a fairground life

yeah, the young uns have it easier now, no doubt about it. I remember the old paratrooper when it was the upright. Everything was on the back of the eight wheeler and needed carried off. It was two a man build up of around 7 hours depending on the space available for raising the pole. It started by chucking two 3ft by 8in sleepers on the ground for the base plate of the pole to sit on. Next the cover over the lorry had to be untied and rolled over. Then the cross irons supports removed. The jig arm and block and tackle were slipped onto the top of the pole. Next the PTO was engaged and the pole shoved upright by a ram. At this we removed the heavy tram starter from the pole and placed it nearby.The legs were attached next, using a 24v DC chain hoist attached to a small gib arm permanently attached to the pole. Three legs were dragged out on the hoist and lowered down to ground level. Then man handled into position to put in the two securing pins. Now the fun part-balancing the whole lot on three legs while we removed the connecting hinge pin and ram from the lorry. Drove the lorry out the way before attaching the last leg at the rear. I tell you now we nearly come unstuck a few times! If it had ever toppled backwards!!?? Now up went the ladder and the four supports put in to connect the top of the pole to the outer ends of the legs. Out with the tram jack and level it all off. Now position the lorry at the front of the pole ready to put the arms up. Build up the tail board to walk on, drop the shaft and put the belts on ready for the lorry to produce the 110v DC. Now my muscle time, one man slid the arm out and connected the rope. I pulled the arm up on the block n tackle, tied it at the bottom, climbed up the ladder to the top. The other man jiggled the arm into position while I put in the top pin and R clip. Climbing down I removed the rope and turned the ride to the next arm on a hit one miss one basis. Now repeat that another 9 times and the arms were up. After that I climbed up and removed the block n tackle and lowered the jib arm down on a rope. That same rope was used to pull up the centre running light box and then the top flash (stainless cover in lights). Drop down the rope and climb half way down the arm (all without the thought or inclination of a safety harness). He passed up an intermediate bar and I connected it between the arms. Next I stood on this while the ride was turned 36 degrees to the next section. clinging on with my knees we repeated this 9 times and all the centre braces were in. At this I moved onto the back of the lorry with him. The cowhorns were a good two man lift that had to be carried from their racks halfway up the lorry.They were connected between the ends of the arms, hit one miss one until the last one that had to be prised into position. The top of the ride was taking shape now. Next the 20 cross stays were connected between the arms and tightened with threaded tensioners. Ten lamp batons slid up the arms and were pinned at the bottom. The hood were heavy and the dome shape forced you to carry them at a 70 degree angle or they toppled over. They were about 7 ft in diameter and the breadth of the platform was only 8ft, so 6 inches at each side was the only footing while we danced them into position. And it was a dance, swing the hood to position correctly an attached shock absorber,drop it low under the dropper (attached to the middle of the cowhorn) nudge the dropper with the hood to swing it into the right position, at the same time lift the hood to engage the dropper into the slot. Raise it up fully on, slip in the secondary safety wire rope, slide the hood forward, line up the pin holes and insert two pins and R clips. Its sounds cumbersome,but we did it in one smooth movement.Hood lamp baton was fitted next.9 times later and the top was up. Now we had to move the lorry out the front of the ride and put it out the way at the rear of the ride. This meant putting the prop shaft back on so we could drive it.The loading platform was built up under the arms now. Drop the shaft again ready to produce power to put on the car droppers (called bananas due to their curved shape) attached to the droppers was the other end of the safety rope and shock absorber on the hood.Next the ten cars were attached, all carried from the back of the lorry. Top done we erected the perimeter fence and front head boards, no easy task on tarmac as they had to be staked down.Then paybox, spotlighting, speakers and centre ring of lights. Test run the whole lot and tighten the packing under the pole and legs. We spent a while wiping of the greasy hand prints that were acquired from man handling every single nut, bolt,pin or component. This I did from the age of 14 to 24 when I finally said to Mrs Showman-"I'm sick of being last pulled down" as the fold ups were abundant now and it was time to make a move.Though, even all of that was easier no doubt than shifting an old "scenic ride" or similar, they look really heavy. Any way the long and short of it is I can build three rides now as quick as building up the old para.

2 pictures of the same machine at the same place taken about 10 years apart, that BK on the ladder. The newer look was when I started to dabble in fibreglass.

a fairground life

Eighteen days straight and it seems like more. Biz is quiet, if I didn't need cash it would be pleasant!

"R" has been doing a few odd jobs around the place, he even got that heat shield knocked up and fitted. It doesn't look half bad. Spurred on by his efforts I mustered up some enthusiasm for delving into the inner workings of the Running light box on the skydiver. Its a matrix type, 10 channel by 4 channel. This means that the lights run in sequence 1,2,3,4 (red,green,orange,yellow) down the arms of the ride but then change to the arms running fully lit, 1 through to 10 which appears as a circle on the ride. It's the second part of the sequence thats the problem, 8 arms stay lit instead of pulsing and this overloads the system from 6A to 48A. The result is a burnt out circuit board from overheating.There is nothing evident to cause this sticky 8 arms and I think it must be a processor or communications fault some where on the board. Anyway as you can see from the picture it took a bit of reviving. Its all working again, but still with those pesky 8 sticky arms during part of the sequence. Well what can you expect, its 28 years old, I beefed it up from it original 10A to 16A per channel some years ago. It's had more come backs than Gary Glitter and even he is now finished.

