a fairground life

a fairground life (mule train)

2011-04-04T16:08:00.001Z

Glenrothes was extended due to the following fair being put off a week because of the wet weather. A third week anywhere is hard going and to try and entice the punters out the last week was advertised as £1 per ride. It kept the table going and that was about all. The last Friday night saw the local idiots kick off. The security put them outside the fence and the Police were called. Unfortunately they couldn't do anything because if they lifted the youths, took them home and their parents weren't in, the Police would have to babysit them all night in the station. Since there was allegedly only three Police officers on Duty for all of Glenrothes that night, they were not going to take the chance. Anyhow a while later a youth came back again and this time when he pushed an officer they eventually lifted him. I arrived on Saturday night after attending a relations wedding in the afternoon. "R" had the ride partly dismantled by the time I arrived. I changed out of my glad rags into a set of overalls and for 10pm the ride was down. The next morning we pulled off site heading for Pilton, Edinburgh.

I like new fairs, it gives a sense of optimism (wether founded or not) and Pilton looked good. It was a derelict site with a roadway through it. It was hardstanding, a bit uneven but totally enclosed with a six foot fence and lockable gates. The rides were positioned along the internal roadway of the site and it give the illusion of a street fair.We were built up for 4pm and then headed off to Stirling to pick up the Skydiver and Miami. It was after 6pm by the time we got there and the light was starting to fade. Luckily all the lorries started off the key without the hassle of connecting battery chargers. The suspension repair was looking good and we headed off to Renfrew. On arriving all I wanted to do was set the rides on the plots."R" had other ideas and insisted we level the miami. Of course he pushed on and the ride was erected for 10pm. That was OK for him, but I'm not in my twenties anymore. The next morning I was glad though as it was less to do. By Monday evening all the other gear was setup. We noticed the flooring in the show was looking suspect. So we ripped it up ready for new to be fitted the next morning. Well it is up for sale and I couldn't let it go like that.Tuesday I was attending my Guild duties and "r" fitted the flooring in the show. Meanwhile the electrician had arrived at Pilton to inspect the fair for the local authority. Thanks to JT and CT for going over the DZ with him for us. Wednesday "r" and I returned to Pilton for opening. It was quiet but I was hopeful.That night another young showman suffered a setback when his alternator burned out. Thats always a worry at starting out, the dampness over the winter penetrates the windings and usually within the first few days of operation the generator burns out. We had amperage to spare so gave him a tap on to the DZ set. "R" held the fort there the rest of the week until Mrs Showman arrived for the weekend to give him a hand. Unfortunately that wasn't really necessary as business failed to live up to expectation (mine at least). Maybe it was the pay gate that slowed the punters down, but then there was a good argument for one based on the fairs license fee and security costs. Pilton has the stigma of being a rough area (founded or not) and we were surrounded by houses. We were right in the middle of them, but we never had a wrong word, although we never seen the numbers or clientele type to cause bother. It was mainly family people we seen, so I suppose we owe them some kind of secret apology for expecting the worst. The fair was well presented with ten large rides, two shows and numerous kiddies attractions and the weather was fine through out. Sunday night they pulled down. Fortunately for us there was abundant space around the ride for swinging the tower, so "r" and I got the DZ out for 10pm. We were taking it straight to the mall for opening the next morning. I knew the EC10 was low on fuel and planned to stop at Ingliston for derv. Unfortunately the HGV pumps were closed there and I pushed on to Harthill services. I pulled in but the left set of HGV pumps had no fuel. I reversed back out and then into the right hand bay. Luckily they had fuel or it would have been tight completing the remainder of the journey. At 11:30pm the ride was set on it's next plot. "R" dropped a hint about building it up again, but I ignored it. This morning with the rain falling, I quietly wished I hadn't.

A couple of years back I took this picture of a 35m big wheel. Some how it never made it to these pages, better late than never.

And Finally, there is a great group on facebook called VOSA LOOK OUT, make friends with them if you want to know where and when you can avoid the wheel tappers. Even if you don't run HGV's or commercials you could still help the rest of us by posting sightings.

For all of history, economy and wealth has been founded on trade. Trade depends on transportation. From ancient mule packs through to modern day trucking and shipping, transport is the driving force (no pun intended) of economy. Now with Government/s recklessness on fuel, taxation and VOSA we will soon be back to the mule train.

a fairground life (only nuts and bolts!)

2011-03-11T21:41:00.002Z

It's not uncommon for there to be fender benders on fairgrounds. After all it is usually a tight space with many large vehicles moving,turning or shunting. Unfortunately it was our turn to experience this at the last fair. A showman moved his lorry and reversed it into "r"'s trailer. This didn't do any real damage at that point but when he continued to reverse and push the trailer into the one behind it,well that's when it all went pop! The tow bar of the trailer behind pushed right through the end of "r"s and into the interior. Hopefully the insurance will take care of everything and since no one was hurt, it's nothing more than an inconvenience, as my father used to say "what are you worried about son? Its only nuts and bolts!". So we had to take our trailer up to "r" so he could move out of his into ours while his is away for repair. It took a few hours to move his clothes and all the rest of his gear-xbox,tv,books,laptop,DVD's etc etc etc.Its surprising just what contents are in there. It could have been a bit quicker but Mrs Showman is fanatically clean and every thing had to be wiped,sorted and arranged. She also managed to throw out two black bags worth of items that didn't quite meet her spec. During this we built up the DZ at the fair. Anyway we eventually managed to get the trailer away to an agent for a quote and hopefully speedy repair.

We have been busy repairing the Skydiver truck too. A couple of days ago we took over the Oxygen and Gas burners one morning and we heated up that broken suspension bolt nice and toasty! At that we applied a 36mm socket on a 3/4 inch drive ratchet with a 2ft bar attached and it screwed out no problem at all then another was wound in. The battery was picked up also during the week and I'm happy to say the EC11 started up no problemoh, just hope it does so next month when we need to start out. Diesel at an all time high 0f £139.9 per liter of derv and 76p for gas oil (generator fuel), better visit the shows this year kids cos it could be the last year!

There we go,another week in a fairground life with no wins on the post code lottery,lotto, euro millions, ernie or the megabucks accumulator in sin city! Guess I'll just have to keep on working.

picture is RM's splendid rock o plane after new paint ,all new lighting and wiring fitted a couple of weeks back.

PS. almost forgot to mention that "r" made all new handrails for it too!

a fairground life(cutting it fine)

2011-03-07T02:48:00.001Z

A few weeks ago we finished up at the mall. To speed things along we had done some clearing up and preparation a couple of days before hand. I would be on a tight schedule as I was off on Holiday first thing Tuesday Morning.That was only a 36 hr window to get things done.

We were to close at 6pm but by 5pm the crew had arrived so we got started. The small items were packed away first and that hour head start was a real benefit. It was just after 6pm when I got into the Miami. "R" and Co were well into the skydiver but progress seemed slow, well I suppose things would be sticky after a winter period. I had the miami nearly finished by the time they appeared to start on the DZ. They had a slight hold up in coupling up the skydiver due to a dead cell on one of the EC11s batteries. We put the booster on it and hit start- the acid in one of the cells jetted through breather holes up into the air about 18 inches but the lorry did start. There had been an old firm game earlier that day and a group of 6 drunk a*******s walk through the site shouting abuse as they went. Being more interested in pulling down than raising to their antagonism we just ignored them. We started on the DZ and by 9pm we were ready to pull out. We took the Miami and Skydiver over the other side of the city to the waste land not far from the house. I arrived first and "r" was a few minutes behind, it turned out that he had to stop to investigate an exhaust problem on the Foden. A 90 degree elbow had fell off and this let the engines roar bellow out uninterupted. So thats a job for a later date. It was now 10pm but this little trip would give us a good head start the next morning for taking them to the yard.

Up at 6am we were on the road for 7am. Again we had to use the booster on the EC11 before it would start. Along the M80 we headed in nose to tail traffic until we reached the yard over an hour later. We set the two trucks but as the skydiver turned sharp into position a suspension retaining bolt sheared. The opposite number to the one we repaired earlier in the year(at least I know how to fix it). That's two jobs clocked up now for repair. We also took the faulty battery off to return it to the supplier under warranty as I had only bought it in June. Heading back to the mall we stopped in to return the battery for testing. The I dropped off "r" to ready his trailer as I headed off to pick up the DZ. Destination Cowdenbeath. We had to get there and build up right away. It was around 12pm and just before 2pm we were on site at the fair. The location was tight and all the other rides were setup except the rock o plane as it was waiting on us to get set. Just as well as there was not enough room left and the DZ had to swap places with the Rock o and then go in edgeways!!! To be honest I was ready to just drive away and forget the whole thing but we just got on with it. The ride was set in edgeways with the paybox at the rear as this was the only way it would fit to build due to a rear fence. This also meant that the rock o had to erect its arms over the fence before raising it's pole. We got the DZ built first then helped the rock o get set. Due to the awkward angle of its pole to clear the fence it took about a dozen men on two straps to pull the arms around over the fence (8ft high) and complete the circumference of the ride. By 6pm both rides were erected and we were headed back to the house eating a fish supper en route. Not bad going as I still had twelve hours before flying and "r" had a couple to spare before heading off to Leeds for a couple of nights out. Although I was stressed and told Mrs Showman I wasn't cutting it this fine ever again!!

(I'm up this late blogging as I'm still jet lagged and out of sync with UK time)

a fairground life

2011-01-16T19:24:00.003Z

As I sit here and write, the secc is heading towards its finale. It's been a long three weeks for "r" and 'skyliner c'. The very busy days are just that and the quiet days are mind numbingly boring. Both instances leave you with plenty of time to think, even when your busy if things are running smooth you just go into auto pilot or zombie mode and become more or less an automatism. Either way your mind wanders to better places or comes up with random thoughts to amuse ones self. so 'skyliner c' came up with this humorous riddle, I think it deserves a mention…

You are driving a car at a constant speed. The ground to your left falls away 18 inches, to your right there is a fire engine, travelling at the same speed. Ahead of you is a horse and rider, you cannot overtake. By turning and looking behind, you observe a galloping Zebra going the same speed as you,the horse and the fire engine. You don't have any brakes. How do you escape this dangerous situation??????????

skyliner c will publish the answer in the comments after we get some answers in.

So tonight at 10pm it will be DZ down, out and take it over to the mall to set it on the plot.

Monday at the back of 9am I'm off to London for Guild biz so i hope all goes smooth.

The pict is all the lorries waiting in carpark 5 ready for tonight, no snow as apposed to last years photo.

a fairground life (OZ)

2011-01-04T01:01:00.004Z

Comparative DNA

The genetic difference between humans and chimps is less than 2%, and I would say that the difference between the Uk and Australian Showman is similar, but what a difference that 2% makes. I am not going to bore you with a list but sufficed to say that it would be shorter to name the differences than the similarities. I left on Monday afternoon and arrived in Melbourne at 4 am on Wednesday to find E waiting at the airport to pick me up. It was a short trip back to the yard and I found a couch made for me when I got there, upon which I threw my bags and myself and fell straight to sleep. The first day was exactly as you would imagine it, hot, dry and full of first time greetings. While E had been home he had taken over management of a ride for a close friend of the family and over the next two weeks I would find us traveling this ride around Melbourne to various school fetes and hire events. The ride itself was called the cliff hanger and was basically a skydiver with lay down cars and no floor. I would say that no floors on rides (or grass cutters as we call them) was one of the major differences between our two countries. In the UK if a ride had no floor or decking it is generally considered to be of a lower quality than its counter parts with floors, but on the other side of the world they prefer rides with no decking and even order rides to be specifically built without! For example I saw a Starflyer (this ride is what we would call a "big hitter", an expensive and relatively new ride) while I was over there, it had no decking and I was astonished to hear that it had been bought brand new from Europe and was requested without the decking. Generally the argument for no floors follows the train of though that it cost extra, they don't need it as they have more hard standing events and better weather, the rides take longer to put up (I don't agree with this as constructing a 70 foot diameter circle of fences around every ride takes a long time !) and it adds to the over all weight of the ride. Again weight and length were another surprise to me, for in Australia the law on what can be legally driven changes from state to state and the image of the "Road train" is just a fallacy. In general you can carry more weight in the Uk on each axle. Rides that can be on one truck over here have to be two trucks over there and you can be longer on the road in the Uk than you can be in Australia. An example of this is a great many rides in the Uk have the cash desk as a separate trailer hitched on the back of the ride on the road, in Australia this is illegal and as such they have to be towed separately by car. Although this is not usually a problem as there are no cash desks or pay boxes on most of the rides! The controls for the rides are on a stand that is placed at the entrance of the ride and the operator stands out in the open while controlling the ride (USA style), this takes a bit of getting used to as it was very strange to see a KMG bomber, starflyer, skydiver and big wheel all without cash desks and the controls sitting out in the open, along with amps and speakers sitting on the ground or somewhere on the chassis of the ride. In my humble opinion this is a bit silly, as all the sound systems and controls for the rides have to be lifted in and out of the cab of the lorry everyday and when the bad weather does come (and trust me it comes, I was opened there in the rain) there is no shelter and you find yourself running around throwing covers over amps and the ride controls, then all standing under a canopy trying in vain to stay dry. I say standing because the seat you were sitting on was now soaking! At one point I did happen to mention (while the rain was dripping off my nose) that this no cash desk idea was monumentally idiotic and the fact that they (the showmen standing beside me at the time) all said you don't need them was crap! As I can guarantee, if I was there with one of my rides, we would all be in my cash desk sitting on the couch with our feet around the heater! However not all rides are without cash desks, dodgems and the larger of the continental rides that were shipped in from Europe came with cash desks, like a friend of mine CH who has a KMG "Tango" ride which came with a very spacious cash desk. I met CH as he is a friend of E's and we opened beside him at one of the fetes we attended with the Cliff hanger. CH came to stay with us while he was in the area as he had not brought down his accommodation from the North because he was "gaff" hopping with the Tango around Melbourne and didn't have the drivers needed to shift everything at once. As E and I were pulling down the Cliff hanger CH asked me if I would shift the Tango car truck for him as he had to build back up that night in order to open early the next day and it would save him about 2 or 3 hours if he did not need to do a double trip. I said I would and before I knew it I was climbing into the cab of a big American double drive, long nose (forward transmission) with a tri axel trailer on the back! This was not the widest thing I had driven but it was certainly the longest and maybe even the heaviest. The journey was only across city hop of 30-40 miles and once I got out of the suburbs and onto the highway it was easy. The gear box was an old Fullers road ranger with the range changer bolted to the side of the gear stick. I remembered something like it from my grand-dads old Foden, it was a simple 4 low 4 high and had the same characteristics as the gear box in the lorry that pulls my Miami. As such, I had no trouble with it. The lorry itself had a 500 hp 14Lt engine and pulled like a train ! It was easily 25 years old but had been well maintained mechanically and with its big exhaust it gave off quite a rumble when you tickled the throttle! The trip took the best part of an hour and by the end I was well bedded into the saddle taking corners with ease following close behind CH who had the main tango truck. We pulled into the next Show at about 3am, it was a grass park and there had been a lot of problems the day before with rides getting bogged down (an un-usual problem over there). We had a look at where we wanted the ride and I took my trailer in first making sure to stick to the high ground and to make large sweeping turns so as not to create ruts with the front wheels and in turn bog the truck down. I got in and then CH followed my path with the Tango and only deviated onto fresh turf in order to position the ride for building up. After the tango was set CH gave me a lift back to E's and I hit the sack. Like I said at the beginning I spent two weeks with E and the cliff hanger, usually we would go into a show build up and then come back to the yard, I would follow him in the pick up while he drove the ride. The work over there was almost identical to the work over here, move, build up, open , pull down and then move again. It was only the heat and the differences that I had pointed out earlier that let you know you were in another country. There were however some noticeable social differences. There are more Showmen in the North of England than there are in all of Australia. As a result (as far as I can tell) they do not have the social events we do over here, likes of the Showmens dances at the big fairs such as Hull, Kirkcaldy or Newcastle. In the down season they don't see each other as much as we do as they all have their own yards through out the country and as such are not as communal as the Showmen in the UK who all tend to spend the winter in close proximity, like Scotland where I would say 85% of Showmen stay in Glasgow. Although I did hear a lot about what they called the "Northern run" this was a month or so in the summer where almost all of the Showmen would be together doing a run of events from Sydney up to Cairns and this was the big social event of the season. Unfortunately I could not come over for this as it coincides with my busy time of the year too. Over all I enjoyed my time with E and it was nice to see the industry going strong at the other side of the world and although I did not see any kangaroos or snakes I did have an encounter with a Wolf spider that I would not care to repeat! Me, E and some staff where taking down the Euro Slide and I was up the top in the dark with the staff folding down the "Super Slide" sign, halfway through folding it down I looked up to see a black mass the size of my fist slowly crawling along the sign towards my hand! The problem was I couldn't let go until the sign was right down or it would have smashed the lights! In my haste I barked at the staff to hurry up as there was a big f@^* spider close to my hand and at that he let the sign down and jumped back. Seeing his reaction I also jumped well back thinking he must know what it was. That's when we lost track of it, but I remembered enough to spot it when I visited the surviving Australia exhibit at the Sydney Museum.

