a fairground life (heart and lungs of a ride)

Last Wednesday we packed up. Two of the crew came from Falkirk to give us a hand. It was just after 6pm when we started and all the rides were down before 10pm. The next morning we took the Miami and show over into the shed. "R" reversed the ride through the doors and into its position without too much trouble, in fact it was easier than I thought it was going to be. We headed straight back to pick up the Skydiver and Dropzone to take them to Stirling. The trip out was fine and we dropped the rides off and headed back to Glasgow, but the M80 was chocca now and it took us two hours to do the 26 mile return trip. The next morning we were up and into the shed. The plan was to get the two hydraulic motors and the pump off the ride so I could take them for servicing. So "BK" removed the grease guards, "r" removed the pipes and I removed the pinions. A regular little production line. Sure enough it wasn't too long and the crane was brought up to lift out the first motor. "R" got a little ahead of himself and removed too many mounting bolts before attaching the crane to the motor's lifting eye. The result was that the last bolt sheared off and the motor literally fell out!! Luckily it jammed on a cross stay before it fell to the deck. "R" was lucky it didn't fall on him. So we quickly attached the crane and lowered the motor out. Ironically, I was worried that we would not be able to get that particular one out and it had fell out it's self. So not dwelling on the possible consequences of that near disaster we quickly removed the next motor. That done we began to remove the pump from under the rides chassis. It too was a large lump and we put a trolley jack under it to take the weight as we removed the last mounting bolt. We lowered the jack and when the pump was about 6" (150mm) from the floor we rolled it off and slid it out from under the ride.

Now all we had to do was put them on the pick up. Not wanting to risk damaging the pickup floor, we put a sheet of 3/4 ply down first. We lifted on the first motor. The pick up sat down a bit. We lifted on the second motor. The pick up sat down even more. We lifted on the pump and the pick up looked like the a**e was dragging out of it! Any way, not having too many transport options, we strapped them off ready for the journey to the hydraulic engineers. I wasn't too worried, it was only a short trip down London Rd, followed by the M74,A69,A1,A17 to Norwich where they would be serviced (420m). So mission accomplished for the day we knocked off early. The heart and lungs of the ride had been removed.

Friday was a terrible day.

Saturday we started on other jobs around the ride. We removed all the paybox lights, "r" fabricated a couple of new panel frames as the old ones were rotten (I told "BK" to give them a thick coat of paint to hold them together as "r" is still novice status on the welder). Sunday evening Mrs showman and I set off with the motors. She popped into Morrisons to get some refreshments for the journey. When she came out she had a weeks worth of shopping! In my best sarcastic tone I calmly asked her, "What part of-this pick up can't carry any more weight, did she not understand"? We stopped off at Newcastle for the night to visit "DT". Monday morning at 6am I set off to complete the journey to Norwich. I couldn't believe that it had snowed all through the night. I took my time on the roads because of the weather and the weight on the pick up. I never went over 60 mph in fear the tyres would blow out. I know the pickup is rated for 1000 kg and I must have had a least 800 kg on it. Six hours later I arrived at the engineers. We off loaded the motors and pump using a pallet hoist. The place was very small and I could not see any work taking place. I was a bit concerned until I spotted another identical pump and motor stripped down in the place. At least there was evidence that they could do what they said they could. It was well after 1pm now and I headed back to Newcastle to pick up Mrs Showman. I could get the foot down now and arrived there just after 6pm. My backside was numb. I had a quick look around the large fair there and DT's new booster before heading back to bonnie Scotland.It was a pity that they had a poor turn out at the fair.

The last few days have been spent on wiring , scraping, cleaning and painting. We have plenty to do before we put the motors and pump back on. Just as well they are on a 3-4 week turn around.I want the ride all finished so that when we put them back on its job done. I have even put the light caps into the dishwasher to clean them up.