind the passenger side front wheel and using a hammer and chisel knock off the old filter. It was full of crystal clear water, I spin on the new one (after filling it with gas oil out the generator filter bottle as I had no derv left) jumped in the cab and spun the engine and spun it and spun it. Eventually it spluttered and fluttered to life and one and a half hours later I finally completed that half mile into the park. "r" arrived soon after and we started to erect the ride right away. It was about 2pm and we had the bottom of the ride levelled and the floors out. It was now time to tackle the ballrace. The pole is down so the top of the ram is clear, there is on weight on the ropes but to extract the pin from the pulley we will need to remove the side power rails (bands), cut out a section of plate that supports them to get access to the pin. "r" has another plan- lets activate the ram as if on a ride cycle, when it raises up it will clear those obstructions and we can get access to the pin straight away. That is a good idea but what if the ram shoots out at warp speed and the whole lot topples over because there is no support for it from the tower guides? "Just be quick on the emergency stop", he said.

I switch on the pump and lo and behold the ram begins to rise up very very slowly. This is due to the system having a slow low pressure feed to take the slack out the ropes before a ride cycle starting. After about a minute it had cleared all the obstructions and we got right to work. A bit of luck at last. While r removed the retaining nut, I used m's shopping list of items to make a threaded extractor. I welded one of the 24mm nuts to the end of the pin, threaded in the rod, slid over the capped 80 mm tube with hole burned in it, put on 2 washers and another 24mm nut and began to wind it tight using a 14" shifter. Wind, wind,wind and the capped plate 6mm thick begins to cave in! wind wind wind and the nut has too much pressure to turn any more by hand! We place a length of tube over the end of the spanner, it is make or break time- either the pin begins to move or the nut strips off- hard wind, hard wind and yeehaa! the pin slowly begins to draw out. A few minutes later and the pulley is removed. One ballrace is like new but the other is totally destroyed and crumbled into dozens of pieces. We replace both of the ball races and set about putting it all back together. Then we erected the rest of the ride and test ran it. It was now 6pm, time to go and fetch in the miami ride in from Glasgow. The overnight security arrive just as we are leaving. It was after 8pm when we got back again. The gate was tight to get in and the maimi just makes it through. We set it and level the truck, we are too tired to finish it off and decide to do it in the morning before the gig starts up at noon.

Saturday morning and its raining again. We do the corporate gig and the DZ works well all day at capacity. At 6pm we finish and start to pull down while my wife and m take the trailers onto the next fair. RC stays on and helps "r" with the DZ ( many thanks to him), while I do the miami. It was 8pm when we reversed the miami out of the gate and at that the heavens open and it is torrential rain. I'm in the maimi and "r" is in the DZ with the EC10 twin splitter. He has never driven this on the road before, so I'm worried about the clutch. We set off and the rain is horrendous. I notice the battery light glowing on the dash, maybe the fan belt has come off? If so then it wont be long until the engine starts to boil. I ease up a bit and the light goes out, it must have just been the road spray that was making the belt slip. Gingerly I carry on keeping an eye on the temperature gauge. The rain is still heavy and we head off for St Andrews. A few minutes later and the phone rings, it was "r" before I could worry about what was possibly wrong he says-"dont worry about me this gearbox is a doddle!" After about 45 mins we are over the forth road bridge, I phone Blakey for some directions just to confirm my thoughts. The rain is really heavy again and at the front of the Deer Farm near Cupar the road is flooded right across about 18 inches deep. The lorry struggles through the water as if sinking into mud and as it clears the other side I feel it pull away again. A few miles along and we go through Freukie then onto Cupar. The main street in Cupar is flooding, all the drains are coming up and the street is literally running like a river. Carefully we continue onto St Andrews were we park the Dz and Miami in the large lay by across from the old course hotel. Enough for today, bed time.