While I was over there I thought it was a good idea to see the sights and so I flew up to Cairns to go diving on the great barrier reef and encountered a 6 foot white tip shark less than 5 minutes after getting off the back of the boat! I swam about 40 feet away and put my mask on deciding to have a look under the water, to my shock about 4 feet below me was this shark casually swimming past, it had no interest in me whatsoever and I suspect it was leaving the area as our boat and thirty odd divers had just shown up making a lot of noise. Still even the sight of this creature so close was enough to make me still! I hovered there for what seemed like an eternity but was probably only a minute as it made its way into the murky depths. After it had passed I swam the reef for an hour or so and then returned to the boat which swiftly took us to our second spot. Again I saw another shark but it was a bit smaller and again was making its way away from our noise. The reef itself is just as you imagine it, full of colour and life and the fish don't even care that you are there, its amazing how close you can get! From Cairns I flew back to Melbourne for a couple of days with E and a few good nights on the town with CH, his twin and as many other showmen as we could find. The flight home was with a company called Tiger Airlines, if you have problems with Easy jet, Ryan air or other cheap flight operators you really haven't seen anything. The seats in the plane were that cramped together that someone my height (6'1") could not sit without their knees touching the seat in front, even if I sat bolt upright in the seat I still touched the seat in front! It was without a doubt the most uncomfortable flight I have been on in my life, but at least the pilots knew how to fly the plane which is more than I can say for the taxi driver that picked me up from Melbourne airport upon my return. I think that I'm a good passenger, I have been a passenger longer than a driver and I have never felt the need to "back seat drive" but this was different. The driver was of what I assume to be Pakistani origin, I say this to point out the fact that I did not undertone what he was talking about while he was on his phone, even this did not bother me. The problem came on a back road just along the side of the airport. He decided to over take a lorry in the rain in pitch blackness, again I didn't have a problem with this as the road was flat and relatively straight, but upon completing his overtake he never pulled back into the left. Deep in conversation he kept driving on the right, I asked him to "get over" but he never listened to me, a few seconds later I spotted car lights ahead of us, again I asked louder "GET OVER" and deep in conversation he ignored me, a few second later the lights were upon us and I reached over from the passenger seat and grabbed the steering wheel riving it from his grip. I pulled the car over to the left and two seconds later a car flew past, missing us by no more than a foot ! After that the drive was quiet as he had hung up his phone looking like quite the idiot he was!. So moral of the story, even on hands free your not safe and I didn't appreciate that fact until it was proven to me. Having said this though, I understand the need to talk while driving, but to all you taxi drivers out there, your not just driving your working. Next it was on to Sydney for me, there I strapped on a harness and climbed to the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and saw the Opera house along with a hand full of museums and city sights. The Bridge climb was amazing but you were strapped to a guide wire for 3 hours and you were exposed to the elements, so when the rain came you got wet. The first step was filling out a disclaimer form then getting your kit on and passing a breathalyser! The kit was a jumpsuit, walky talky (so you could hear your guide), sunglasses strap, hat , water proofs and heavy jacket. Everything was clipped to you so the wind could not blow it away and trust me there is wind up there. I chose the Experience tour as this took me up the inner arch and then to the top apposed to the View tour which just took you over the top arch to the top and back down. The route was not for the faint hearted as you had to climb over pipes and beams. There were points where you are walking on grate steal and you can see straight down and lets not forget the squeezes! Some of the turns and bends were low and very tight, lets just say the route is not for the over weight or the unfit. If you can't walk around the town centre for four or five hours on a hot day, you can't take this tour. It was obvious that the route and access point we were using were not intended for guided tours but this just made it even better from my point of view (being an Engineer) as I was walking on the paths that the maintenance crew would. There were junction boxes, control valves all within hands reach and although you knew not to touch anything, it was right there. This was not a "you cant hurt yourself" tour for anybody, this was the real thing and that was amazing. I was two days in Sydney before I flew home. The city was welcoming and I was impressed with the monorail. The design was simplicity itself, every 30 feet there was a single "I" beam about 15 feet tall (above ground) and no more than 2 feet by 2 feet square. Onto this ran the single track and the train, every so often there was a simple platform net to the track with steps to get up to it. Sometimes the track would go into a building and then back out again. I though this was clever, the people just used the steps and elevator in the building to get to the platform and it looked fancy ! I couldn't help but think to myself that this is something that could easily be done in the Uk, the "I" beams were placed at the edge of the pavement so the train missed the buildings but was still above the traffic, the idea could be built almost anywhere! I cant help but think how one apparently simple idea in a city at the other side of the world has forced me to think how far behind civilisation seems to be in my home country. My trip had been just over three weeks long and this in my opinion was ample time to see the best of Australia. On the journey home I got to enjoy the comfort of the Air Bus A380-800. To my understanding this is the biggest passenger aircraft in the sky, it was quite a sight through the departure gate windows. I arrived back in Glasgow at 11:30 am on the 2nd of December and was greeted by my family at the airport. When I got home there was a hot bowl of home made soup waiting for me.

After all's said and done I was glad to be home, even if home was -10 and under a foot of snow !

a fairground life (belated New Year)

2011-01-02T14:02:00.006Z

In the blink of an eye Christmas and New Year are only a memory. As you all know I never wrote anything, not the OZ special or a year round up, Why?, I really don't know, I do know I didn't feel that there was anything worthy of re-capping on for 2010. Mean while things have been running as usual, up at 8am on New Years day after 4 hours kip to go to the secc and change a couple of ballraces. Exactly as we did in 09, then up this morning at 8 again and went in and changed another 3. We are running short on stocked spares so hopefully we will get by until everything gets back to work on Wednesday. Yesterday was a bit slower in the secc. The (mainly) Asian visitors turned out for the Carnival and things were quiet except for a scuffle around 9pm that saw at least one youth huckled out by Police, while the security dispersed the other hundred or so onlookers. The only annoyance we had was three youths that we put off the ride due to behaviour. It started off with throwing about a slinky spring while the ride was going, we stopped it and asked them to put it down.(to prevent it getting trapped in the workings, and possibly hurting somebody) This they did but started spitting from height to amuse themselves instead, so that was that, ride stopped, down and off. Not that it seemed to concern them in any manner. Skyliner C has been the main man over the past week and he has compiled a list of the top secc gripes. Quite amusing so when he finishes we'll get them posted up. We have several signs up in the paybox to try and smooth the day out-secure valuables, seating requirements, etc, etc. I said to "r" this morning,"we need a new sign for the paybox window, WARNING-CONTENTS UNDER HIGH PRESSURE!" LOL.

Mean while back at the Mall, I finally got the water lasers thawed out after a week. I had to put an electric blow heater in to thaw the ice. It was solid and 6 inches thick!

Belated New Year Greetings and we'll get the OZ entry up, .......sometime.

pict is bro's dodgem, never had time to get a couple from inside the secc and there are a few changes worth photographing. They also have a stand with old photo's on from the Kelvin Hall and SECC early days.

A fairground life (Frozen Solid)

2010-12-23T20:16:00.002Z

The last couple of weeks have been hellish. The weather has really knackered biz. Not that it's just the weather, no doubt the impending VAT and interest rate rise has everyone a jitter. The fuel is past £1.23 a liter and that's if you can get some as companies still struggle to clear the backlog. I had to transfer some gas oil from one generator to another last week just to get enough for the weekend. R went for LPG this morning and that's on ration too as Grangemouth don't have enough empty bottles to fill. Seemingly people have been scrapping them during the summer!

Anyway we pulled the DZ down last week in freezing conditions. I was a bit nervy about lowering the tower in the cold but there seemed to be no problem. Just aswell that the oil was warm from the ride being open during the afternoon. We didn't finish the ride off that night as we wanted to wash it before it went inside the SECC.We had been waiting for it to warm up a bit, but after a week there was still no sign of a thaw and we just had to attempt it. So Monday morning we went over in minus 4 temperatures. We did our best but the water was freezing as soon as it hit the ride turning the soap / TFR into frozen white icicles hanging from the ride. We got the worst of the salt and grit off the floor but by the time we did four miles to the SEC the ride was covered in spray again.

Tuesday 7:30 am, we headed over there to pull into hall 4. It was minus 13! So the lorry didn't start and we had to use the booster. When it did move it started to chug and I thought the filter was dirty. We pulled the ride into the hall but we had a problem with the DZ's plot. There were wire ropes suspended over the position, probably from a music gig. The organiser was quick to get the cherry picker in after I pointed out the problem. We built the ride up and decided to take the lorry away while it thawed, so I changed the filter before we left. It didn't make any difference though as the lorry still chugged and spluttered about a mile out, no doubt the time taken for the new filter to empty of fuel and the new fuel from the tank must have been freezing up (the problem in the first place). Good job the lorry was solo and the journey only 4 miles. We returned to the SEC to put new wire ropes on the DZ and finish off. The ride had thawed out nicely but it was literally a swimming pool under it. By the time we got the new ropes on both R and I were soaked through. We decided as it was only 4pm we would head home to get changed and then come back. As we left the hall to walk over the carpark to the pickup the freezing air on the wet clothes made it unbearable.We got in the car and headed home. The traffic was that congested it took us 40 minutes to do 600 yrds! By the time we got home we decided to call it a night and return the next morning.

Wednesday and it started off well, we got to the sec ok and started to clean. Next up was get all the lights working. There had been a problem with a lamp baton so R had put on a new plug. As he plugged it in we heard a distinct POP!. The lights went out and we knew it was something to do with the lightbox. Remember the one I complained of before?,that one up in the top of the tower! So R climbed up and got it out. It had blown a triac and a fuse. We fixed this and tested the unit but no go as one channel was only showing 50v AC. So a quick search online and off to Maplins for a new lightbox (£25). While he was away I opened up the pesky baton and found a short inside.R returned later and we got it all fitted up, but still no power so we must have blown a connection elsewhere. R climbed up again and found a hidden inline fuse, but still no lights. On the bright side (pardon the pun) the in line fuse activated the strobecaps that we hadn't got working for the last 4 years!(every cloud has a silver lining). It was clocking up 2 hours wasted now and I told R just to wire the lightbox into the strobecaps feed too. This he did and eventually we had lights. Now well behind schedule we put in the new bulbs and that was 8:30pm, chucking out time at the SEC.

This morning we went back again, en route I picked up a blower to put on the pump to help keep the thing cool.We finished off the lights first before heading off for the operators meeting. It's a heads up for running of the event and there is always a very good buffet! After that we spent the rest of the day washing and cleaning. The ride has been waxed & polished from top to bottom, all the windows cleaned inside and out, the carriage seats polished and the tower painted. Hopefully all systems are go for tomorrow as after that it will be full on through the holidays. Out at the Mall everything is frozen solid, a repeat of last year. If the winters are going to become like this yearly, we will be forced to give it a miss I think.

The picture is of SG's superbly presented Extreme. I took the picture on my new Nokia C7, It's 8mp wide screen shot looks great (I reduced size for upload speed). I had to get it as the camera on my old phone packed in, that's how I never posted a pict of bro's new dodgem, but I'll get one tomorrow. There are a couple of new rides in this year- JC's Frisby and Superbowl, SM's Toboggan and JC's Gallopers. I've been that busy that I have never had a chance to walk around the hall to get any picts.

In case I dont get a chance tomorrow- MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!! keep safe in this weather.

a fairground life (black week)

2010-12-05T17:23:00.002Z

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.

a fairground life (sNOw so good!)

2010-11-29T21:54:00.002Z

The weather turned nasty the last couple of days. The overnight flurry laid about 2 inches on the rides Friday night. Saturday morning I spent two hours clearing the floors and salting them. Biz was very poor and the cold weather seen more snow fall that night. Sunday was a blizzard and as I headed out to the AGM the roads where white and speed was down to 15 mph. Thankfully they decided not to open at all that day and I called Skyliner C to let him know. Unfortunately he was already en route. The snow did stop falling but that's one weekend lost thus far and its not even December yet! This morning I went out to the mall and cleared 3 inches off the rides again. I thought that I had better do it now before the temperature dropped anymore and it turned to permafrost. It took me from 10am-3pm to do the miami,dropzone and skydiver and my back is killing me.

a fairground life (killing time)

2010-11-22T23:57:00.003Z

I think I've been busy the last two weeks, but then I can't really remember what it is thats been done? Just as the last squib of the fireworks displays died out we wasted no time and got the Santa train thawed out. We were meant to erect it on a Thursday night but the weather was so horrendous we knocked it back 24hrs to Friday. This did stretch us a little as "r" was away and we would have to finish the ride on Saturday morning early before opening. As usual we were lucky and it all came together, although it took from 9pm Friday to 2am Saturday morning to get most of the small ride assembled. I don't know why it takes so long, maybe laying 60 mt2 of wadding to simulate snow, or the 12 miles clocked up from repeated journeys from the truck to the front of the mall or just the fact we do it once a year late at night or maybe we just haven't got the swing of it yet! Anyway Saturday morning it was all set up. The weather has been kind the last couple of weekends both being dry and fair, but there is no money about, people are not spending. I think it is the pending doom of the Tory cutbacks. I'm not saying we don't need this action as desperate times require desperate measures, I'm just aware that people are concerned and are holding back the pennies. Fuel is on the up again to over 120p per liter, around £5.50 per gallon and finally the big Christmas blow out is right around the corner and little Jack and Jill will have all there orders in. So we are all killing time waiting for x-mas and the entourage it brings with it. I still have a couple of light up gigs to sort then it will be full attention to the SECC. The Carnival as it is know, will celebrate it's 90th anniversary this year with the last 25 years being in the SECC. There was a write up in the Glasgow Evening times a couple of weeks back about this.

a fairground life (Jedward,Ayr and Oz)

2010-11-11T00:06:00.002Z

The month started off with "Jedward" turning on the lights at the mall. These two were definitely not in my top 1000 acts to see before I die. However they did attract a couple of hundred fans to the mall who all waited at the Grotto for them to appear. Meanwhile we were outside in the drizzle and opened the fair at 5pm. The lights were to go on at this time too and no doubt ran a little late. I looked at my watch at 6:40pm and the thought "we'll be shut for seven" crossed my mind. How wrong I was, just before 7pm the crowd of teenagers came out onto the fair. It was as many as I had seen there in a long time and we fiddled away until closing at 9:20pm. That's the latest we have ever been open there just for the fair. So for that reason Jedward have went up slightly in my estimation (as entertainers not singers!). After that we pulled down the DZ and Miami.

Friday morning we took the rides over to Drumchapel for their fireworks display as part of the Winterfest event. As in previous years the tracking was laid out ready for us. And as in previous years the grass around the rides turned to mud as we walked over it. "r" and I erected the two rides ready for the nights festivities and headed off to the local pub for a bite to eat. At 4:30pm the event kicked off, slow to start but by 6pm the rides were going hard at it and all the Q pens were full. The Q's for the rides were each over 100ft long. As usual some teenagers were skipping and I had to ask the security to place someone there. They must have asked the police as 4 officers appeared and watched the Q line for about 20 mins. That was fine while they did but when they walked off the skipping started again. The organiser appeared at 8pm and asked when I would have to close the Q line to be closed for 9pm.I told him 8:45 for the customers in the pen,but the other 20 yrds of Q outside the pen would not get on.So at 8:45 I closed the pen and the rides went hard right to closing at 9pm. "R" tackled the DZ with the help of "skyliner C" and I the miami. It was about 11pm when we pulled out of the park. I was last out in the miami.I had to brush through the trees with the vehicle to make the turn out of the park and as I pulled onto the road the Police stopped me. Unknown to me I had caught some lights put in the trees and literally pulled them all down!,oops!The officer helped me un hook them, at that I noticed that I had not put an underbox door on the trailer. I ran back into the park and picked it up. So I guess it was lucky I caught the lights or I may have lost my door. We headed straight back to the mall were the three of us erected the miami again. It was covered in mud, but not as half as bad as last year. It was half twelve and we headed home. The next morning at 7am we went back over to wash the miami before taking the DZ to Ayr. We had to run out 50m of hose to get the water to the ride. It was 9:30 am when we left in the DZ. The ride arrived onsite and as "r" jack knifed the ride onto its plot he nipped the red air line (emergency). The ride was still movable but the air was hissing out.We started work and the ride was setup at Ayr racecourse for 1pm , then we ran out 100m of hose to get the water to the ride. We washed all the mud off and at 2pm we were ready for opening. I returned to Glasgow to get a replacement air line. Funny how you never bust any for decades then you do two in a matter of months. We opened at 6pm and the rain was falling fairly heavily. It eased at 7pm allowing us to knock out half a living before closing at 9:20pm. By midnight we were back at the mall. Sunday morning we arrived on site at 10am to set up again ready for opening at noon.I was tired that night.

