a fairground life

Sunday afternoon, "r" and I head back to WL to pick up the DZ and two touring caravans to take them to Selkirk. We will have to leave the Miami for a second trip as there aren't enough drivers. We pick up the water hoses etc and couple the trailers ready to leave, but when we try to start the DZ lorry- nothing. I mean nothing, not even a groan from the starter to indicate a flat battery, no dash lights, no ignition click, nil , nada , zilch, zero, squat, absolutely nothing! We tried to bridge the battery isolator incase it had failed, we tried to bridge the battery bridge incase it was faulty, we put on the booster starter too- still nothing, as if there were no electrics at all on the vehicle. So by now I reckon this problem will be very simple or impossible. I started by removing the control panel and looking for jumped circuit breakers-none. Next I started checking all the fuses (all ok) and finally I messed around with a big lump that was the main solenoid/contactor unit-at that everything sprung to life, lights,buzzers etc. So simple it was (LUCKILY, as I was running out of thing to fiddle with) and at that we started the engine. I think it was just corrosion on a small 5A fuse on the solenoid. We set off for Selkirk and arrived on the lovely Victoria Park 90mins later. The Fair was already marked out and we set the DZ on its plot. The trailer was set and the power put on then "r", "bj" (who was getting a lift with us) returned to WL for the next loads. On our return we stopped at mickydee's for take out lunch. Just before arriving at WL I got a call to say the skydiver was tripping an RCCB on the switch board, I though I was going to have to go there to fix it but by the time we arrived at WL my father in law had solved the problem. So "r" set off in the Foden & miami, bj in his car and me following with the L200. This time when we got back to Selkirk we set the miami and started to build the DZ right away. This was so that we didn't have to worry about holding anyone back in the morning. It was nearly 9pm now and the DZ was levelled with the tower swung around ready to be raised in the morning.

Monday morning about noon we started to setup, we must have been tired from the day before because we didn't wake up til after 11am. It was a lovely sunny day and we spent all afternoon finishing off the two rides. That night we headed over to Hawick for 9pm to help the family move to Selkirk.

Thursday was nice weather wise, in fact the whole week was how I remember summers used to be (way back when), dry and hot weeks at a time. Although biz was nothing special we did knock out a turn. Friday was similar but at night the local bevvy boys were drinking their capacity and then some. Saturday was fine too, although this fair is probably unique in the fact that there is no Saturday afternoon. The fair didn't open until after 3pm and that was only to burn fuel. It was well after 7pm before any weight of people turned out, however they did hang around until 9pm. The bevvy crew were out in force again with as many bottles of "buckie" I have seen in a long time (most other local authorities have stamped down on drinking in public). Some had drunk so much that they were spewing up pure red coloured buckfast and then drinking on again. At 11pm when the fair did close this lead to some problems and the Police had to be called to clear the fair. This resulted in retaliation and we were awoken at 2,3 and 4am by some idiots throwing missiles at the caravans.

Sunday I was back at BI to do some maintenance on the skydiver namely adjust a limit switch, grease up the ride and replace a solenoid coil.Then back to the house, it was good to be back and get a proper hot shower instead of the tricklings of the caravans one.

Monday I had a couple of jobs to do before heading back to Selkirk via BI. It was well after 6pm when we arrived. Not much to speak of before we closed at 8:50pm. "r" and I had the two rides down and away for 11pm. Again the DZ lorry needed a fiddle with that solenoid, so I better remember to have a look at it this week.

