a fairground life (black week)

Saturday was a shocker due to the snow fall. We did get opened but it was a waste of diesel. The next morning was even worse with arctic conditions. I thawed the jeep out and crawled along at 10 mph to get to the AGM. Shortly after I called skyliner C to stop him coming up. The missus and I where supposed to leave for a showmen's function the next day. It was in the NE of England for Monday & Tuesday but conditions were in-passable. Monday I was at the mall pulling down equipment to re arrange it on the fairground. I moved the wee stuff but we left the DZ and Rock o Plane in fear that the frozen hydraulics or steel might fail during the pull down. Spent some hours shifting snow from the rides floors instead.

Tuesday I attended a funeral, again the snow fell and many people just could not get there. Showmen's funerals are always well attended and even in these conditions over 100 people paid their last respects. The chap was my friends father, a real character/joker and he will be missed.

Wednesday??? hmmm, I remember more snow, but what did I do that day???my mind is definitely going.

Thursday was interesting-my bro had bought a used fold up dodgem track from Europe last week. The ride had been sent over on the ferry to Rosyth but he had had trouble trying to get it out due to the following---

Tuesday- he, his boy and a helper went to get the ride with a borrowed ERF, ECX. This was due to the kingpin being too far under for any of our units (with the generators across the back of the cab) to couple to. When he got to the docks neither his son or helper could get in because they didn't have their passports with them. So he went in alone to bring out the load. The snow was deep and he struggled to couple the ERF to the load (tri axle trailer). He eventually managed but the continental airlines were different and the electrical suzy connection was male to male so that was wrong too. He dug up some air connections from somewhere and he tried to solve the light problem but- the ERF unit had a function that stopped the engine after 1min if it was idling. He tried to jam the throttle but this did not work as it still stopped if the revs were constant. The lorry had a bad battery and had to be jumped started every time it stopped. So for 2 hours he worked in the snow fall, on the lights while nipping back to pump the throttle every minute or so! Eventually he gave up and headed off home without the ride.They all got stuck on the M8 for an hour and a half due to snow. He couldn't stop the lorry due to the battery and he had to pump the throttle every minute to keep it running! As he told me -"it was mind numbing".

Thursday another friend and I went back with him. That was after we dug out the borrowed unit and got a tractor to tow it out of the snow to get it on the road again (mid lifts are crap!!!). Fortunately the owner of the lorry had put two new batteries on it the morning before. We headed over to Rosyth again, it was like ice road truckers. The roads were mushy at the good parts and we spotted several bogged down lorries and a land rover right over on it's roof near Harthill.When we got to the docks it was queued up, no doubt a back log from the snow. Luckily though they let us jump the queue, no doubt they wanted rid of the snow covered lump too. The ride was at the back of a 3ft snow mound, no doubt deposited by a snow plough the day before.I had brought a spade along though and we dug a trench 9ft wide though this. Then we took it in turns to dig two trenches 2ft wide and 20ft long for the lorry wheels to travel along. The snow was falling again by now and there was 2 inches of packed ice topped with 8 inches of snow to clear to make these trenches. We got coupled up as the unit slipped and slid into position.Bro had made a male to male adaptor for the lights and we plugged it all in, indicators and brake lights but no side lights. We didn't even try to remedy this as it was daylight. The airline were coupled and the suspension inflated but no brakes. Normally this would not have bothered me too much, but sleet conditions plus no trailer brakes WILL equal jack knife. At first we thought it was a frozen valve but then I though-"changed airline ends" I bet there is no trigger to open the inline valves. I stripped the end and sure enough no internal finger to open the valve. I removed it altogether and made it a straight through. Coupled it all up again and hey presto brakes! Next we had to couple the paybox to the rear of the ride, but we could not push it in the snow so we put a chain onto it and tried to pull it 4ft with the jeep. Huh, no way the jeep just slid sideways. We took the jeep off and tried to move it out. It was stuck too now and even in 4WD low it would not move, that's when I though we were in real trouble. Anyway with a bit of pushing, digging and using bread crates we got the jeep out. We eventually couple the paybox up to the ride using a chain attached to it and pulling the lot out with the lorry. The lorry did make it along it's 2 previously dug ruts, JUST as the mid axle kept going down automatically and taking weight off the drive axle. Did I mention mid lift's are crap?, I know I did but they are bad enough to be worthy of several mentions. In fact if they banned them from the roads and insisted upon double drives there would be less jack knifed vehicles through out the year in any weather conditions never mind snow!We got the ride and paybox coupled and headed off with me following in the jeep, oh!, and no one asked for any passports either?????. The roads were very bad on the East but got better the more we went West. Finally arrived at the mall before it got dark.

Friday I headed off to WK for the light up, unfortunately without the miami as it was frozen solid from the week before and I daren't try to pull it down.

I went along anyway to help out the others attending. So this week has seen me well out of pocket, oh and "R" made it back from oz on Thursday too but I didn't speak to him until Friday.

The white snow has created a black week. On a very sad note there were three deaths from the fairground community South of the border due to weather conditions. My sincere heart felt sympathy to all their families.