Monday morning Mrs showman and I dropped "R" off at the airport for his flight to Oz, she had a tear in her eye as we watched him walk through the departure gate and away for a month, and I must confess I had a lump in my throat.

a fairground life (they don't make em like that anymore)

2010-10-23T13:51:00.001Z

It's been a short 18 months since we put the Carousel of RT's in the mall. Situated on the ice rink pad it was a bit of a task getting it in there. The ride it's self was originally a build up type as is common with all rides over 20 years old. However this had the centre assembly mounted onto a trailer some years back. RT and his boys had removed it from the trailer ready for going into the mall. This meant the fabrication of a new sub frame to carry the centre on the ice rink (pad). So after closing one Saturday night in May we did get the ride in. We rolled the centre components in on a small trailer and using a scaffolding assembly we lifted it clear of the trailer, then we shoved the trailer clear and lowered the pole onto frames with 6" castor wheels attached (skate board looking). This was then maneuvered down a set of stairs (4ft) onto the pad. It took several hours to do this and get it erected again using a chain block attached to the scaffolding frame. The rest of the ride we just carried in by hand.

Now it was time to get the ride out again. Problem was that gravity would not on our side when it came to getting the whole lot back up those stairs. Luckily a restaurant behind the pad was closed for re development. This meant we would be granted forklift access through it to the edge of the pad. However this restaurant was 4ft above the pad floor at mall height and the pad's circumference was surrounded by 20mm thick toughened glass hand rails. So we hatched a plan. We pulled down all the carry off items of the ride on Sunday night. The horses, chariots, platforms and dropper rods. Next we lifted the centre assembly by jacks onto rollers (scaffolding tubes) and rolled it to the front of the pad. This put the top of the ride over the thick glass hand rail panels and we worked on the mall floor at a good height to get the rounding boards ,cranks, top cover and swifts off. This left only the centre assembly with gearbox and motor attached.That was enough for one night, the easy part was done. We rolled the ride to the rear of the pad again and at 10:30pm headed home. The next morning we decided to start to remove two panes of glass from around the pad at the restaurant side. We cut away the top timber banister , then the silicone sealer and gouged that all out. We wobbled it glass about as best we could, not that it moved much. We tapped it as hard as we dared but there was no movement.We attached suction cups and tried to jack the sheet up and out. Nothing would move it, I think it must have been set in resin before the sealer was applied to the edges. This was going to knacker us for the forklift access tonight. So we asked the question and the answer came back that we could remove the panes forcibly. That night after the mall closed we taped them up in the fashion popular during the Blitz. A roll of 50mm gaffer tape was spent on the two panes (about 3ft high by 5ft long each). The two panes were covered by a plastic sheet to prevent flying shards. Next my bro stepped up with a Firemans hand axe. One smart blow to the bottom edge and we heard the shatter sound, he stepped one pace along and repeated for the second pane. Although we had heard the shatter noise's the two panes were still standing under the sheet. We stepped forward to removed the sheet, but as soon as we touched it the whole lot crumbled to the floor. We brushed it out the way. Now we rolled the centre over to this position and engaged the services of the fork lift. The extended forks were attached and as the wheels of the forklift sat on the edge of the floor they just reached out over the pad and above the motor. This and the gearbox were removed by attaching a strap to a fork and hoisting the lot up. We dropped them onto a pallet and the FL took it out side. Next was the top section of the centre pole. The pallet was put on the forks and GT and I stood on this while the FL raised us up like a mobile platform. The bolts were removed and the heavy pipe section was man handled by us onto the pallet we were standing on. So far, so good. The extended forks were employed again and they slid under the chain wheel attached to the pole. The pole hung down from this and the forks lifted the whole lot up and away. All that was left was the cross on the fabricated frame. The boys dismantled this and erected it back onto the rides trailer again that was waiting outside. In the meantime we had a problem. The pole was about 6ft tall. The forks were lifting it from about 2ft from the top. This meant that the pole was around 8ft tall and would fit through the doors of the mall, however the forks had a 3ft tall safety barrier attached (presumably to stop crates falling backwards onto the fork lift driver) that stuck above this height and would not fit through the doors. The pole was certainly too heavy to man handle.We thought up a few ideas but then the simple one was mentioned by bro- "just take the guard off". Right enough it was only 4 bolts and 20 minutes later it was off (2 minutes to do the job and the rest to find the right size socket and allan key). The pole was taken out and dropped right back onto the trailer were it was assembled again. Next up was the motor and gearbox and a little past 8pm the ride was ready for traveling the fairs again.

I wonder if it will ever come off the trailer again. The ride operated inside every day for 18 months and never missed a day, testament to the quality of workmanship and manufacture of this mature ride.

The pict show the centre pole awaiting dismantling and the top over the glass hand rails at working height.

a fairground life

2010-10-16T13:52:00.002Z

Leaving EK we had a day to kill before entering the corporate event. It was good to have a day off and it was further justified by the torrential rain that fell all day. I say justified as I usually feel guilty about doing absolutely nothing in any single day. The next morning the weather was fine and we headed off to the event location. As promised the car park area was coned off and getting set was easy (in a gated private car park, in an industrial estate, so I don't know where the stunned locals could have been (see NOTW article)). Fortunately the plan I made from google earth was accurate and I didn't need to tweak anything. Although the DZ was set up by 1pm we stayed on site to help bro finish off the dodgem.The other rides were nearly finished off too by this time. The weather was really sunny during the afternoon. Bro had just received a new top cover. It was made of PVC and still needed tie ropes to be attached. So "r" and he went off to get the rope, on their return we started the job of fitting it up. The rope was nylon so we cut it to length and then melted the ends on candles to stop them fraying. I suppose that an older generation of showman would have been able to splice them with chandler skills. Around 8pm the cover was on and we headed off home.

The next day the weather turned nasty again, it was unfortunate for the works staff but they did make a good attempt to enjoy themselves.Saturday's weather was just as poor with only a few bright periods. It was a really long day starting at 10am and finishing at 10pm. I left "r" to do the final few hours alone so Blakey and I could move the other gear to the mall that evening. The batteries were flat on the EC12 so I had to put Blakey's charger on. The rain was falling in torrents by now, but luckily after only 15 mins of charging the lorry started.

Sunday the Mrs and I were up at 4am to catch our budget flight out for a city break. Poor "r" was left to do the final day's graft at the corporate do, then pull it down and move it to the mall. The next few days he erected all the equipment ready for opening October break. When I returned mid week everything was ready. He had even tried the new pump on the skydiver. The ride was better but still not up to "new" spec so I investigated a bit further myself and noticed that a pressure gauge was lacking a few PSI. I adjusted the appropriate valve a minute amount and brought it up to as was. This did the trick and the ride is working well, just begs the question if I should have done this first before ordering a new pump. To be honest I'm glad I didn't as the old one will be a spare and the new one should see me out. Since then it's been ground hog day, business is also way back on last year.

The pict is of a juvenile I seen on my travels, I texted this photo home with the sarcastic message, "tell the NOTW I got 200K for this one!". What can I say, bloomin numpties!, problem is how many people just believe it.

a fairground life

2010-09-28T18:36:00.003Z

Thursday morning and the new pump arrived for the skydiver. We did intend to fit it before going over to EK to open, but the weather was horrendous. Around noon it did dry up and for the next few days it was fine hot weather. So we fitted that item on Friday morning. Saturday it was "w" and I on the DZ as "r" and mrs showman headed off to the mall to open the miami ride at the Tiesto event. It was packed with people but the rides fell away at 11pm as the tent next to us closed and the punters all moved into the arena. Figuratively and literally speaking, we were out in the cold.

They finished at 4am, R got home at 6am so "w" and I did sunday at EK too, and they got the day off. Monday night I moved the miami off site to a nearby showman's yard. Today was the last day at EK and although we closed before 6pm (just as the rain started) it will be late before I get finished. I'm at the house writing this as half the DZ is pulled down, but since I can't get the full ride down until the miami is away,until the waltzer is away and until the dodgem is away, it will be a few hours yet. So my plan is to return there about 9pm and hopefully all the others will be gone. Then we will get the DZ down.

Great pict of Borderer's new lorry, never drove a Renault myself so can't comment, I'm sure blakey will fill us in. I like the look of that cab better than those Magnum monstrosities!!!

Wish you all the luck with it borderer.

a fairground life

2010-09-25T20:54:00.005Z

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.

a fairground life

2010-09-20T09:37:00.003Z

Egremont was more or less a holiday this year. I never did a hands turn other than painting a grubby looking handrail. Friday nights biz was down on last year also. Although Saturday started off dry by 5pm the rain had came on. As the night went on it got wetter and wetter. Not that it had affected the business though as it was plain to see that the numbers where poor hours before the rain had came. We finally closed just after 9pm, but the side stuff had been pulling down since 7pm. We couldn't get the tower down due to a hoopla stall being in our way. Not having any place to shoot off to anyway we just left it all for Sunday morning. I expected it to be dry but at 9 am it was still raining. The hoopla was away by then and we got started. Before leaving I took the lorry and two jeeps down to the local garage for fuel. The price was 120.9 per liter, (ouch when it's 113.9 elsewhere) £300 later we where fueled up enough to get back home. Just before noon we headed out of the town in a small convoy, me in the DZ and the two trailers following. The rain fell all the way to Carlisle when it stopped, after that it was a bright sunny trip up. I parked the DZ on the wasteland while we juggled the loads onto the yard. Then "r" and I returned for it a couple of hours later and took it over to another showmans yard at the other side of the city. The pump for the skydiver is ready for dispatch, all I have to do is send down the cheque. We have a couple of days down time while we await pulling in to the music event. I'll get a haircut and catch up on some correspondence.

It's getting near that time of the year again, when I start reflecting,thinking,wondering about where I have been and where we are heading. I don't mean in the geographical sense either, for some reason at this time of year when it is nearly over for the traveling season I start to wonder about what could be next for us. Maybe it's an age thing, maybe it's a mid life crisis thing or maybe it's just discontentment, I don't know. What I do know is that it's a feeling of needing to make a move in some kind of profitable direction (either for cash or some other kind of benefit ). I wonder if other people (showmen or not) get this urge and if so, is it at this time of the year?

The images are a couple of random picts of my late fathers arcade just before he sold it about 8 yrs ago

a fairground life (3 days of winter)

2010-09-15T20:11:00.004Z

The previous week we have been closed. Noticing that the skydiver's speed seemed to lack zip at Blair, we took the pump off and sent it to Norwich to be tested. Needless to say a replacement has been ordered. I suppose 17 years service without problem is excellent by any standard. Hopefully the replacement will last as long. On Wednesday I ordered 40 square meters of decking for the garden.Mrs showman has been niggling about this for a year now. Friday we were up at 6am and took the miami to a 1 day event in Edinburgh's Napier University. The carpark was tight but we squeezed Blakey's funfair project into the space. We built up in the dry but at 10am the heavens opened and it was torrential until around 1pm. It did dry up soon after but there was no weight of people and we didn't get half of our expenses.That evening we finished and took all the kit back to Glasgow. The next morning at 8am the decking arrived and for the next two days "r" and I never got off our knees. On Sunday night the decking was finally done, just in time too as the rain came. We were meant to be headed off to Egremont by now, but we were too tired and decided to leave it for the next morning. We made a plan for 6am but didn't surface until 8:30am. I dropped "w" off at school (she's staying with the grand parents for school) and headed off to pick up the loads. I took the DZ and "r", Mrs showman brought the trailers. When we arrived at Egremont it was still pouring down. We set the ride on the plot and got soaked through doing so. After tea it dried up for an hour and in this window we got the DZ set up. Just as well as the next two days were just as bad with high winds and heavy rain showers falling on/off all day.The decking is probably now a big raft floating around the house. Here at Egremont the big hole in the car park has been repaired now. This years new attraction is "dt's" bomber ride. A good advert for the fair as it can be seen from the main road passing the town. The picture shows the bomber silhouetted behind "RF's" miami ride. We opened tonight at 6pm, it did stay dry but biz was poor tonight.

a fairground life

2010-09-07T21:00:00.002Z

Dunkeld came and went without too much fuss, the Friday night again seen the local teen binge drinkers make an appearance. One chap was clearly on a mission to start some bother and ended up with a clip on the jaw for his efforts from a senior showman of pension age! His pals took him away before I knew anything of it. Just as well I suppose. Saturday was fine and clear and the games were well supported during the afternoon. The teens came down again after teatime. Just on 9pm I closed the DZ and started to pull it down."r" started on the skydiver just after 9pm. Mrs showman hung on with the miami until 9:45pm when she had had enough of them falling about drunk and closed up. The crew had arrived and by half midnight all the kit was packed up. Our next port of call was Blairgowrie and since pull on was Wednesday morning, all we had to do on Sunday was take our Caravan and DZ back down to the yard in Glasgow. Monday was a day off and Tuesday at 8pm "r" and I headed back upto Dunkeld. The next morning at 5am the alarm went off and we took the Miami and skydiver over to Blair. It was on 7am when we arrived on the carpark. Unfortunately there was a 46ft artic trailer parked on my plot for the skydiver and another small car on the plot for the rock o plane. I tried to couple up the skydiver unit to the trailer to move it, but the pin as too far under. So I coupled the miami unit to it instead, I drew the trailer forward the length of itself so I could set the Skydiver trailer. As I was putting the Miami Foden back out the way the contractor arrived and took away the trailer, if I had known he would have been so quick I wouldn't have bothered but I had visions of it being there for a couple of days! This is what happened with that small car until the police moved it on Friday morning! During building up I noticed the 100kva set didn't sound right. I decided to change the filters, fully expecting this to cure it. We also cleaned out the Racor fuel trap too as it was full of crap. After that the set would only run for a few minutes then die. This we repeated for a few times. We then decided to clean the gauze in the lift pump. It had a hole in it and the dirt was also in the pump. We cleaned this too but to no avail. That night we headed back to Glasgow to get a new lift pump. It was Friday before we retuned with the pump. "r" fitted it but the set still wouldn't go. He bypassed the Racor system by connecting the two fuel lines directly. The set ran fine after that so now we know where to look. Thats a job outstanding as we were now at opening time.During all this I had looked into the running light box and finally got it working again. The problem turned out to be dirty contacts on the EPROM chips! I removed them and clipped them back in and away it went in full 10x4 fashion!! For how long is anyones guess, but the ride looked good for that weekend. Friday was about on par and there were no teeny drinkers to speak of. We were all closed before 9pm. Saturday morning came and I got derv from the local garages for the journey away that night. The day's only minor issue was a slack wire in the skydiver ride plug. I smelt it as I passed. Luckily we caught it before it knacked the plug and it was an easy fix by cutting back the cable to a fresh bit. This all happened around 3pm long before the big rush. The street was closed again this year (more expense for the closure order) and business was good but not as busy as in previous years. This is the second year of the drink ban and although it did thin out the punters it made the whole event much calmer. There were only two idiots to speak of and I refused them admission on the miami for their own safety and other riders comfort. The police were out in force and cracking down on anyone with a bottle. At 10pm we were closed and at 12:14am the two rides were heading out of the town Glasgow bound. At 2:30 am we were back in Glasgow.

