a fairground life (Bellshill revived)

Bellshill time again, and as is the bane of any street fair-alterations had been carried out from last year. The old pavement slabs were removed and replaced with ones containing marble chips. The old cast iron bollards were removed and replaced with stainless steel ones, new stainless deck chairs were added and finally all new lamp posts. On top of that the kerbstones were replaced with fancy white granite ones and the pavement was widened about 3ft (1m). Well the place looked a million dollars and that was the problem- the risk of damage to the new works. We had to lay sheets of ply down to protect the slabs while we set the rides. That was after we turned them up a side street and reversed them 300yrd along the road, through a chicane and jackknifed onto the plot. That was the miami set, now we had to repeat it for the DZ. It was a little after 6pm when we got to the street but it was well after 8pm before the two rides were set. "r" and I got stuck into the DZ rapid style, you can imagine how it was holding everyone else up as they waited for us to swing the tower and raise it out of the way. After that the pressure seemed off, all we had to do was the miami and then find a plot for the water lasers. The new street furniture had resulted in a re-setting of the fairs layout and the usual plots had been used to accommodate other displaced equipment. Three new additions to the fair this year are the speed Buzz, Galaxy Trabant and AP's recently acquired Mirror Maze. In fact the fair looked well, new tackle,new layout and new pavements what else could one want? Maybe sunshine? It seemed a long day and at 11pm we were finally done and headed home. I'll be there tomorrow while "r" heads of to Drymen show.

a fairground life

Things have been slightly busy around here the last week or so, in fact I had to read the blog to see where I had left off last time.

While the DZ sat in the park at Dunbarton awaiting the pipe bands event, "r" and I organised the skydiver for Cupar Agricultural show. We headed up there on a gloriously hot Friday afternoon, "r" in the EC10 and me following with the L200 and Hobby caravan. I was only about 10 mins behind him, but we took different routes, him right into the town centre via the A914 and me through Freuchie on the A91. This meant I arrived before him. I called to see where he was and he had missed the turn onto the A913 leading to the farmers field. So I waited patiently while he turned around and made his way back. He made his turn in Wiseman's Dairies and about 5mins later arrived at the field. It was a good job I stood at the road side cos he said he would have missed that too. Any way crossing the baked soil we go on site, the ground had a slight slope but we got set on the plot no problems. I positioned the Hobby caravan and we set to building up. It took us about 5 hours, stopping for some lunch (beef burgers), a blether to the organiser, a drink of juice etc etc. Well it was sweltering heat. The miami arrived of JW's and it got stuck! It must be those wee wheels it has. After a couple of shunts he finally got set too.Around 7pm "r" headed off back to Glasgow as he was doing the Dunbarton gig in the morning with the DZ. Mrs Showmen arrived soon after and being the social person she is, it wasn't long before we were in company drinking a few glasses of adult refreshments. One thing about being in a field, when it's dark it's dark and with no electricity the party was over around 11pm, heading back to the Hobby it was supper time (beefburgers). The next day we opened at 11am (after more beefburgers for breaky) in even more blistering sunshine, the event was well set out over two fields with a third one for car parking. At 3pm the crew arrived ready for the pull down. The day went off without a hitch and we had a good pulldown, the only thing was that whilst picking up the packing around the ride I noticed something unusual. There hanging by two hoses was a brake chamber, the case had rotted around the mounting bolts and the pressure of braking had finished it off. Saturday evening in a field didn't appeal to me so I tied it up with a bit of rope and set sail homeward bound.On the way down, I called "r" and he was also heading for the yard. He had gotten away from Dunbarton fine and one of his pals was driving his pick up for him. The next morning in the yard we had a look at the axle. It was the rear of two axles and the other chamber was on its last legs too. It must be the spray from the axle in front that has done the damage as the front two chambers were fine. So we stripped them off in preparation for fitting new parts in the morning. While doing this we decided to fit two new shockers too. The next morning I picked up the two chambers and searched through the warehouse to find a couple of shockers to fit. However it turned out that the new chambers were metric and I had to get parts to convert them to imperial. Then the shockers were too short and I searched the warehouse again to find another pair that were 75mm longer. After 4 trips (8 if you count returns) back and forward to the supplier I finally got all the parts needed. After a few hours the job was done, two new chambers and a pair of shock absorbers, won't VOSA be pleased!

