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.