"r" had arrived 20 mins before me and I found him slumped over the steering wheel sleeping.

a fairground life (statistically speaking)

2010-08-27T23:55:00.002Z

I never did get over to Kilsyth, that must be the first fair that any of my equipment has attended but I haven't. While "r" and "e" were doing that I had the other gear at a one day'er in Hamilton. It was a single day including setting up of the rides. The only good thing was that we got to park the vehicles on site a couple of days before (That was when we were spotted traveling down the M80). The gig was an early start so we were building up the rides from 6am. "r" and "e" gave me a hand before heading off to Kilsyth for the last day there. I worked at my event until 6:30 pm before pulling down.The music gig at Kilsyth ended around the same time. We all met back at the house for 10 pm. Both gigs had went off without any hitch. The next morning we took the DZ to Irvine. Again I left "r" and "e" there to do the ride. I returned to Glasgow and the next day repaired that suspension problem on the skydiver trailer. I got "jm" the engineer to come out as I needed a set of burners to heat a seized bolt. It only took us a couple of hours to complete the job. The next day "r" and I took the miami and skydiver up to Crieff in preparation for the highland games. We set the trailers and the skydiver and started to erect it. The rain came that heavy that we had to stop for an hour. We started again but had to stop another twice for the rain before finally getting the ride finished for 6pm. At that we headed off to Glasgow again to drop "r" off to get his pick up so he could continue to Irvine. He was well late due to the rain but "e" was there to open up the DZ. The next day I returned to Crieff and set up the miami. Saturday morning I too headed to Irvine to help there. We had to open there at 12pm until 9:30pm then pull down and shift to Crieff. This we did, arriving there at 12:15am. It was a clear night and we got the ride set on its plot and un-coupled. My bro was coming down from Nairn that night too with the twist. That was after he had pulled down the dodgem and twist there! The next morning at 7 am I heard the twist ride pull in the gate. Shortly after we were all up and got stuck into the DZ. We were lucky with the weather as it managed to stay dry, although I could see that the attendance was well down on previous years.

Again everything was pulled down that night and we each did two trips into Dunkeld that night. Returning to Crieff around 1am for supper and kip. The next day we arrived in Dunkeld for lunch time. It wasn't long after that we set the rides. I was tired but "r" and "e" soon chucked up the DZ followed by the Miami. It was the next morning before we tackled the skydiver. "e" has been a great help to us the last 6 weeks, but now he is off home to Australia to start his own traveling season there.

August stats-fairs/events attended-10

distance traveled-2000miles

derv used-1200 lts

gas oil used-2000 lts

build ups & pull downs-30

total opened hours-229

earliest rise-4:50am

latest finish-1:30am

longest day-17 hours

cash earned-not enough!!

a fairground life (St.A's)

2010-08-13T19:28:00.004Z

BoA was a turn up for the books. The fair was the smallest I have seen it, with 5 less large rides, 8 less snack bars, 3 less funhouses and about 600ft less of other assorted side and center gear. Every night biz was decent apart from Friday but then it did rain constantly all day up to opening. The Sunday had glorious sunny weather until a little before midnight when we got a light shower. Me and 3 of the crew packed up the miami,skydiver and show. I was in kip for 1am and knocked up again at 6:30am by my father in law. We shifted the loads by 3 trips to a yard in Stirling before heading off with the trailers to St.Andrews. The DZ was already erected there by "r" &"e" on Sunday night. They had came down the night before from the North. I needed to be there for 12pm to make the Luncheon held for the South St fair. We pulled into the town at 11am and quickly got set and tapped onto the power. A wash and shave later I put on my glad rags and headed on up.It was the first time I've attended the luncheon here and it was held in the Town Hall directly across from the DZ. I could see the ride clearly from the second floor window. After the lunch I minded the DZ for a couple of hours still in my suit and tie. I had a jibe at Blakey that he should get himself tidied up for minding. We had a little rain on Monday and a little rain on Tuesday so for the fourth year running it hasn't stayed completely dry.The fair suffered from gaps too as some found the rent too expensive and others were at Hartlepool for the TallShips event (that I understand to have been poor). With "R","E"(aussie) and myself on the tower it didnt take long to get the ride down on Tuesday night. Unfortunately for some of the showmen in the square they could not get in to take their rides down until around 12am as the market traders were still in the way. They should have been off by 11pm but some were still there at 1:30am. Tempers were frayed! By Wednesday afternoon StA was only a distant memory as we turned our attention to Kilsyth's music festival.While crossing the Forth Road bridge I could clearly see the booster ride erected at Queensferry. They must have been away the small hours on Wed morning to get this setup."R" and "E" headed over to Kilsyth on Thursday and erected the DZ. I haven't set foot over there myself yet.

pics a couple of shots from South St and access to the square blocked by the market stalls.

a fairground life

2010-08-06T16:00:00.002Z

R has completed the Muir of Ord gaff and had a decent fair. He left on Thursday night after pulling down. He and his Aussie counterpart drove straight to Dornoch and got to kip for 1:30 am. They were up again at 8am and erected the DZ ready for opening at 11am today. By 6pm they will be taking it down again and heading for Strathpeffer. Oh, to be on the right side of 30 again. Meanwhile here, I have been to St Andrews to help other family and arrived back at BOA for 9pm last night. The square opened at St A today at 11am. The rest of us will roll into South St on Sunday at 6pm.The town did seem a little quiet yesterday though. The lorries were still taking away loads of gear from the Open Championship. Surprise surprise the rain is falling on BOA for the fourth Friday night in a row.I cant complain too much as the last two nights have seen a great improvement on previous years.

The start of setting up in the square at St Andrews

a fairground life

2010-08-03T23:22:00.001Z

The month of July has passed really quickly. After August the year will turn into the backend run. August has always been my favourite month, I don't know exactly why, maybe because the hype of the summer is over, maybe because I liked the places we travel in this month or maybe because by this time of the season we used have a couple of quid stowed. Not wanting to spoil it for myself I think I'll not ponder too deep into the reasons.

So, for the last couple of weeks "r" has had a new pal stay with him, an Australian Showman who has been touring Europe for a few months.He has spent a while on a busmans holiday staying with friends on the fairs.He is going with "r" to help him do the North run while I stay at BOA for this week. Anyway we all pulled down on Sunday night. The weather was lovely all day until about 7pm when the heavens opened. The lads were well into the skydiver by now and I was just starting the miami. I quickly got a hat and rain coat out from the Foden and carried on. It wasn't long before "r" came up and said that the EC12 wouldn't start. It had a brand new set of batteries on it, but that dead problem from WL had appeared again. I told him to put the EC10 under the ride to get it ready for the road. This was so I could take the skydiver away while "r" and the crew finished the DZ and miami. I took the skydiver away and arrived onsite a BOA around 9pm. It was 10pm when I got back to the mall. The EC12 still would not start, I bridged the batteries with a jump lead to check the isolator but it made no difference. Eventually I started the lorry by crawling underneath it and bridging the starter connections with a bolt. The engine roared to life. I was hoping the lights would come on from the alternator, but they didn't. The dash was all opened up from us checking for fuses so we took a jump lead, attached it to positive on the batteries, ran it along the cab and into the passenger window and connected it onto the largest positive bolt connection we could find on the dash console. This gave us power to run the cab electrics,lights,horn,wipers etc. So with that jury rigged we coupled it all up and set off. It was no problem all the way there and just after midnight we pulled into the fair, me in the DZ and "r" in the miami. We jumped into the jeep and arrived home for 1am. Monday at 11am we left the yard with the trailers. When we got onsite they were set and it was time to erect the skydiver and miami. We needed to get these up for teatime as "r" and "e" were heading off to The Black Isle with the DZ as soon as we were ready. The build up was fine and at 5pm both rides were setup. We went to change lorries on the DZ from the EC12 to the EC10(with generator) so "r" could get away, but the EC12 wouldn't start again. I tried to do it with the bolt underneath but all we got was a judder noise. Eventually we had to attach the EC10 on the front with a chain and blow off the air tanks with the emergency line to release the brakes. We dragged the unit off far enough to get the EC10 coupled under. I suppose we are lucky that the EC12 isn't the unit with the generator attached (there's that lucky outlook again). It was 6:30 now and "r" and "e" set off with the DZ and jeep with trailer for the Isle. At 10:30pm I got a call from "BS", he asked if I had a lorry on the A9. I thought "r" must have been stopped but he told me he was moving along fine, in fact he said tell him he's going too fast!I was also relieved to hear that the jeep was behind with the trailer too. It wasn't long after that that "r" phoned in to say they had arrived ok.

This morning I went and visited a mechanic in Stirling that my father knew. He put me onto an auto electrician that would come out to look at the EC12. (He had done this for me before in 2005 when at BOA the EC10 wouldn't start. It turned out to be a broken wire from the key barrel to a relay behind the dash. Funny enough I started the lorry by bridging the starter then too so I could make my journey). The electrician arrived and tested the batteries, no fault there. I tried the key but the dead problem was gone, now the starter just juddered. The sparky had the meter on the batteries and quickly deduced that the isolator I had fitted two years ago was faulty (same isolator and problem that we had on the Foden). He fitted a new bridge and the lorry started fine, only thing is, I cant help but think I bridged that with a jump lead??? or was that the night before but why didnt the dash lights go then? or was the lead not connected properly yesterday or is there another intermittent fault waiting to appear again??? At the moment its all working but for how long?

We open at The Black Isle and BoA tomorrow at 6pm, hope all's well.

a fairground life

2010-07-25T13:29:00.002Z

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

2010-07-24T13:08:00.001Z

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

2010-07-16T08:39:00.002Z

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)

2010-07-08T17:04:00.002Z

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.

a fairground life

2010-06-25T17:02:00.000Z

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

2010-06-16T21:41:00.001Z

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)

2010-06-14T18:40:00.003Z

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.

a fairground life (Bellshill revived)

2010-05-28T23:27:00.000Z

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

2010-05-25T21:58:00.002Z

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

2010-05-17T23:01:00.002Z

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)

2010-05-07T15:52:00.002Z

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.

a fairground life (more cancellations)

2010-04-22T19:39:00.003Z

We left the mall on Monday evening. The crew arrived at 5pm and we were all pulled down for 9pm, not bad. The DZ was put on the yard awaiting the rock4life gig near Nairn. The other kit was parked at a nearby Showmens yard to await the Bank Holiday Monday. The gate was tight and I could not get through it that afternoon so we left it outside. That night we returned when the street was empty and reversed the gear in the gate. The next two days I have spent in bed with flu or something. In fact I have been trying to shake this off for a week but eventually had to visit the doc for antibiotics. So the last two days have been spent in bed, just a good job we were closed this week. Oh and rock for life was cancelled today aswell, what a surprise (sarcastically). "r" has been busy though doing some welding and electrical repair work around the place. Hopefully I will be up and about before my week off expires. cough! cough!

a fairground life

2010-04-16T12:41:00.003Z

I think I have discovered why the roads are always dug up, why there are always buildings work and other constructions going on continually. Civil Engineers thats why, they come out of where ever all qualified with nothing to do, they get board easily and cant help but look at things with a critical engineering eye. They need a project to keep their minds occupied and when it sunshines they want to get out of their offices. Thats why all the roads are dug up during the summer hols when everyone is trying to get to the beach! I suppose its not all their fault, after being stuck in education buildings for 4-5 years and doing mock projects continually it must be hard just to switch it all off in ones mind when they graduate.

"r" it seems is no different, things that were fine today are sub adequate tomorrow.The sun came out, he was sick of being stuck in his box (control booth) and needed a project. Thats why he has fitted a new super spandangle filter (donated by shiny shows) with viewable contamination level and not one but two solar panels to the Foden to top up the batteries during idle periods.

I suppose in the end he may be right, but would that mean that the previous setups were wrong? He should have been a mechanical engineer, at least that way I wouldn't have to worry about a flyover in the garden or a bypass through the living room to the kitchen.

The filter is very clever, as the contamination increases the fuel rises until it reaches the change filter mark. The level in the pict dropped to only a few mm after the engine reached running pressure. In fact it was so low I thought it would airlock but its been running fine all week.

The other picts are of the miami with digital print vinyl. you can just about see the front of the paybox too. My personal fav is the you tube panel on the side of the paybox.

a fairground life

2010-04-11T15:08:00.002Z

Just when you think things cant get worse, thats when they usually do. The Glasgow River festival has been cancelled due to funding problems. I didnt attend with equipment personally but the showmen who did will feel the economical effects full force. Not even I can see an upside to this. I found this amusing parody a few weeks ago, check the link, it seems like its catching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ_WcmRB0cI

a fairground life

2010-04-09T17:03:00.002Z

all roads lead to KLM this weekend.

the pict is possibly the last time I had a machine there.

a fairground life

2010-04-04T20:58:00.003Z

A lovely sunny Easter Sunday but biz was poor. On the bright side the Miami is working fine. There is a performance boost, there are no leaks and therefor there will be no wrath from her indoors.

a fairground life

2010-04-03T11:24:00.002Z

Well here we are again, as happy as can be! So the words of the song go and now I realise there true meaning. We are here again for the new season and things are normal as usual. I only had to change the filters on the set yesterday. So I'm happy as can be.

a fairground life (what is luck?)

2010-04-01T00:23:00.002Z

What is luck?

I had hoped for a delivery time of the 24th march for the pump and motors. It became clear early on that that was looking unlikely. The hydraulics firm has requested a visit from a chap who used to work on this particular hydraulic motor type. That visit/consult took 10 days to happen. It turned out that the motors were in very poor condition and needed a specific repair/ refurbishment strategy. This meant liaising with the hydraulics engineer, the consultant and the machinist in the machine shop. All time and ALL money. A plan was finally executed and the repairs were started. As these motors were no longer manufactured no spares were at hand and all new components had to be made from scratch then sent to be treated / case hardened and then returned to be fitted. On a positive note, the consultant had supplied some old spare parts he had laying about BUT they needed some re-configuration. The pump was a slightly different story. It was returned to the manufacturers UK agent who were able to strip it, assess it and fit spares. This was to be a 7-10 day turn around but took longer. The pump was also badly worn and needed extensive refurbishment, in fact it required so much and would cost so much that I had to ask the question-If that's how much to repair one, what's the cost of a new one???. It was more expensive but amazingly would take even longer to arrive !??? I called for an update early the week before the 24th and got less than good news, a delay in parts from the machine shop had a knock on effect and the 24th would now probably be the 26th. On a positive note however the pump should be returned by the 25th at the latest. On the 23rd I called again, good news was that they had started to re build one of the motors, bad news was they were still waiting for parts. On the 24th I called again- good news was that one pump had been run up and tested- bad news was that it failed the test and was being stripped down again. The consultant had diagnosed a major problem over the phone. I called again on the 25th- good news was they had found the problem in the first motor- they had broken a piston ring on re assembly, bad news was the pump hadn't arrived.On the 26th I called again-Good news was that the two pumps had been assembled (due to the extra hours put in late through the night from the hydraulics staff) and that the pump had arrived- bad news was that the pump to electric motor coupling had not returned from the machine shop. It was late Saturday afternoon now, the hydraulic engineer suggested I pick up the pump and motors and he would send the coupling up by courier. I said that I needed the coupling as I could not fit the pump until the coupling was attached. He said he would make a call and see if the engineer could do anything. Twenty minutes later he called back- the engineer was going in early Sunday morning to finish the coupling and I should get it that morning whilst picking up the other items. So that was it, "r" and I would leave early Sunday morning drive down to Norwich for 10am, pick up all items then drive back again. Estimated 800 mile round trip about 17 hours in total. Sunday 2am the alarm goes off, I get up and put the clock forward. The mission has only just started and we are already an hour late! "r" and I set off- £80 of derv in the pickup and a packet of midget gems! oh and mrs showman packed the sannies,crisps and a case of pepsi. It was an uneventful trip down in fair weather. I stopped about the 250 mile mark and "r" took over while I got some kip. A few minutes before 10am we arrived. Unfortunately the coupling was not ready and we loaded the pickup with the gear. This took an hour, still no coupling .Then at 12:20pm it arrived, at last we could set sail for home. I drove first again while "r" kipped and at 200 miles we changed over again. We pushed it a little harder this time, no doubt getting tired and eager to get home. This was risky as the pickup was heavily loaded in the rear and the steering was very light due to this. Luckily we made it ok. At 8pm we arrived home. The next day at 10am we headed into the shed. I had it all planned- 4hrs to fit pump, 2 hrs 1st motor then 2 hrs second motor then a couple of hours trying out and then pulling the ride down. We got the coupling out to fit it- mis alined retaining holes and the new pump bolts were thicker and rubbing the coupling. So right away a problem, we tapered the coupling with the grinder, then tapered the grubs to fit the mis aligned holes and put it altogether. I had calculated that I needed less than 100mm from pump face to coupling end for it to fit to the motor. We slid the coupling onto the shaft as far as it would go, it looked a bit long but I measured it-99mm, phew! Now we had to fit the pump to the motor under the ride. To do this we manufactured a trolley out of a frame with 4 castor wheels then a bit of ply then a car tyre then another bit of ply then a trolley jack with a bit of 6 inch channel welded to it. We sat the pump on it and rolled it under. It worked like a charm and we jacked it up to the correct height to align the couplings. A bit of jiggling and the two went together, we hung the pump on a ratchet strap and rotated it about 10 degrees to align the mounting bolt holes (why have things mounted at angles instead of horizontal???). Next we fitted all the pipes again.At this I noticed a plastic blank under the pump- good job cos if we had ran it up this would have blown out and lost our oil in a few moments- luckily we had a blank to fit it. I checked the time- 1:30pm, a whole 30 mins ahead of schedule. Next we went onto motor1, we attached the overhead crane and hoisted it up into position. Unfortunately the motor was mounted at an angle too. The lifting eye had the motor level so we had to improvise- 2 long threaded rods were inserted into the motor bolt holes and we wound it in- it twisted as it went until we had to remove the hooks from the lifting eye and hang it by a strap wrapped around the end of the motor. After a while we finally had it in, I check the time- 3:45 so we had lost 15 min from my original schedule. Motor 2 went on quicker as we had learned the technique now. We moved onto the piping and I said to "r" if we fit these last two pipes in 4 mins we will be bang on schedule. Of course it took longer,but only a few minutes and I was well pleased. All we had to do was run it all up. First we turned on the oil taps to flood the pump, we started the motor, a sweet quiet humming noise- so far so good. We tried the hydraulic back flash ram we put the seals in-extend, retract,extend,retract- excellent, no leaks and its working. We raised the backflash and started on the motors. We hadn't fitted the cogs yet so we could spin them up and check they were rotating in the same direction. They were so we fitted the cogs. Now the acid test, we would lift the carriage on the ride. I gingerly eased the joystick forward- the ride slowly began to rise up but it stopped at about 8 o clock position. I tried again and it stopped at the same position. I though instantly that the pressure was not high enough. I called the hydraulics engineer and he confirmed that there were indeed two relief valves present on the pump casing but he wasn't sure were. He would find out for me, but during this time I had found two likely candidates and adjusted them about 1/2 a turn. I tried the ride and it moved past 8 o clock and stopped at 9 o clock position. At least I was on the right track and had another attempt adjusting. This time the ride completed the revolution easily and I connected the counter weights so I could test the ride. I eased the ride around one way then the other a few times. We checked for leaks and there were none so we gave it the full monty. The ride was over speed by 1 rev in reverse but under speed by 5 revs in forward. I was dismayed but thought it only needed the control "Dynex" adjusted. So we started tinkering- a few minutes later and it was all no go, the ride was un-controlable. The only component not to be refurbished seemed to be malfunctioning. It was well after 9pm and I had an old mobile number for the ride manufacturer that I had not used for about 5 years. I called and he answered!! I got a quick heads up on the dynex set up. We tried again for another hour but it was no good. Tired, cold and demoralised we went home. At that point I wondered why I had even bothered at all, I surfed the web for info and found a PDF document for the Dynex device. The next morning we headed out again, all I could do was possibly clean it while I waited for a price from the Dynex uk agents. I called a couple of other hydraulic chaps but none had any information to give regarding this device. So "r" and I stripped it. Firstly, it had a small internal filter with an ultra fine gauze that we cleaned out ( not that we could see any dirt). Secondly we removed a casing plug and blew through it, a very small speck of dirt seemed to come out, but nothing to speak of. Thirdly we removed the force motor but could see no oddities. So we put it all back together. At that Blakey arrived and his words of wisdom were- I can see you are stalling to put it back on in case it doesn't work but you've got to try it. So I put it on, again it was un-controlable, but this time I disconnected it from the pump arm and began to adjust it free of the pump. I bled it, then adjusted the force motor position, gradually I got it to