St Andrews is a chartered street fair and there seems to be some controversy regarding its future. The council was having market research done on the viability of the fair along with opinion poles. The council even had a questionnaire for the showmen, which I completed eagerly. There was a question that even asked my earnings and I completed this honestly. Another showman said that this would be a ploy for increasing the rent or just being nosey. I said maybe so, but if you say tuppence ha'penny then you are making the fair worth nothing and then the council will say that it does not matter if the fair is lost because it was not worth anything anyway! The other showman did see my point. What we must remember is that this fair is lucrative for the showmen and earnings from this strong fair would carry showmen through other weaker fairs that would maybe die out. When we attended last year, both DZs in Scotland were here, a sort of twin towers. This year there would only be one as the other was sold off to Malaysia. On Sunday at 6pm we got access onto Market Street. It was wacky races as every one squeezes along the street, some times in opposite directions to get onto their plots. This year we are going to build the DZ forward another 5ft. This means that the tower ball will not miss the tree and we will also need to pipe the fire hydrant that we will be covering. It takes a few minutes longer to build up due to removing the ball, swinging the tower around and then re attaching the ball whilst standing on top of the EC10 unit, but the effort it worth it as we will not need to wait on pull down night for the Superbob to move off before we can start. Just after 9pm we head off for a pint then home for midnight. Monday morning and the fire brigade drive down the front of the rides on market street to ensure the fire passage is adequate. The chief came back to inspect our piping of the hydrant and make sure his crew would have access to it. I had inserted the stand pipe, attached an extension hose, run it to the edge of the ride and placed the Toby key in position so that the water only needed to be turned on. At night when we closed, I raised a section off the DZ floor to make it easier for access if required by the fire crew. "r" said "there is not much chance of the machines going on fire when we are closed". I said to him, its not the machines they are worried about, its all these buildings around us. Monday was better than last year for us biz wise, Tuesday was slightly better but it rained heavy after teatime, last year it was torrential all day. The freak out was precisely positioned to miss the nearby houses as it swung. It was a neat fit and many people watched from the back just to see how close. It must have been an added thrill for the riders.We started to pull down at 11pm on Tuesday night and at 12:30pm just as we were finishing off it came down torrential again and soaked me through to the skin (hence my cold now). The rain hammered down all night and I said to my wife at 2am- we will be lucky to get back to Cupar if the roads flood. I was meant to attend a funday in Cupar on Thursday. It had been cancelled due to flooding. So we will have to go directly to our next gaff- Crieff highland games, but to get there we couldn't go through Cupar as the road was closed due to flooding and the police directed me via Leuchars, over the Tay bridge and through Dundee, which was 5 miles longer, but is probably quicker and is certainly a better road. So into Crieff to set up for the games on Sunday. This would have been my 6th place in 15 days, but since Cupar funday was cancelled it will only be five now. I'm not too bothered because I am tired and my head is still pounding. We arrive with the DZ , Miami and trailers. As soon as they are set we head off to Stirling to pick up the show, my bro's slide and the Skydiver. Now the EC12 had been overheating when pulling the skydiver (28t) but fine on the DZ (15t) so to save any problem we take the EC10 from under the DZ back for the skydiver and let the EC12 go solo. So M takes the EC12, R takes the Skydiver (his first trip) with the EC10 and I take the show (C series) towing slide on drawbar. The return trip was fine and "r" had a twisty road for his first shot on the skydiver as we went across country via Braco to Crieff. The next day we got everything set on site and began to build up. We did the show and skydiver that day but only levelled the DZ as we stopped at 6pm. The next morning I completed the Miami. I left the DZ to last as I wanted to remove the bottom pulleys to check the ballraces. I was sure one was away,  but when we removed it they were both like new. I suppose that was a good thing but I couldn't help feel like I had wasted my time. Just at that the rain came on heavy and I called it a day as I was feeling unwell (went in and started to write this blog). The next day (Sat) R finished the DZ and I decided to have a go at fixing the EC12 over heating problem. I raised the cab and started the engine, the viscous fan seemed lazy. I could stop it by pressing a piece of timber against it, even when the engine was at full revs. I could even push it in the opposite direction. I manufactured two brackets to fasten to it to lock the fan up. When I started the engine the air flow was like standing behind a Spitfire! Next I took out the thermostats to give the water full flow from start up. We would find out if I had any success on Monday. Sunday was dry but overcast. Biz was up to par and apart from one small shower about 2pm it stayed dry. At 4pm the three rides went dark! The 200kva set needed the filter changed. Whith in 3 minutes everything was up and running again.The crew had arrived earlier to help and we started to pull down at 6pm. Everything was ready for the road by 9pm, not bad when you think it took us three days to set it all up. At that it started to rain again. I took the show and slide away that night to Dunkeld. I had only done five miles when I felt the engine die. I knew it was the fuel filter and in my haste to change it, I forgot to unlock the cab before attempting to raise it. Luckily I did not bust a hydraulic pipe. When I did get the cab up I just managed to change the filter as the last few rays of sunlight faded over the horizon. We were back at Crieff and into kip for 11:30pm. The next morning it was miami to Dundee to park while waiting for a coming event then back to shift the skydiver. I had planed several stopping places if the lorry was going to boil. I set off with one eye on the road and the other on the temperature gauge. There are a few pulls out of Crieff, especially the hill through the town. The lorry climbed up and out, all the way to Dunkeld about 28 miles and the temp dial hardly moved above quarter. I would have to call that a success but how long it will last is anybodies guess. Back to Crieff again for the last load, the DZ to Irvine. I drove out the gate, turned right and my wife tooted me. I had gone the wrong way! I suppose after taking the other 3 trips that way it was easy done. Luckily I managed to get turned easily and headed back out on the Braco road this time. A couple of hours later we pulled onto the Links at Irvine. Job done for this day.

The photos and digi clips are from my travels. I would have posted sooner but Blakey has changed his router with security and other limitations that have hindered me.