a fairground life

Tuesday afternoon I got word that I could be accommodated at a small fair next to the EK shopping centre. So "r" went up and scoped it out to make sure we could fit onto the position available. It would be tight and the neighbouring miami ride would have to wait until we erected before they could get set but we could just fit. So we picked up the DZ from the west side of the city and took it over. It was just before 5pm and to avoid the congestion on the Kingston bridge "r" decided on a route via the M77 then across country to EK. It looked good on the route finder but I did warn him about bridges. I knew that the DZ was 14'6" with the top sodium light upright and about 14' with it horizontal. He set off and I followed in the pick-up. Things were looking good, the first bridges we came across were 15' arched but then a few miles on I noticed a low bridge (13'9") diversion. "r" carried on by and I thought here we go. There were a couple of cars between us and I wasn't too worried because if it was an arched bridge it would be plenty high in the middle where that sodium would be. "r" came to another diversion for the low bridge and again he carried on by. Around the corner and up the climb we finally came to the bridge. Oh no! it was a flat steel beamed bridge with plenty of scuff marks along it's leading edge. I slowed up to give some room between my bonnet and that sodium light and wished the cars in front would do the same! I watched as he drove under, he had slowed down too by now and I waited for the sodium to explode. I couldn't believe it as it passed under unscathed. I swear there couldn't have been a 1/4" gap. Any how all's well that ends well. When we arrived on site we started on the DZ. The fair location was tight and the tower just swung around into place missing a nearby lamp post by a couple of feet.It was a little before 7pm when we finished and at that we helped guide in the miami onto it's plot. It was a tight squeeze and many many shunts later the ride was jacked knifed into the position, but it was too close to the DZ and needed to be moved along about 5ft. So we took off his 6 wheel Foden unit and coupled our shorter 4 wheel ERF unit on. This give us the space needed to move the ride along. The next day we were to take the miami over to a music event at the mall. Land lord 2 was in and we shunted his funhouse out the way to get the miami out. Then we shunted the funhouse back again. Around 4pm we began to set up the miami. Then we picked up some extra mains to take over to EK as we had to position the unit a little further away and weren't sure if the main there would reach. It did, but just as well we brought the extension main as we had to lend it to the miami ride. The picts show the multi storey carpark behind the DZ and MS's miami, GS's waltzer.