settle down. I told "r" to activate it back and forward with the joystick whilst I measured the strokes of the little piston. Eventually I had it mm perfect on push and pull. We reconnected it to the pump arm and tried it. Eureka!! exact revolutions forward and reverse, in fact both were exactly the same for the first time ever. For a whole hour we ran the ride and pumps- no leaks,no squeaks, no problems. We pulled the ride down, cleaned up 6 weeks of rubbish and headed out to the mall.

Wednesday "r" and I went to pick up the skydiver and Dropzone from the yard. We eventually got the EC11 started when we diagnosed that flat batteries was in fact a faulty battery isolator switch. We left the yard soon after. "R" managed to limp the EC10 in on a dirty filter. Arriving on site we set the rides and started to erect the skydiver. "r" was eager and suggested we do the maimi too as the weather had dried up. We started the pump and "r" headed towards the lever valves. All of a sudden bang and he cried out burst pipe. Dashing to the paybox he stopped the motor. Looking under the ride we could see a small puddle of oil, but it was not a pipe, no. On the back of the refurbished pump was a brand new small auxiliary pump, with an even newer crack down its casing that was leaking oil. What can I say, it was either faulty or had been stressed by over tightening when assembled at the hydraulic place. I have called for a replacement to be sent up. However they had a better idea and are sending me tomorrow to pick up a replacement from a nearby Scottish supplier.

NOW WHAT HAS ALL THIS GOT TO DO WITH THE QUESTION, WHAT IS LUCK?????

Lets see- the wasted 10 days were to get the consultant up who it turned out was 70yrs old and had designed the motors! was that lucky?

the motors were so badly worn that only he could have come up with a repair plan, was that lucky?

the pump didn't mount horizontally so this let me see that the metal blank still needed to be fitted, was that luck?

because the motors had failed their initial test and delayed, I picked them up days later, this gave time for the coupling to be ready, was this lucky?

because of the delays it was Sunday that I went down, the roads were quiet and I made up the hour I lost from the time change, was this lucky?

the whole job has taken 6 weeks and to kill the time waiting we have done many many others jobs, was this lucky?

the ride manufacturer still having the same mobile number after so long, was that lucky?

Blakey spurring me on to try the Dynex again instead of me buying another, was that lucky?

because of the problem with the battery isolator on the Foden we checked the EC11's right away, was this lucky?

because it stopped snowing before 6pm- "r" decided to erect the miami and found the blown pump earlier, was this lucky?

"r" limped the EC10 onto site without changing the filter stuck on the hard shoulder in the snow, was this lucky?

As opposed to- another consultant came sooner and I got everything 10 days earlier.

the motors only needed a clean and paint, a monkey could have done it and gave me change out of a fiver.

the pump mounted horizontally and the plug was already fitted.

everything was ready on time at the same time and I picked it all up.

the hydraulic engineer was only 4 miles away not 400 and any day would have been a ten minute trip.

the whole job took 2 weeks, I never had time to work on the other jobs as I was away on a months cruise.

I didn't need to phone the ride manufacturer because when I put it altogether it worked.

Blakey was out working earning cash as he was not needed due to the dynex being "A O.K"

both isolators had never ever failed at all before.

it never snows because its always sunny in Scotland and the pump didn't blow anyway.

dirty filters? what are these? I've never experienced any such thing!!!!

LUCK IS (definition of) "THE ABILITY TO IMAGINE A WORSE SITUATION THAN THE ONE YOU ARE CURRENTLY IN!" quote by showman 2010.

a fairground life

2010-03-21T19:51:00.004Z

Yes we're still in the shed, yes we're still working on the miami and yes we're still waiting on the pump & motors being serviced. So not much movement then. The splats are finally finished, the man hours on them must be around 120. Designing the digital print, picking it up, getting the polycarbonate , monitors,plugs. Then making the monitor boxes and re wiring half the ride to power them up. Anyway after all that we had to find somewhere safe for them to travel that wasn't an operation at pulling down time. Eventually after much searching we decided to hang them on the backflash. With hooks that protrude to hang them on and an eye at the bottom to paddlelock them to. The polycarbonate is supposedly unbreakable!! So to test it we placed an off cut on the concrete floor an "r" blootered it a couple of times with a claw hammer. It survived and only had a slight dent to its surface. So the I put it between two blocks about 75mm from the floor to give it bending room, hit it with the hammer as hard as I could. From the recoil it shot up into the air about twenty feet. I repeated this a couple of times-sure enough it seems unbreakable! The last couple of days have been spent rubbing and filling the paybox ready for re decoration. But NOT with paint- this is the 21st century after all, so it's digital print on vinyl that has been laminated to protect it from UV and other nasty stuff. It looks a million dollars but is a bit tricky to put on. We have managed to do so thus far without getting any creases in it. Only two more panels to do and that will be us. I wonder who will be the first to do a whole backflash in print? It can even be printed onto aluminium sheets now. One thing I noticed though was that the half naked ladies now seemed very explicit and I had to strategically place text to take the edge off. This week coming is the last before starting out, hope we get the gear back soon. The plan (wish list) was for the 24th but I really don't know. I have attached a couple of photos of the paybox and a splat. I wonder if these are the first splats to have monitors fitted into them?

a fairground life (time will tell)

2010-03-16T20:44:00.000Z

We're still working away in the shed. The motors and pumps are still away being serviced, but hopefully a little over a week and we will (maybe) get them back. The work has kept on going so not to waste the opportunity that we have had in the shed waiting for the motors etc. It is very expensive but they should last another 20 years now and that will probably see me out. The ride has been painted under and over. All the lights have been removed and cleaned, splats are being made with fitted LCD screens in them. We have designed digital printed vinyl for the paybox and end panels. The paybox has had a few downward pin spots fitted to light up the front where the punters walk up to pay. So all in all a good winters work, Oh and we have nipped up the brakes and changed a couple of brake chamber air hoses. The front spot banks have been re wired and plugged so that they no longer have lengths of trailing cable attached as they are packed away. Not only that the top ram for the back flash has had new seals fitted. The paybox has new laminate flooring and the leaky roof has be re firbreglassed.Countless other wee jobs have also been done that probably never would have been if it wasn't for this scenario.

Every single bulb on the ride is working!! Certainly a first for any ride I've ever owned!!

So the big questions are-

1 when we get the motors n pump back will there be any oil leaks?

2 will there be an improvement in performance?

and if there is a no to any of the above questions,

3 will I survive Mrs Showman's wrath?

time will tell!

a fairground life (heart and lungs of a ride)

2010-02-24T21:26:00.002Z

Last Wednesday we packed up. Two of the crew came from Falkirk to give us a hand. It was just after 6pm when we started and all the rides were down before 10pm. The next morning we took the Miami and show over into the shed. "R" reversed the ride through the doors and into its position without too much trouble, in fact it was easier than I thought it was going to be. We headed straight back to pick up the Skydiver and Dropzone to take them to Stirling. The trip out was fine and we dropped the rides off and headed back to Glasgow, but the M80 was chocca now and it took us two hours to do the 26 mile return trip. The next morning we were up and into the shed. The plan was to get the two hydraulic motors and the pump off the ride so I could take them for servicing. So "BK" removed the grease guards, "r" removed the pipes and I removed the pinions. A regular little production line. Sure enough it wasn't too long and the crane was brought up to lift out the first motor. "R" got a little ahead of himself and removed too many mounting bolts before attaching the crane to the motor's lifting eye. The result was that the last bolt sheared off and the motor literally fell out!! Luckily it jammed on a cross stay before it fell to the deck. "R" was lucky it didn't fall on him. So we quickly attached the crane and lowered the motor out. Ironically, I was worried that we would not be able to get that particular one out and it had fell out it's self. So not dwelling on the possible consequences of that near disaster we quickly removed the next motor. That done we began to remove the pump from under the rides chassis. It too was a large lump and we put a trolley jack under it to take the weight as we removed the last mounting bolt. We lowered the jack and when the pump was about 6" (150mm) from the floor we rolled it off and slid it out from under the ride.

Now all we had to do was put them on the pick up. Not wanting to risk damaging the pickup floor, we put a sheet of 3/4 ply down first. We lifted on the first motor. The pick up sat down a bit. We lifted on the second motor. The pick up sat down even more. We lifted on the pump and the pick up looked like the a**e was dragging out of it! Any way, not having too many transport options, we strapped them off ready for the journey to the hydraulic engineers. I wasn't too worried, it was only a short trip down London Rd, followed by the M74,A69,A1,A17 to Norwich where they would be serviced (420m). So mission accomplished for the day we knocked off early. The heart and lungs of the ride had been removed.

Friday was a terrible day.

Saturday we started on other jobs around the ride. We removed all the paybox lights, "r" fabricated a couple of new panel frames as the old ones were rotten (I told "BK" to give them a thick coat of paint to hold them together as "r" is still novice status on the welder). Sunday evening Mrs showman and I set off with the motors. She popped into Morrisons to get some refreshments for the journey. When she came out she had a weeks worth of shopping! In my best sarcastic tone I calmly asked her, "What part of-this pick up can't carry any more weight, did she not understand"? We stopped off at Newcastle for the night to visit "DT". Monday morning at 6am I set off to complete the journey to Norwich. I couldn't believe that it had snowed all through the night. I took my time on the roads because of the weather and the weight on the pick up. I never went over 60 mph in fear the tyres would blow out. I know the pickup is rated for 1000 kg and I must have had a least 800 kg on it. Six hours later I arrived at the engineers. We off loaded the motors and pump using a pallet hoist. The place was very small and I could not see any work taking place. I was a bit concerned until I spotted another identical pump and motor stripped down in the place. At least there was evidence that they could do what they said they could. It was well after 1pm now and I headed back to Newcastle to pick up Mrs Showman. I could get the foot down now and arrived there just after 6pm. My backside was numb. I had a quick look around the large fair there and DT's new booster before heading back to bonnie Scotland.It was a pity that they had a poor turn out at the fair.

The last few days have been spent on wiring , scraping, cleaning and painting. We have plenty to do before we put the motors and pump back on. Just as well they are on a 3-4 week turn around.I want the ride all finished so that when we put them back on its job done. I have even put the light caps into the dishwasher to clean them up.

a fairground lifetrance

2010-02-15T17:38:00.003Z

Friday afternoon we took the skydiver out of the shed. The paint literally wasn't dry on the chassis but I wanted it out so we could build it up for the weekend. So we headed over to the mall

and set the ride on a plot. That same weekend was also the colours Fantasylands music event, so the space was split between the fair and the music event. This meant that we had to improvise the layout a bit but we managed in the end. It was About 7pm when we left for the night only setting the ride and levelling off the chassis.

Saturday at 7am "r" and I set off to finish the ride off for opening at 12pm. The music event was completed and fenced off. The miami was inside this area whilst the rest of the funfair was outside on the boardwalk. The skydiver was erected and we opened at noon. The miami was closed , only opening when the music event would start. Just after 4pm we closed the fair and erected the security fencing around the rides to create a controlled path into the music event. The sky diver was out of this pen and I was a wee bit concerned that it would be subject to abuse through the night. At 5pm we left to get something to eat before returning to open the miami at 6:30pm.

The weather was dry and at 7pm the gates opened. Slowly the crowd gathered and at around 11pm there were enough people to make the event look busy.So I counted down the nano seconds until closing at 4am. The pull down was easy as again we only did half the ride, leaving the weights and backflash in situ while we slowly drove the ride up the mall 150 yrd onto its next plot. The ride was about 28ft high but it didn't matter with no bridges or corners to worry about. It was a little before 5am and we headed home.

Sunday at 9am and we were back at the mall to erect the miami and take down the security corridor around the rides. The area inside the music event was deep in plastic bottles but our patch was tidy. I was feeling the effects of the long hours from the night before. At 6pm we closed after a very very quiet Sunday afternoons trade.

The photo is across the miami platform. You can see the dropzone tower in the distance, like a giant monolith at the entrance to the gig.

a fairground life (shed rats)

2010-02-08T21:04:00.002Z

"R" picked a good time to go on holiday, as he missed pulling down the Skydiver at the mall. I did this with "worm" a week gone Sunday night. It took us 3 hours, what a disgrace as that was a good hour longer than it should have taken. To be fair though the last time I pulled that ride down was in June and it has been a while since I did any other heavy work so it doesn't take long to grow fat 'n' lazy. A few weeks after starting out should see me in the swing of things again (I hope).

I went looking for a shed again to work on the rides in. As usual I looked where the other showmen are working first to see if there was room and what's what. Anyhow while at the shed talking to one or two, it was mentioned that we are "shed rats". It was quite apt though as it is always the same faces that are in the sheds year on year. There are some showmen who have never been in a shed to do any work. Maybe they work harder in the summer or just have more time to do this maintenance then. Maybe they have better equipment that doesn't need this level of maintenance or maybe they are just lazy, but one thing is for sure- I don't seem to fall into any of these categories as I have been in sheds every few years for as long as I can remember, so I guess I am a "Shed Rat".

The skydiver has been taken back into the shed again for maintenance. I didn't think we were going to be able to do that work this month as the first proposed shed had a door that was too low and it was full with other rides anyway, also the engineer making the replacement components had not done so and was leaving the next morning for a 3 week holiday. So I cancelled the shed. Three hours later the engineer called me to come to his place immediately and he would do the components there and then. For 10pm that night I had the two new bushes in my hands. Now all I had to do was find another shed I could fit into. Anyway four days later and I manage to get space in the same shed I used two years ago, that was very lucky. I took the skydiver over there in the morning and put it back on its original plot used 6 and 2 years ago, in fact the blue paint from painting the chassis is still clearly visible on the floor!