This morning we headed off to Drymen to build up the skydiver, totally opposite of last year the ground was firm and we drove right on.There was a faint smell of ferodo so the brakes must be working well. We erected the ride ASAP as we wanted to get the floors painted. So 10 ltrs of aluminium paint later (and 50 litres of sweat) the job was a goodun!

I hope the weather lasts until we get back out of the field.

the pict is a small selection of the vintage tractor display at Cupar Show.

a fairground life

Coatbridge went off without a hitch, the weather was almost totally dry for the two weeks. The new location of the fair seemed to make a real difference as there were more families in the park and less "wildlife". Biz was slightly better than two years ago and that is a first for this season. Sunday at 5pm the fair began to pull down. The crew had arrived on time and at 7:06 pm the skydiver, dropzone and show were all packed up. The dodgem truck was having trouble moving about so we towed it onto the path again with the six wheeler. Next we coupled up the DZ and spun it 180 degrees to face the gate. "r" took it away immediately so it would not block the path (only route in or out of the fair) and I followed with the Hobby caravan. We were at the yard about 30 mins later and shunted the loads in. Returning to CB we laid out the sheets of ply to make a roadway for the skydiver. The lorry picked away and made it to the path no problem. I took this away while "r" picked up the ply and packed it onto the pick up. Returning to the yard Blakey gave me a hand by guiding me through the gate. Its not as easy as it used to be as a cul-de-sac we used to turn the vehicles in has been blocked, so now we have to reverse in from the road on the jack knife. It took several shunts but we finally made it. "r" wasn't long behind and at 10 pm it was job done and back to the house for supper. So we have till Thursday before we move again, or so I thought. "r" and I returned to CB this morning to help take down the security fence, but when we arrived at 10am it was all packed away, what can I say-It's all in the timing! In the park were about a dozen coppers and two police range rovers, there was no trouble, it was an anti crime photo shoot. If there were that many coppers about all the time they wouldn't need an anti crime photo shoot!!!! Next we went to the yard to sort out some stalls for a coming event. It was then that the phone rang and we got the information that we were getting into the next gaff early, in fact right away. Taking advantage of this we got the DZ ready to move. We had to juggle the loads again as the yard was tight and if we had known we would be getting in early we could have put them in accordingly the night before. We also had to swap a couple of lorries over so the dz had a generator. For the first time the Foden took this ride. We arrived on site about 2:30 pm in the park. The ground was firm and we pulled onto the marked plot and began to build up. It was sunny and we built up fully in a couple of hours. That will be the ride there until it opens Saturday (only) for the pipe band championships.

a fairground life (in the park)

Tuesday we went over to see the layout of Coatbridge. The fair has been moved into the park as the carpark previously used is not available. There is a good path down into the park but we would have to leave this to get onto our grassed plots. The lessee asked everyone to bring sheets of ply to minimise the risk of damaging the park. No doubt this was essential as a council official was present taking photos of the area before we even pulled on. So Wednesday at 6am "r" and I set sail with the Dropzone and skydiver. We were onsite at 6:30am and located our plots. Then strategically placing our sheets of ply we attempted to site the skydiver. We got it almost lined up and moving the ply several times we did get it set for 7:15am with zero damage. Next we set the DZ, this was a bit easier as it was closer to the path, we just reversed it onto the plot and only needed 2 sheets of ply to do this. At 8:10am we returned to the house for breakfast before taking over the Hobby caravan. At this we received a call asking if we could give a tow to the lessee who had stuck his dodgem truck. So a little after 10am we were back and towed him onto the path. "r" give him stick for not having ply under his lorry wheels, a classic case of "do as I say not as I do"! We started to build up and for 4pm we had all the kit setup and tried out. We erected part of the security fence around our plots before returning home for tea. The next day we opened at 6:30pm and the DZ would not go, for 2 hours we tried all the usual tricks with no avail, then we flicked all the contactors by hand and tried it again. This time it went, so I guess it was a sticky solenoid (I hope it works OK tonight). At that the rain came down in torrents and 30mins later we were closed. I've been going to Coatbridge on and off all my life. I even went to school here. I can recall 7 fairground sites around the town and in all those last 40 years this is only the second time I have operated on grass, every other fair was on waste land with boulders under foot. I can remember my mother cursing the black dust covering everything including the carpet. It does seem more pleasant being in the park, hopefully it will encourage more families out. There was a debut here for a young showman who opened his recently acquired rock o plane. It is very tidy with plenty of lighting, I'm sure it will serve him well. The pict is a small section of the fair.