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.