With the ride positioned its only a matter of starting work, which I left to "r" and "wk" that day as I was otherwise engaged. I started on the job the next morning.

Its has been a week now that we have been working. The ride has had a few mechanical jobs done-pins,bushes etc. We started to repair the lighting again. The running light box has been playing up lately so I opened it for for inspection. I didn't spot anything obvious at first but then the box froze as I prodded and poked. It turned out that there was a fractured pin on a very small IC connector on a ribbon cable. It became more apparent when it broke off completely when I touched it. So I ended up at Maplins, then a computer repair shop and finally RS components, all of whom did not have a replacement. I have ordered one for tomorrow, I hope its the correct one. That episode took up a couple of hours and when we got into the shed it was lunchtime. We spent the next few hours putting in bulbs and changing bulb holders. I can't help but wonder how it seems that so much work needs done to the ride? I'm far from a perfectionist, but it seems the the potential for improvement to the ride is endless. It has been getting me down a bit as I have felt like I've been getting nowhere fast. Hopefully this feeling will pass and I will get a little ahead with things. After this one is finished the plan is to crack on with the Miami.

a fairground life (End SECC)

2010-01-14T12:58:00.002Z

We headed over to the mall on Sunday morning early. The idea being to thaw the lorry out and move it over to the secc for removing the DropZone. The temperature was above freezing for the first time in weeks, a whole 2 degrees. I was apprehensive about starting the lorry up after sitting so long in sub zero temperatures. "r" jumped in the cab and turned the key............BROOOOM! as the engine growled to life, it was smokey, but even running. We just let it tick over for a few minutes to let the oil circulate and thin out. I listened carefully, thankfully there were no knocks or whinning noises. The next issue would be the air, would it build up pressure or would moisture in the system or valves be frozen? Again we watched carefully and the gauges moved up to 8 bar. Not out of the woods yet as we had to see if the brakes would come off, as I released the hand brake there was a reassuring hiss of air, I let the clutch up and with a small clunk the lorry broke free of all restrictions. Lucky, lucky me, no doubt if it had been a few degrees lower like the days before it would have been a different story. I took the lorry over to the secc and left it in carpark 5 ready for pulling out.

Fast forward to 10pm and the secc finally closed. The DZ had performed beyond my expectations mechanically as we had only replaced one small guide ballrace and a couple of brushes. Before we started to pull down "r" went up the tower and tightened up all the loose caps on the lighting. There was a good many and if we had lowered the tower before doing this, they would have all fallen off. When we lowered the tower for pulling down, it was over the top of the superstar. We was beat for about 12" (300mm) to get the tower down and swing the pole around so we lifted it again and put 3" (75mm) block onto the tower cradle. When we lowered the tower down again this gave us the clearance needed to swing the pole around over the superstar, then we raised the tower slightly to remove the blocks. After that it was an easy pull down and with the help of "skyliner C" we were out by midnight. Only 48 weeks before it all starts again.

The picture is some of the lorries lined up waiting for the pull out.

a fairground life (Quality? what's that?)

2010-01-08T18:13:00.002Z

Well John, you certainly have got the old grey matter working with regards to today's fairground rides quality. It seemed when I was younger that there were no new machines, maybe I was just too young to notice. It was slower times perhaps or showmen may have been earning fine with what they had, so if it ain't broke don't fix it! Then there is the technology and materials that are in today's rides that didn't exist 30 years ago. One thing is for sure, the credit loan needed to buy a ride certainly did not exist for everyone back then, but since the introduction of the credit card leading to everyone living on credit it seemed inevitable that eventually large loans would be available to people with less than solid assets. The credit bubble has helped a lot of people and the younger generation thinks nothing of owing large sums compared to the older generation saving for something then buying it. Then there is travel, holidays and television where the showmen and punters alike seen fancier, different, newer rides abroad and wanted some of that for themselves. Any how my first recollection of a NEW machine was when another showman built his own Meteorite circa 1978, my first recollection of a new TYPE of machine was when a well known showfamily got an "Invader" around 1980. Both of these had common factors- FOLD UP on one load! Easy quick build up was the criteria now. The Invader however took us into new territory- 415v 3ph power, auto drive, metal flake moulded cars and most importantly THEMEING! Yes it caught the imagination of the people with the name associated with "space invaders" and "alien" the movie, both massive influences on the public at that time. The Invader was a mobile goldmine nick named the "Hoover" as it could suck up all the punters at any fair! It had a capacity of upto 54 seats, it had modern style running lights when we still had bulbs. It had it all in spades and that showfamily knew how to exploit it from one end of the country to the other. The other showmen watched with green eyes and realised there was a new market to be tapped. Soon after more rides followed- Hurricane jets, magic carpet. There was even a time when foreign rides were brought in on loan just for the Kelvin Hall- magic carpet, orbitor, matterhorn and early years of the secc- polyp, raft canyon and spinball only to name a few. Then by the 90s the clever people had tapped into finance and we saw the big boom- terminator, miamis, street dancer, kingloops, kamikazee, superbowl, superbob, top gun, leathal weapon, super spin, superstar, tri-star and a host more I have forgotten. The credit was spending fast and into the "noughties" it continued with big apple,freakout, energy storm,crazy frog, dropzone, speed buzz, xtreme etc etc. It was as easy as Jack Dee said,"a tenner down and a million repayments". BUT it all ends now. The credit crunch and terrible Euro rate means No credit=No new purchases=No second hand market. It could be a long while until we see the same amount of changes we have in the last 20 years.

But quality is not just about age, what's the point in having a new ride if it's in dis-repair, some of the older rides that are well looked after are of a better quality than some of the new "off the shelf gear". I bet the DZ doesn't last as long as any set of Gallopers has! To be fair, some of the good gear in the secc has come from south of the border- superbob, superstar (previously scottish), super bowl (previously scottish), move it, big chairs. Quality is a big question, are rides worth £2 or more a go? sometimes quality is only paint deep!

As for the American question, to be fair the usa is too much into it's own technology! Yes it leads the way in Wooden Roller coasters and theme parks but the fairground stuff all comes from Europe- Huss,Moser,Mondial,Safeco,SBF,Visa,SDC,Tivoli,Reverchon,KMG and too many more to mention! All only a short trip away onto mainland Europe. Also the strong Pound helped us before the crash. That many manufacturers in a small area had to lead to competitive pricing and a good used ride market. It has got to be hard for the US showman to compete with that and Disney!

A fairground life (What's in a Decade?)

2009-12-31T14:00:00.001Z

What's in a Decade?

The last ten years have been the shortest of my life, it has absolutely flown by.

Back in 1999 things were on a new start for us.I had been working all summer to complete the renovations on our new home. We had also moved onto another yard in Glasgow (with good company) for the winter. It was only a week or so before Christmas 99 that we finally got moved in to the wagon. Life seemed that bit more comfortable. The new millennium (2000) seemed to hold a lot of promise, I mean after we had survived the Y2K bug.My new car was a Renault Laguna 1.9dt RT sport.

As the year quickly stepped into 2001 more things were on the move, I had just bought a new lorry for the skydiver, An ERF EC10, although we had trouble with it initially (a burst intercooler) it turned out to be a good buy. It was a young lorry for any showman at the time. Soon after (out of necessity) I took possession of my first silent running generator. A whole 100kva! Wow I'll never use all that power! We holliday-ed in Euro Disney that year. I know these are all material objects but it shows how good things were because I had no other worries at that time to mention. During this year we first attended the mall for easter, business was good, very good for the first few years and life was sweet.

Christmas came and went again and 2002 stepped up. That year seen us take another step forward with the purchase of the Miami ride. I have always been a cautious person, only doing something that I felt was abso-posi-lutely secure, so the four years repayments were considered, pondered,reviewed and eventually agreed on. Again I was lucky, life was good as the ride made it's deadlines and a small profit to boot. Our Holiday was in Florida on our first ever cruise.

2003 came around and at the end of that season I had enough cash to take my rides into a shed for the rest of the winter. Not only that they all got a major overhaul.Things were rosey the following summer as the maintenance had all been done. No holiday though, you can't spend it twice.

2004 arrived and for the first time the reality of life knocked on the door as my father took seriously ill. We had never known heart ache before, this was something that happened to other people, I mean it's been 5 years and he's still gone!

2005 rolled in, we were one man down now but it wasn't slowing us up, my bro took possession of his new twister ride and we all had new jeeps. Biz had dropped a little but not enough to worry about.Holidays this year were in Cannes, a lovely location full of the "beautiful people" and a few months later Florida.

2006 and "r" entered into uni for his engineering degree, a university student was a first for our family. We picked up a few new events, fairs and hires.I also got my first ever brand new generator, a 200kva ,what happened to only needing 100 kva???? Oh!, and the miami was paid for!, what are we gonna do now? As a wise showman once said-"life is like driving along the motorway, as soon as you take your foot off the accelerator, someone passes you". So just before 2006 expired, we took on the Drop Zone to keep progressing. Again life dropped us a reminder of the important issues when my Uncle "Jr" passed away suddenly.

2007 was full of expectation and excitement as I had a new toy to play with. We ventured further afield and went to some new fairs as a result of the DZ, St Andrews and Irvine to name two. Pushing on further to try and better our lives we took on the investment of a House (a yard seemed untouchable). Our holiday was in Florida again, I really enjoyed it with plenty of company this time.

2008 drew in, we were still coping but it was getting tighter. Half a decade had passed and we were back in the shed again doing major maintenance on the skydiver. Later in the year "R" passed both of his HGV tests first time around and life got a lot easier for me. This year saw us go to Muir of Ord and later enter the SECC with the DZ. The secc helped us through that winter.

2009 arrived and I knew instantly it was all going to go pear shaped, I suppose deep down I'm a superstitious person and 9 is an unlucky number. Biz dropped again, everywhere not just at the mall, expenses were rising without pause. My secure investment of the house had lost a fortune in value. I did get my holiday though, Florida again, but this time I didn't enjoy it as much, just had a feeling of been there, done that. So we went another,probably the most enjoyable and relaxing I've had, one (cheap) week on the Red Sea."R" graduating with his degree was the highlight of the year. As 2009 draws it's last breath, I can honestly say I'm glad to see it go. Mrs Showman and I have seen out three decades together, the Noughties have been good for my family. We have achieved many a thing in the last ten years, unfortunately we have suffered some losses along the way. The next ten years will hold things a-new, but I know I can't hold down the accelerator for much longer, my foot's getting tired along with the rest of me. Maybe I've seen the best of times?

Best vehicle of the decade-ERF EC10

Best buy of the decade- miami ride

Worst vehicle has got to be the Kan't'goo

Worst buy has to be the Kan't'goo too.

Best Holiday, hmm! that's a hard one, possibly Cannes as I also got to visit Monte Carlo.

Worst Holiday had to be the last one in Florida, just seemed to be an anti-climax.

Most memorable moment- "R" graduating.

Worst moment-obviously my father.

Bitter Sweet moment- was watching our wagon leave after selling it.

Photo of the decade- dad getting his Rolex on fathers day 2003.

And That's what's in a Decade!!!

Happy New Decade Everyone, and thanks for reading.

A fairground life

2009-12-28T01:19:00.002Z

I didn't think we were going to get opened at all on Boxing day. The snow was falling with flakes the size "of half crowns" according to my father in law, I don't know what that is in today's money. At around 1pm the snow stopped and I began to clear the rides and salt the platforms. This was supposed to be one of the "gaff" days but it didn't happen either here or at the secc. Who would venture out in that weather anyway? The temperature was a whole 1/2 degree above freezing so at least it felt warmer. The secc was cold inside too, obviously the heating was off during x-mas day. This resulted in "r" calling to say the DZ was not working, I told him to switch off the extra cooling fans and idle to pump for a few minutes to thin the oil. Sure enough that solved the problem, I must be getting to know the ride's idiosyncratic behaviour now. The water lasers are still frozen, I've finally put an electric heater in beside the pump in an attempt to thaw it out. At the last attempt there was still no joy. The pirate galleon ship in the water lasers looked more like HMS Discovery with the water frozen solid around its hull, hope it doesn't take two years to thaw!

a fairground life

2009-12-24T21:50:00.001Z

Well the mall has changed from a winter wonderland to an arctic tundra. It was -7 today so the rides were frozen beyond operational limits. A day off for some while "r" and I did our shift in the secc.

merry christmas everyone!

a fairground life

2009-12-23T15:35:00.002Z

Well it was the calm before the storm, only literally and not metaphorically speaking! The snow has hammered us for two days now. I spent over an hour yesterday and again this morning clearing snow from the miami and skydiver rides. Then I salted the platforms on each ride. All to no avail as there are no customers about. The DZ was even affected by the snow as the secc was closed early (7pm) last night due to public transport problems. It took me 2hrs to get home at night as the roads were so bad. Roll on christmas day so I can get my feet up. As for the water lasers, they are still frozen solid, maybe I could alter them to fire ice cubes?

a fairground life (calm before the storm)

2009-12-21T15:30:00.004Z

Since last Wednesday we have been busy busy working but not earning. The DZ was set up in the secc ahead of schedule as I had allocated 3 full days for this but managed to do it in 1 and a 1/2. Just as well as we had the miami booked in for the Soulwaxmas event at the braehead arena too and both gigs kicked off on the same night (fri 18th). The miami setup was supposed to be from Thursday but there was no activity at the Arena site, so I half pulled the ride down to move it the 100 yrds onto its event plot and left it for the next day. All the smaller rides were removed from the mall area as this was now being shared with the music event. To ease any congestion, avoid blocking the view to the music event entrance and prevent any damage being done to these rides, we removed them from site earlier in the week. This meant that they would all have to be re erected on Saturday morning before opening. I said "half pulled down the miami" as that was exactly what it was. We never removed the weights or lowered the backflash, we just packed the control box and raised the front platforms. The lorry coupled up ready to move. So back on Friday early noon to set the ride up again. It only took a few minutes to move the 100 yrds distance and about 20mins to re erect the ride. After that it was back to the secc for opening. I arrived back at 4pm to see one of the other ride operators pull in with his van. He had a large hydraulic ram inside, which he had just got repaired. Unluckily for him the seals had went whilst trying the ride out after trying out on Monday. The ram was repaired but now had to be fitted. So a few of us gave him a hand. We got the use of a forklift from the secc to remove the cylinder from the back of the van. Now we had to devise a way to lift it into position four feet off the floor at a 45 degree angle whilst being inserted through two beams with cutout holes and not forgetting that the eyes needed to align for the fixing pins! At that the helpful HSE officer for the secc arrived to give us the benefit of his wisdom. The outcome of that was- the forklift was not designed to carry the ram, but since it was safer than us lifting it by hand he would "kindly" let us use it. I suppose if we had strapped a palette to the bloody thing that would have been alright then! So watching the clock and with the help of the experienced forklift driver (which made all the difference) we did manage to get the ram in position and the pins hammered in literally on the stroke of 6pm when the doors opened. Mean while "r" was doing the music event with the crew from Falkirk. Skyliner "c" arrived to help me with the DZ.

The secc was quiet and I called "r" on the hour every hour but the news was always the same-"it's crap, there's no people here!" he informed me. So "R" struggled on until 3am in the morning before they half pulled the ride down and moved it back onto it's funfair plot again for opening on Saturday morning.It's a good job we only had 100 yrds to go or we would not have cleared the moving expenses!! thats how bad a gaff it was. At 8am I headed out to the mall to erect the ride again while "r" got some kip. It was after 11am before I got things ready again and I made a dash for the secc to get organised there for opening too. Everything was running smooth apart from the Miami set needing a filter change, which my bro took care of for me. Sunday was a nightmare, the snow was about an inch deep and it took an hour to thaw out the rides at the mall. No such problems for the DZ in the warm,dry hall 4 of the secc. Any way I shoveled four bin bags of salt and spread them all around the miami and skydiver. The water lasers were a no go, being totally frozen solid. I hope the pump hasn't been split, I'll find out tuesday no doubt. At 6pm we closed at the mall, just in time as a blizzard hit as we were leaving. I called in at the secc on the way home to see if "r" needed any help. Luckily for me "c" was still on hand so I got an early finish. On the way home the roads were so bad that the jeep got stuck on an exit ramp of the m8. I quickly put that fuse back in and got the 4wd working again. Maybe I will be able to keep it in now or maybe the diff problems will return????? Any way it got us moving and home. The roads were just sheets of ice again this morning.