Eight days to go and we will be back on the road.

a fairground life

Well it ground hog day again, not much happening ,biz is generally quiet all over. Dropped one of "w"s pals of at the Glasgow Green the other night and it was very quiet there too. Everything running ok, except running light box on skydiver packed in, cant bring myself to get around to fixing it. Had to clean the wiring connections on the DZ last week. That was after "r" and I returned from a First Aider course arranged by the showmen's guild. Five of us had a full days course at the office and for a modest fee we were trained in basic first aid. Possibly it could save someone's life, I hope I never need to use it. The certificate lasts for three years but the knowledge will last a lifetime (unless I loose my marbles) so you never know. This was never taught at school when I was a lad, but "w" said she got some basic stuff at high school. Only thing is, with the certificate you are "legally obligated" to help someone, I know that has put many people off doing it. In this age of litigation it's no wonder.

Q-"What do you call a hundred Lawyers at the bottom of the sea"?

A-"A bloody good start"!

a fairground life (border heat)

Tuesday morning 5:15am and we're up. Melrose is only a few miles away but it is tight and we want to get in before the town springs to life. Also "r" wants to get built up so he can spend a couple of days at Newcastle town moor Fair. The DZ lorry starts!! surprise surprise, but I think I better still take a look at it. By 11am we were all in and setup. "r" waited for his chums to arrive and then he was away for a couple of days.

Wednesday I never did anything, me and the missus had a lovely meal at the local Italian restaurant.

Thursday we opened at 7pm and the small fair was quite busy, in fact it was good to see as many families down enjoying themselves.

Friday was very quiet, such a disappointment after the Thursday being good, but the hot weather was still with us. "r" had came back that morning but was off to Glasgow again to a party.

Saturday afternoon was hot and a few punters did come over, it was quiet for 7pm and we closed just after 9pm. We pulled the tower down but left the miami for the next morning.

Sunday morning we pulled the miami down, then washed the Foden, trailer, DZ and "r"s pick up. All we had to do now was wait for the England Germany kick off.

Monday at 7am we get up and take the machines over to Gala, its our shortest journey of the year. Three miles later and the two rides are in. Since the fair is not set we return to Melrose and go to bed again until 10:30am then return and set them. We build up the tower and then go back and pick up the trailers and bring them in too. After 4pm we build up the miami.

Tuesday "r" decides to fit a new light controller to the tower as the old one is getting jittery. So up he goes to do that, then he replaces about 100 bulbs. It was a very hot day and working takes extra effort. Whiles he's up the pole I clean around the base of the ride.

Wednesday is another lazy day, spent a little time up the town in the afternoon. That night there is a party on the fair for a 30th. It goes the whole 9 yards with a stripper on the Dodgem for the birthday boy followed by a sing a long and good old booze up at the rear of the trailers. "r" and crew had set up a small carport as a tent, sodium lighting and music. This included the power amps and guitars from last year too. The Police stop in to see what's happening around 9pm and then again at 11pm. At that the guitars are packed away. The party fizzles out about 1am.

Thursday evening and the weather is fine. Although biz is down again year on year there is still a decent turnout at the fair.

Friday is slower though, everything is working fine so no excitement. Some locals hassling each other, drinking too much.

Saturday was dry apart from a slight spit of rain exactly on 1pm. However this dried up almost as it started. Again the plague of youth drinking applies its influence on the fair. There are several fights during the day and the Police cart off at least one youth in handcuffs. They are followed by a crowd of youths (mainly girls) shouting vulgarities at the officers. We closed at 10pm at the rear of the fair although the front was still open. I started to pull down the DZ and thats when it all kicked off. Bottles were thrown and rained down on the rides, at first I though someone had dropped a light fitting pulling down. There was a good 50-60 youths all congregated at the front of the fair now. By the time I got around there a good number of the showmen had all arrived too. We split the crowd and tried to walk them off the fair.

Eventually it all went pear shaped and a few got put down.The empty bottles were a concern and we picked up all we could see to dispose of them. The girls were trying to kick it all off again by screaming and ranting in our faces. The police arrived soon after but didn't really force the crowd to split up or leave. We let then contain it while the fair pulled down.All done for 1am I went in and watched the repeat of the argentina germany game.Kip for 2:30am

Sunday late morning we set off with the Miami and DZ (started again ok). All was fine until we got onto the bypass where I spotted the miami pulled over onto the Hard shoulder. There had been a bang and all air pressure was lost. We raised the cab (in a rain storm that soaked me through) and I quickly spotted the problem. A plastic pipe had failed near to the exhaust manifold (a common heat problem on Fodens that I will remedy by making an alloy heat shield for). I did have a push fit connection and put it on. About 1 mile later it was off again. This time I taped over it to try and keep it on. 1mile later it was off again. This time I noticed that the pipe had been repaired before a further 6 inches along the pipe. The heat was tremendous as I worked half under the cab. I cut out the 6 inches and moved the old pushfit along. This did hold and got us in the rest of the journey. Back to Gala now for the trailers an hour late. It was just after 7pm by the time we retuned with these. Now "r" and I headed off to sunny Burntisland to pulldown the skydiver and bring it in too. At 9:15pm we arrived there.At least the rain had stopped but the wind was still gusting. At 12pm we were heading out the town, skydiver infront and me following. At 12:15pm we were stuck at the top of the "Bing" (steep hill with a bad corner leaving BI) on the corner. The lorry had went to full revs! We stopped the engine and started it again but it kept screaming away to full revs. Fearing for a piston or con rod going I changed places with "r" and rolled the lorry around the corner onto the straight. We tilted the cab and using an iPhone as a torch we spotted the return spring on the fuel pump was missing. After a few minutes we had rigged a repair using a bungee out of the cab. So off we set again and arrived at destination for 1:30am. Kip for 2am, another long day over.