a fairground life

Monday morning and a few minutes before 10am we start all over again. The crew arrived on time and we started by uncoupling all the rides and setting the lorries. While "r","g" and "s" built up the skydiver, I did the miami. It was around noon when these two rides were nearly finished, although I had to find a 150mm x 12mm dia bolt for the miami that had sheared during erection the previous week. It was one of three that secured a ram for raising the back flash. To take no chances I ran out to Homebase near Ikea to find a replacement. They only had 10mm dia size but this would do to get the flash raised. When I returned we finished off the miami and the DZ. So for 4pm the job was done again ready for opening the next night. At that the heavens opened. Tuesday I left at 7am to return to Glasgow, "r" had the dentist and a shopping list of items including that 12mm dia bolt. I was otherwise engaged attending my duties as a committee man. It was around 7pm by the time we got bak to WL and the fair was already open (due to the efforts of Blakey and Tattoo). Wednesday night and the DZ started to mess around, stopping halfway up, an intermittent fault. Thursday and it was the same. We tried brushes, contactors, limit switches etc etc but it still stopped intermittently at the same point.So "r" made several calls to the manufacturer for information. Friday and we though we had it going fine, we had cleaned the bands and measured the control loop voltage ranging from 19.2v-21v DC (less than 19v and the computer registers a fault and shuts the ride down), but then it messed about again.That night I was at the pie and pea's in the marquee so missed the action. Saturday morning we got our thinking caps on and worked through the problem- if it was a contactor it wouldn't stick at the exact same place as it would probably fail randomly resulting in different positions of the ride. The calls to Italy told us that there was nothing in that error code loop other than a circuit, so it could not be a component problem ie valve,relay etc. So we got 10m of seven core cable, went to the top of the tower and connected it to the bands, then we ran it down the trunking and connected it to the next set of bands below the hinge point. This made a ring circuit and bypassed the section of wiring that folds during setup/dismantling. All this took nearly 3 hours to do and at 1:30pm we just finished in time for opening. For the next hour we watched with bated breath every time the ride passed the "sticky" point. After two hours everything seemed OK, but the DZ stopped again once more, thankfully we think it was just a brush as "r" changed one and the ride ran the rest of the night fine. So we guess that there was a fractured wire in the folding portion of tower frame giving an intermittent connection. At 9pm we started to pulldown and for midnight we were in for supper, just aswell because the midges were biting hard. The next morning at 6am we headed off to Burntisland with the skydiver. I was following "r" with the show and noticed the skydiver trailer was leaning down at one side. At that I felt the lorry splutter, I called him to pull in at the next lay-by. I changed the fuel filter while he looked at the suspension. It turned out that one linkage rubber had split on the ride height valve."r" flipped it into the correct position and the ride leveled off. However by a few miles it was leaning again. We got into BI just after 8am and started to set up. That day I looked under the trailer to see what was what. The suspension problem had caused a retaining bolts to shear and a rubber element to fallout. So now I need to fix this too. At that we returned to WL to take the rest of the kit to Selkirk.

Monday I called a supplier for information and quotes regarding the suspension. It turns out that there are two possible sizes of rubber element, 6.5 in and 7.5 in. Just as I was about to order them both in, he told me the price- £77 each!!!! for a bit of rubber? I guess I better measure them to get the correct size before I order anything.

a fairground life (Bellshill/Edinburgh)

Bellshill and Drymen went off without any hitches, the weather was fine and the only excitement was at B/hill when the generator stopped on Sunday morning due to a clogged fuel filter. "r" put in the replacement cartridge but we couldn't get the fuel to flow. He took it out again and noticed a rubber plug inserted in the bottom, with this removed it was put back in and all systems were go. Monday evening at 7pm the fair closed, at 9:30pm we took the rides off the street. Again we used sheets of ply to protect the pavements. I was trying to be ultra careful but managed to hit a shiny bollard with my front wheel passenger side (blind spot). Luckily it was a slight graze and the bollard was fine, unfortunately my shiny stainless wheel trim lost its nut caps. The DZ needed a jump start due to a dicky battery, I took it into morrisons for fuel and started to pump. At £20 it clicked off, then the attendant came out and asked me to stop my lorry. I explained that if I stopped it , it wouldn't start again due to the battery. So she told me "no fuel then", I paid my £20 and drove 1/4 mile into a Shell garage where I pumped in another £110 with the engine running. The next morning early we headed off to WL, all the trailers in the first wave and we set the fair on arrival. We then returned to Glasgow to get the rides. We took these directly to a private hire event near Edinburgh. They all went in as one convoy as Blakey took the DZ for us (thank you). We had a time slot from 4 to 6pm as the access is via a single track road and everything had to be co ordinated to stop the event grinding to a halt due to traffic problems. The ground was grassed and tracking had been laid but it still took an hour to set the rides due to the humps on the ground that bellied out the Miami & Skydiver. We had to walk the rides over on blocks to clear this. Also we used ply under the trailer axles where they did not run over the tracking to protect the grass. It was nearly 8pm when we left for the night heading back to WL. The next morning at 10am we had returned and met some of our crew. They had come to give us a build up.The skydiver was built up first. It was a scorcher and everything was going fine until we noticed we had forgotten the DZ keys (a few days later I noticed a spare key attached to the lorry keys). So while "r" and the others set up the Miami, I headed back to pick up the keys. Ninety minutes later I was back and we finished off the DZ. It was still early-ish so "r" and I hung around doing odd jobs until 7pm, at least that way the bypass would be clear of traffic. The next two days we came back and forward to the event to get ready for the big weekend. The event was large, with a massive marquee, catering marquee, sound stage and many other displays and attractions including the free fair. The Saturday weather was tropical heat and the event was packed from 12-6pm.We worked hard for our money that day. Sunday was the complete opposite with rain all day. The attendance was still good but faded at around 5pm. At 6pm we started to dismantle, I was worried about the grass conditions now, but it was still fairly hard and all our vehicles came out with no problems. I suppose the downward slope had helped a lot. It had been a long day and the wet weather had really taken it's toll on my physique. We were back at WL for 10:30pm and set the rides on the plots ready for erecting on Monday morning. I was soaked through and ready for kip.

the photos are from part of the hire and Bellshill carpark.