Monday and I'm in the secc with "r" today, things are working well at the moment but that can change quickly as we have seen in previous posts. Managed to get a little x-mas shopping in this morning. It's the calm before the storm in here, just got to keep it all running!

a fairground life (secc)

2009-12-16T14:16:00.003Z

Tuesday morning we head over the the secc, the DropZone is already in the carpark from the day before. The traffic was heavy on the M8 and we arrived ten minutes later than planned at 8:10am. The door to hall 4 was open and within 5 minutes we were in and set on the plot. We used the generator for power to get built up so we didn't have to wait for the sparkies to connect us up. As the floor is perfectly flat the ride was levelled in a jiffy. In fact the ride was erected very quickly and we then started on the other jobs. "R" replaced a sticky limit swich while I cleaned all the handrails, then I waxed the panels of the ride. At noon we stopped for lunch. When we started again we cleaned all the brush contacts, waxed the control box, got every single bulb on the tower working (first ever I think) which then made the fuse blow!! So "r" climbed the tower and replaced the fuse (stupid designer put fuse box at the top of the tower!). After that we painted the tower yellow again. The ride is very smart and tidy. While we were doing all this the other operators were building up too. The layout has changed again and we have new rides in- Superbowl, Superstar , Extreme and the Mega mix. The large Gallopers, TopSpin and Twister Coaster rides are delete. The DZ has moved over one plot from last year. It was 7:30pm before we called it a night, we wanted every last job done as when them doors open on Friday it will be "full on" for two weeks. All we have to do is erect the Q pen when the sections are delivered. The photo is a blurry section of hall 4 taken by "r" as we test run the DZ.

a fairground life

2009-12-13T22:46:00.003Z

The last of the light ups for us Alloa. I have been providing the fair here for the last 10 years and apart from the first year in 2000, I never presented any of my own equipment. This year was different though as the Fair was to be moved from the origional car park to a new location just across the road. I must admit, at first I did not fancy the new location as it was further away from the High St and the fair was partly hidden from view by a neighbouring building, but on the night the people did turn out to support the towns event. The organisers realised that the new location for the light up stage show needed some extra effort and they really pulled out the stops. They had extra x-mas lights installed leading down to the venue, a new Christmas tree put up and lights fitted to it, then they had a world record attempt organised for the most people dancing a reel. To top all that off, there was a charity fair in the aforementioned building and plenty of advertisement to let the public know. So we set off from Glasgow on a dry , cold and dark Saturday morning at 6am. It was very foggy with poor visabillity but by the time we arrived in Alloa at little before 8am the fog had lifted a bit. The new location was almost clear of cars, in fact a sole van was parked and as mentioned before in this blog it was parked in the obligatory way. We juggled the position of the ride to compensate then started to build up. A short while later the rest of the tenants arrived, as it was a new site I had prepared a plan before hand but this was quickly modified for the better. As in previous years we all headed over to TESCO for our breakfast before opening. The parked van was moved by the council just before we opened at 11am. The first few hours were slow but just about 3:30pm the crowds started to form for the switch on an hour later. The crowds dwindled to see the light up and then headed back over to the fair again just before 5pm. A few minutes later the DZ had the breakdown. The RCCB had tripped the power off during a ride cycle, "r" went and put it on again and as the ride was stopped, I pressed the manual lower to bring down the carriage for a restart. Alas the ride only lower about 30cm when it stopped again. I thought it was jammed and went out for a closer inspection. I could see that the ride had jammed on a fouled rope. All I needed to do was raise the carriage 1-2 inches to clear it but the design of the ride is such that it can only be started when the carriage is at the bottom position and it was 12ft above this! So we followed procedure and had the fire brigade remove the passengers. At 6:30pm the last one was removed by ladder. It only took "r" a minute to clear the jam by attaching a ratchet strap to the tower and carriage. He ratcheted up the strap and the empty carriage raised the inch or so and he cleared the fowled rope. Literally 2 minutes and the ride carriage was lowered down. But you could'nt do that with the public sitting onboard. At 8pm we were heading back to Glasgow. The next morning we were supposed to do the light up at Cambuslang. We arrived on site at 7am to look at the position for the DZ, it was too tight for the fire passage and the alternative was on too great a slope, so we took the ride back to the mall. There we erected the ride for 10am then replaced the fowled rope with a spare. All ready for noon we tried the ride but it would not go, for 5 hours "r" and I tried everything to get it to go. Eventually, being frozen to the bone, tired and de-moralised we left it for the next day, lucky we didn't go to Cambuslang. Monday morning and I sent emails to the manufacturer in Italy and called an electrician. I also phoned "IS" who used to have a similar ride before he sold it. "r" and I stopped at Maplins to get some components, we tested every diode, resistor, contactor , connection. We read the schematic, traced voltages and even looked up the CPU manual on the internet. The ride still would not go, it simply lifted about 2m from the floor then stopped and blew a 2A fuse. It was about 2pm now and I felt sure that we had fried the CPU when the RCCB trip had went at Alloa. Then in a last ditch desperation thought, I had an idea! The only thing that was out of the ordinary for (apart from the rope foul up) the ride was all the foot traffic across the floor of the ride the night of the breakdown. Normally the carriage is positioned here and prevents foot traffic, so I said to "r" to lift the tread-plate sheeting. Hallelujah!!! a tiny comms wire was rubbed bear and touching on the flooring. As soon as "r" touched it the ride came to life. I called the electrician and "IS" to inform them. As for Italy it was two days later before they contacted me. At that I headed home to pick up Mrs Showman and headed down south for a showmen's function. I don't know if she was happier cos the ride was re paired or because she was getting to go to the function.

A fairground Life (THERE AND BACK AGAIN "R's" Tale)

2009-12-07T18:46:00.002Z

Campbeltown

5:30am and the alarm goes off, at this point I am already regretting the trip to Campbeltown, I dragged myself out of bed and picked up my bag I packed the night before. It was a short trip to the house to pick up showman and then off to pick up a good friend of mine who would be making the trip with me "RM", from there we headed out to the Mall where the Drop zone was waiting for us. On arrival RM quickly put the bags in the cab of the lorry while I set about starting it and building the air up, but this was a no go as the lorry turned over once and then died, so it was out with the battery charger and on with the generator. Within five minutes the charger had the lorry roaring to life and the air was coming up nicely. Another ten minutes passed as I had a last look round and we where on our way. Showman followed us in the pick up to the junction for the M8 and from there he headed back home. I think that was the point at which it really dawned on me that I would be doing this not so much alone but without guidance. Campbeltown is run by another showman we call "Shiney shows" (on account of how clean he keeps his equipment) but for easy writing i'll just call him SS. The plan was for us to leave together but he ended up leaving half an hour behind me by the time he picked up his wee brother KS this meant I got to go in front. For weeks people have told me that the road to Campbeltown is one of the worst they have driven and one person even told Showman that if he wanted the ride back in one piece he would need to drive it there and back himself ( Thank you for the vote of confidence ! ). I will admit that it is the most dangerous road I have ever driven, narrow with blind corners and verges that are anything but forgiving. I will say that I did have a few "hairy" moments on the 140 mile journey, one being a Loch gate that you cross just the other side of Lochgilphead, there are no lights or signs to tell you that you are approaching the bridge ( that can be open or closed ) and as you turn the 90 degree blind corner you have less than 100 yards to swerve away from on coming traffic as the road goes from two way to single track for crossing the bridge itself ! I admit I was lucky that there was no coming traffic or I would have been in trouble. After the bridge at Lochgilphead the journey was less eventful as I'd had the s@&ts put up me and I drove with much more consideration! We arrived at Campbeltown around 11 am and I phoned SS to see where he was at, he had stopped in Tarbert ( 35 miles away ) to book the B&B for us that night and would soon be on his way again. I took this opportunity to park the drop zone on the sea front and have a look at the ground. The site itself was a small car park between three buildings with access via a narrow side road that opened onto the high street, a tight get in to say the least and to make things just that bit harder there were cars parked everywhere. There was a sign up at the entrance to the car park stating that it would be "closed at 1pm" and a 12:30pm SS turned up with KS and we set about stopping cars from entering. Within half an hour we had decided that enough cars had left to try and get the drop zone in, we were WRONG. SS and I went back to the parked ride to bring it in, but alas the bad battery had not taken a charge on the long journey. Luckily SS had a booster pack that we put on and that got the lorry started ( I could see this was going to be an on going problem ). First off I tried to go up the high street and swing right into the narrow road leading to the car park, but it was too tight so it was decide to take a drive round the town and come down the High street and swing left. I got half way round the town when I turned right to go down one of the small streets and I got stuck! A van driver had parked and I could not get passed plus the drop zone was still blocking the road I had just turned off of. It was mayhem! Again luck struck and the driver was only talking across the road, he saw the commotion and quickly shifted. Eventually I had come full circle and was making the left turn into the side street leading to the car park, again this was lined with cars and very narrow, my drivers wing mirror was brushing the wall of a building and I was clearing the cars on my left by mere inches. From this point on it took us an hour and a half just to get off the side street and into the car park, we tried reversing in but parked cars would not let the lorry follow the truck so we straightened up and reversed back down the street we had just driven up and drove into the car park but this meant the ride's tower would be the wrong way and could not swing, so we spent another 30 minutes jack-knifing the truck around with only a few feet to spare. I have to say that without SS, KS and RM there is no way I would have got into that car park, especially KS who has a real knack for guiding using every inch available to get me in ( Thank you ). After that the build up was easy. RM and I threw the drop zone up and grabbed a quick bite to eat, while we waited on darkness falling and the people coming out. About 5 pm folks started to arrive and we stayed open till 9pm. Business was steady but we were just a bit too far from the main event ( a parade down the high street ) and this did hinder us. The pull down was uneventful and I had put the battery charger on the lorry while we were open so it started no problem, by half ten we where back on the road heading towards Tarbert for their light up the next night. The road at night was a lot quieter and I was following SS who knew it better than I, so it was easy driving as I was only following a set of tail lights. We arrived at Tarbert about midnight and drove right onto the plot as it had been coned off for our arrival, I uncoupled the drop zone and parked the lorry behind it while there were no cars in the way as the main street was quiet. After that I walked across the street and checked into the Tarbert Hotel. A strange experience to say the least as I have never stayed in a hotel between light ups, as we usually just head home but I guess this time we were just a bit far out for that.

Tarbert

The next day RM and I slept through breakfast and right on till noon! Unlike SS and KS who have never been known to miss a meal (lol). We got up had quick showers and set about building up the drop zone which again was uneventful apart for a brief 30 seconds where we had to stop traffic so we could swing the tower across the main road. RM and I where all done for 2pm and headed back into the hotel for a quick wash and to check out. SS and KS took us to a cafe that they frequent during the summer (when they are opened here for three weeks) and introduced us to the owner, from there we went to the art shop where SS showed me photos and paintings of the fairground during the summer and one of his 50 foot wagon on the quay side in the middle of the town by itself. Then we went to the ruins of the castle to see the town from a high vantage point and collected some branches for the owner of the cafe to paint silver and decorate the cafe windows with for the coming festivities. I have to admit the four of us looked somewhat peculiar walking through the town with arms full of sticks! KS cracked a few jokes about pagan rituals and we had a good laugh, this earned us a free meal when we stopped by the cafe again just before opening so it was worth it ! We opened at 5pm and the parade came down the high street and stopped right in front of the drop zone while the local councilor said a few words from the balcony of the hotel, it looked like we where going to get something as we had a few runs after the speech ( In which the councilor thanked SS for putting on the fair and congratulated him on his new drop zone ride ! ) but the weather beat us and the rain came down hard clearing the street, at 8:30pm RM and I started pulling down and by 10pm we were on our way back to Glasgow. I followed SS to Lochgilphead where he stopped for fuel while I carried on. It was plain sailing all the way to the Erskine bridge where I stopped for fuel in preparation for Alloa the next morning. After that it was a quick hop over the bridge where I caught up with SS again just as he was cutting off the M8. From there I went to the layby where showman was waiting to pick us up and take RM home. That was the end of our little adventure, 280 miles 2 fairs 2 days and a guided tour of Tarbert ! I have to say I earned more in experience than I did in cash and travelling with SS, KS and RM was without a doubt the highlight of the whole thing, we had a good laugh, but I was glad to be home!

a fairground life (light ups)

2009-11-22T00:16:00.000Z

sorry guys, just been busy doing nothing.

Yesterday (Friday) was the Annual Scottish Sections Guild Luncheon. It was held in the Thistle Hotel and received over a hundred Guests. I played my part on the Committee, setting up the signage, a laptop for a presentation of a Showmens childrens school project before greeting some guests and playing host by plying them with drink. The function went off well with some good speeches from the Section and Guests. I was sitting with a councillor who was on the licensing board of Glasgow on one side and an MSP on my other side. The meal was excellent but the conversation was even better, an opportunity that more showmen should make the most of by attending this event. It was all over by 4pm and I refrained from joining some of the other committee members for a couple of sherbets later as I had an early rise the next morning.

Saturday morning at 5am the alarm went off. I called "r" immediately to rouse him as he was my lift. It was just around 5:30am as we set sail for the mall to pick up the DZ. Destination was Alexandria for their x-mas light switch on. On 7am we pulled into the carpark where we were to set up. There was only one car parked and following sods law to the letter it was right in the way. On closer inspection we could see it had been there a while and was not about to leave anytime soon as there was no tax disc on it. So we set accordingly and built up around the obstacle. At 9am we were in the local cafe enjoying a delicious breakfast. The rest of the fair had erected along the High St. IS's miami no2 set up in the carpark directly accross from the DZ. Just as we were to open at 11 am, Mrs showman called to inform me that "m" was feeling unwell and had to stay in bed. This meant that we were short staffed at the mall and would have to re-deploy our manpower to compensate. So Mrs showman brought my daughter to help "r" while I returned to mind the skydiver at the mall. This however meant that "r" would have to pull down himself. I was worried that it would be too busy for "r" and "w" to cope on the dz but the torrential rain that followed the rest of the afternoon put paid to that. So we were washed out again. The gaff was closed just after 5pm. Blakey, remember WK last year when that fat git never helped you? well luckily Tattoo was there as he helped "r" finish off( and he's on night shift as well), apparently fasto was the preverbal "like a bat out of hell" gone! So when we get to Alloa it should be Aloha! to him as we all get pulled down smart style. And before I forget the dozy git forgot where Alexandria was and called me from Balloch to get directions!!He had only passed it by 4 miles!!!

Sunday is the AGM for the Guild and the 2010 committee will be voted on, so this time tomorrow my Guild career could be over or not as there are 26 candidates for 15 places.

a fairground life (On the Run (AKA no rest for the wicked))

2009-11-08T15:10:00.003Z

I'm sure I've mentioned before that I used to do a bonfire run. Well they used to be bonfires before the nanny state decided (rightly or wrongly) that the fires were too dangerous however the miniature cruise missiles called fireworks were still ok, I mean have you ever heard of anyone getting a bonfire thrown at them? Anyhow when I had the old upright paratrooper I only did one FW display at Bridge of Allan. Wind on ten years to the mid nineties with the skydiver I did three-BoA,Arbroath and Greenock. So wind on another decade later and with "r"s enthusiasm we will do four in four days and be open at the mall again on the fifth day! Maybe this is this industries best feature, when things are tough, you can work harder for longer and maybe squeeze out that extra couple of quid from an extra gaff?

Monday we pulled down the miami and dropzone ready for the coming displays. That night we went back to the mall to install the Santa train (its getting that time again). We could not start until after 9pm when the mall was closed. Again we used a trailer to wheel the ride in piece at a time but we still had to carry everything down the steps to the pad. I swear those carriages get heavier every year. It was after 2am before we finished for the night. It became aparent that there was not enough space between the santa ride and the previously installed jumpers (May). We would have to move the jumpers over about 5ft!!! That would be Tuesday nights problem.

Tuesday morning "r" and I took the DZ over to Cumbernauld's Broadwood stadium to build up for the following night. The rain fell in sheets and we got very damp setting up. We were home for 2pm and rested in prep for tonights ordeal. So again at 9pm we headed to the mall. When we got there the jumpers crew was ready to begin the move. The original plan was to pull about 60% of the ride down and then slide the centre over the 5ft then build the ride back up again. However showmen being showmen another plan was hatched. That day CT had a couple of brackets made. We attached them to the jumpers centre and using two bottles jacks we rasied one side of the ride up 50mm and slid in scaffolding tubes, then we repeated with the opposite side, sliding in more tubes. After that we just gave it a push. Lo and behold it rolled over the 5ft in a matter of minutes. Reversing the process the ride was lowered and the job was done in under an hour. That left us to carry on with the train until 2am again when it was finally finished.

Wednesday I head over with "r" to Cumbernauld for 4:30 pm. We dont open til 6pm but I would rather be early. It was wet again but managed to dry up for the FWorks. It was a good crowd and we did manage to knock out half a living. Again it rained at pulling down time but we were on tarmac so no worries and we were home for midnight.

Thursday morning we head over to Drumchapel for their winterfest celebrations. The tracking was laid out on the grass for the rides to pull onto and set up. The grass either side of the tracking was swampy. This was worsened when the weight of the rides on the tracking squeezed out the water to the edges. We built the miami and DZ up trying not to walk on the grass but it was impossible and within 2 minutes my feet were wet and the grass was mud. We were set up for 3:30pm and headed into the Butty pub for a bar meal. At 5pm we opened and the crowds came.Similar to last year there was a stage show with live acts on. The music was deafening but the crowds didn't seem to mind. The queues for the rides grew and the whole of the park turned into mush within an hour. The queue lanes for the rides were about 6-8 inches deep! At the end of the night when we closed, I stepped off the DZ at one end and went into a hole about 8 inches deep where the ground had been slushed away. The rides were thick with mud, it was all over the floors,steps,handrails,shutters and seats! It was literally half an inch thick. The miami was even worse, the whole of the seating was mud over halfway up. At 9pm we closed prompt and were on the road again taking the rides back to the mall for 11pm.I was glad to get out of that quagmire, I've never seen mud like it for a while. All credit to the organisers though as they put on a better gig than the Glasgow Green. Again it was 2am before I got to kip, just can't switch off at night like I used to.

Friday, up at 7am and off to pick up the DZ to take it to Ayr for their FW night. On arriving at the mall it is again raining and we decide to build up the miami before going to Ayr so that the miami is ready for Saturday morning. The mud was not as bad as I thought, it was worse! The whole machine was covered in a layer of brown slime. It was an embarrassment to leave it like that but it would have to wait until the next morning before I could get to wash it. Anyway we had to get to Ayr to get the DZ built up for tonight and it needed washed too! It was on after 10am when we pulled into the racecourse carpark. Again the rain fell but at least it was softening the mud. We ran out about 150ft of hose and got the pressure washer fired up. With the two of us on the job it took just over an hour. Right around the ride was a brown line on the black tar. We headed into the jeep to try and get warm and a couple of hours kip before opening. The rain stopped just in time but it was still a poor show, not attendance or display wise but the punters were just not spending. Again we pulled down in the wet, I was sick as my feet had been wet for three days in a row now and I was running out of footwear. Back home for midnight, in bed for 1am but didnt get to sleep until well after 3am I guess.

Saturday up at 7 am again, this time we go and pick up a mate of "r"s as he is off to Glenrothes with the DZ for yet another FW show while I head off to do the miami at the mall. At 9 am I start washing the ride with the pressure washer , another 3 hours later and the job is almost done. Wet through from the overspray I put on my last pair of dry shoes. Six changes in three days the jeep looks like a Chinese laundry inside. I was late opening by 45 minutes but at least the ride was clean. "r" called by then to say he was was set up and ready.It did stay dry at Glenrothes and the location was red blaze so no mud. Later at 11:40 pm he calls me to say he is nearly back at the mall so I could go out and pick him up. Again it is 2am and I'm not in bed yet.

Sunday we get a lay in until 9:30 am then head over to the mall in a rush to get the DZ up for noon. At last bright clear sunshine and with a little heat too. We are feeling the effects now and manage only to get the ride up for half past 12. Never mind I can get Monday off--wait a minute,I'm on the santa train that day! As for Mrs showman, her and a few others are enjoying a girls weekend in the Big Apple and someone has to pick them up from the airport at 7am Monday morning, I wonder who that unlucky sod will be? I must be doing something wrong.

Sorry no photos , just didn't have the time so I pinched this one from an excellent site, hope Niall doesn't mind.

a fairgound life( stirling castle)

2009-10-30T17:59:00.002Z

The last couple of weeks have been slow slow slow. If it wasn't for the two breakdowns we had there wouldn't have been any work done at all. The first was during the October break week. It was the pinion mounting bolts that went again on the skydiver. Since we were only one man to a tool, "r" had to replace them all himself while the rest of the kit stayed open. It took him 3 hrs to strip out the pinion. I went and picked up the new machine cap screws. I got a box full this time so I calculate that it will be at least 18 years before I run out, based on 6 bolts every 2 years. When I returned "r" fitted the bolts and built the whole thing back up again, another 3 hours later and the ride was ready for opening just as we were closing! Anyhow we have put a reminder in the log book to change these bolts in two years time, hopefully before we lose another days trade.

The second break down came the next week. The DZ lost oil pressure. I thought it was a pipe but it turned out to be another pipe manifold stud. A repeat of the problem the skydiver had in July. The head of the cap screw popped off letting the oil flow past the o ring destroying it in the process. It happened just as the light was fading and "r" had to wash under the ride using a torch to see. With the spillage cleared up we left it over night. The next morning we located the culprit stud. It was Sunday morning but luckily Bills Tool store at the Barras had the correct studs in stock. Again I purchased a few extra. Another bit of luck was an o ring from the miami being the right size to fit. There was still plenty of oil left in the tank so we got opened. The next day we topped it off with 60 lts of oil. I guess we lost that much.

This week I was at a reception held for the Scottish section of the showmens guild. It was in Stirling Castle's great hall and was hosted by the First Minister himself- Mr Salmon gave us a fine speech that was responded to by our Chairman who spoke equally well. It all went rather splendidly and ran on an hour longer than expected. The finale was a couple of reels played by a band of kilties. Out side the Castle there were two juvenile rides , candy floss and a set of Jumpers. Many thanks to these operators who arrived on site at 6am, built up in the rain and dark. Then opened for free during the afternoon for school children, waited until the gig was over then pulled down in the dark and even more gusting rain. We also had fine examples of working fairground models presented by AG. The guest list included many councillors, provosts, senior police officers, education heads and achievers from our own ranks. I finally got to meet Mrs VM M.B.E, if your reading this V, it was good to meet you in the flesh, keep up the good work. LM was also there with his three medals from the special olympics held in Leicester this year. It was 1560 something since a reception was last held in the great hall! I bet there were a couple of showmen there too, probably juggling or jesting.

Yesterday "r" and I fitted a spare tyre and rack to the miaimi truck chassis. I have had the ride for 7 years with no spare and I've been lucky not to need one thus far, but no worries now, unless I blow out two at once!

a fairgound life

2009-10-15T15:45:00.000Z

The last Saturday at Stranraer was dry. The fair opened a little after 2pm until 5pm when most closed again for Tea. It was at this time I decided to start the lorry to thaw it out for that nights jouney. It started alright but it did seem a bit smoky and off beat. I just dismissed this as the engine being cold, stopped it and went for my tea. Having a quick tea we coupled the Hobby caravan to the jeep and Mrs showman set sail for the yard in Glasgow. It was 90 miles away and by her leaving early she would be able to do the first 30 mls (the worst) in daylight. I opened the DZ again after teatime until 9:30pm. There was a decent crowd on the fair for the last night, no doubt helped by the fact that the previous night was a total wash out. "r" arrived just before pulling down and we were all set. I had positioned the DZ on a slight angle when we built up so that the tower would lower into a gap between a side stall and a caravan. It did this perfectly but we had to wait until the side stall was moved before we could swing the tower around along the truck length for travelling. There were also several hoopla stalls in the way too and we assisted the owner of one to pull down. We coupled up the unit and it was at this time that the smoke problem hit home. The lorry had run for 10 mins and shunted the ride out of its position but the smoke still persisted. We decided to change the fuel filter but this had no effect. I was wondering if the new exhaust silencer could have been put on the wrong way or if the intercooler had got a pin hole? No time to waste now, I just decided to get in and go. At 11:48 pm we pulled out the gate of the fair onto the main road. About 1 mile or less and the smoke had cleared, I guess it was a sticky injector. The lorry pulled like a train and a little after 2:15am we arrived at the mall.We only stopped once at Prestwick for fuel. "r" wanted to build up right away as we were to open here at noon the next day, but I had other ideas and we went home for a shower and kip. The next day at 10am we started to erect the tower again. We missed the noon opening by 15 mins.

a fairgound life (Stranraer)

2009-10-09T17:27:00.004Z

I don't know how long I have came here. My earliest recollection is from 1978, and that is only because I was at school writing the date in my jotter and noticed that the number that never changed was now 7-8 and not 7-7. Its funny what thoughts stick in one's mind from days gone by. So we were attending from 78 for sure, but then I found a picture on the net from www.photo-transport.co.uk/lorries/fair73/fair73.htm.

The picture claims 73 (which is probable) and the old AEC on the right of the picture is my fathers. I can remember this vehicle well, especially painting the front passenger wheel,hub and wheel cap bright red! (I'm sure you can still see the red tinge around the right side of the wheel in this pict) I can remember that day too (at Alloa), probably due to my mother shouting at my father "it's not his fault! you shouldn't have left the paint out!". (That body also got put onto our 4 wheel "F" reg ERF with a 5 cylinder Gardener 100 and Eaton Hi-Lo back end). Much has changed since then at this fair, losing this site and moving onto another then moving back onto the original site some years later. It is better now, cleaner with mono block instead of red blaze. We used to accept the Punt here too prior to the early eighties.

Fast forward 25 plus years....We have been here nearly 3 weeks now. I looked after the DZ while "r" and Mrs showman looked after the miami at a music event near Glasgow. The following Sunday they came up and "r" was left to hold the fort while the missus and I returned to the house. It was meant to be a week off but I ended up working 70 hrs helping to fit a kitchen for my in laws. That was a quick week for me. "r" was busy too at Stranraer fitting a new silencer,straps and tail pipe onto the EC10. He also bust a hydraulic pipe on the cab tilt mechanism. This he removed to have replaced. We did another change over this week. On the way down I thought we weren't going to get here. The A77 was closed at Cairnryan as a lorry had overturned so we were diverted via Newton Stewart which put another 25M on the trip. The this road was block too as a lorry had went off the road and ditched. I walked up the 1/2 mile to the front of the traffic just as "Devlins" recovery lorry had finished winching the artic out. It took another 10 mins to brush the mud off the road and we finally got moving. We arrived at Stranraer an hour late and the rest of the fair was open. I fitted the new pipe this morning. Just in time before the rain arrived. The Fire Brigade had to be called today as a boat tethered to the pier went on fire! Two tenders promptly arrived and put the flames out. It was too wet to go out and have a nosey. It looks like we will probably miss this last Friday nights biz as the rain is falling in torrents now.

Tomorrow will be the last day of the fair and for most this will signal the end of another season, except for a couple of bonfires. Hopefully "r" and I will get the DZ down and out tomorrow night and set sail immediately.

One month after putting the jeep in for repair, it finally arrived today. It went in for a distribution box repair but since Kia could not get the parts required they finally just put in another new box. Fortunately I only had to pay the re-furb price but that was still a high 3 digit figure. I'm glad we have our transport again as I was getting sick of Shank's pony!

I borrowed the picture from that mentioned web site (hope they don't mind), there are several more on there worth looking at.

a fairgound life (Egremont)

2009-10-06T11:32:00.003Z

This would be my third visit to this fair. Since my Kia jeep was off road awaiting a transfer box repair, we decided that only one trailer could go down using the L200. There had been talk of curtailment at the fair due to the area of undermining. The organiser had not phoned us about this but we heard from other tenants who told us that they were going in to the fair later as there was a meeting with the council to find out what was available. So we decided not to go down until Monday morning. Late on Sunday night we did get a call from the organiser asking if we were coming. I did confirm this and he was surprised as he didn't know and had let our position! It seemed that there was a mix up in communication between him and his son who had taken our booking away back in May. Luckily our name had came up in conversation with another tenant at the fair and the organiser immediately called us to confirm our arrival.So disaster averted.

The next morning we headed down. "r" took the DZ and I drove the L200 with Hobby attached. It was a good trip down apart from the tailboard of the DZ having fell off a couple of miles from the town. The mounting bracket at one end had bust the welds. "r" had somehow heard the rattle and stopped in time to tie it up before major damage had been done or we had lost it all together. On arrival we set the trailer. The fair was re arranged to accommodate the larger area of undermining that was fenced off in the middle of the car park. We waited for the other rides to get set before we would set the DZ but then the fair was re arranged again and we were back on our original plot. Setting to work the DZ was erected for 7 pm, apart from the control box so that I could repair the tailboard bracket.

Tuesday afternoon and I decided to tackle that tailboard bracket. The whole problem stemmed from the fact that it was too low mounted and the air draining from the suspension had let it ground several times over the years resulting in the welds being torn. So I cut it completely off and started again from scratch. I had very limited tools with me so borrowed a 14" chopsaw, 4" grinder and cutting blade, welder,mask and rods all from "fatso". It give him something to grump about as he sarcastically asked if I wanted him to the job as well. I cut the brackets smaller and raised the whole thing up 40mm. Hopefully this will be enough to prevent further grounding. I would have went higher but this was all I could go without impeding the pay box door.

Wednesday was the first opening night and we operated from 6 pm til 9 pm. Biz was the same as last year. The only problem was from the amplifier that kept dropping a channel (sure I had this problem last year) so that would be tomorrows job.

Thursday, I remove the power amp from the rack and strip it down to component parts (literally). I begin methodically searching for any sign of a defective component. All of a sudden I become aware of a problem on the fair. I could see a meeting of some of the showmen in the middle of the fair. I go out to see what is what and it becomes clear that the council have informed the organiser (by hand delivered letter) that several rides have to move away from the fenced area before 5 pm or (there would be consequences). In the middle of the fenced area was a small orange painted dot, from this point was an outer circle diameter (also painted in orange) of 60 ft radius, that's 120 ft (about 36m) across. Literally the whole centre of the fairground.This area had to be totally clear. A quick measure up and discussion and a plan was formed. The superbob, Miami, Skyliner and Simulator would have to pull down, move and build up again for 6 pm opening! In the meanwhile a council chap was summoned by a "Crabfair" organiser so that the final positioning would be acceptable. The Miami ride was taken right out of the fair altogether and moved across the road from the gate of the fair into a row of 6 car parking spaces. The Supebob was set back onother 10 ft and closer to it neighbouring ride that meant it was almost built behind it. This meant it just cleared the orange line and no more.The simulator moved across the fair into the exit gate of the fair, while the skyliner moved down 20 ft onto the simulators old position to clear the exclusion zone. The skyliner was the easy ride to move as it was done with the ride still erected! The operator simply coupled it up, removed the packing and gingerly drove forward the 20 ft. "d" had his work cut out but they stuck in and completed the Superbob in time for 6pm opening. But think of this- Who polices the exclusion zone the rest of the year? During all this I was still tinkering with the amp. I found no obvious fault but I did lubricate a sticking cooling fan. The amp seemed to work ok but I noticed that all horns in the speakers were in-op and an 18" bass bin was no go too.

Friday I stripped out the 18" bass woofer. A test with the mega meter confirmed that the driver was blown. I stripped out the horns too and discovered that only one was blown while the others were in op due to a tiny bulb on the cross over circuit board being blown. I think this was from vibration on the road busting the filaments. I bridged this contact directly to confirm that the horn would indeed go, which it did for about 5 seconds before blowing!! ooops! obviously the bulb also serves as a resistor to protect the horn. So now I am down to two working horns. I remove the bulbs but there is no voltage or wattage marked on them. In a brain wave I bust the bulb, get the filament out and put the mega meter across it and get a reading of 1.2 ohm. With this info I get out a few bulbs from the drawer-60v 10w, 60v 5w, 12v 20w. The results were 35ohm, 72 ohm and 1.2 ohm. So 12v 20w was the right one. Now all I had to do was get two of these bulbs. I wasn't going to use the one I had as it was for under the carriage lighting. I walked up the street into the factory shop and bought a pack of the closest I could get- 12v 50w. Taking a chance I put them in and music to my ears ( pardon the pun) the two horns worked fine. The difference in the music quality is superb. So eventually I will track down another two horns and an 18" woofer, Its all down to budget or more accurately- lack of.

Saturday stayed dry until 4 pm when we got an hour of rain. It had dried up again for 6 pm but the families were away now. The teenagers hung around until 10 pm when the last of the large rides closed. I had shut the DZ at 9:30 pm. "r" had arrived from Glasgow for pulling down and at 11 pm the DZ was out, parked along the kerb ready for the next morning.

Sunday morning at 5am we get up to leave. It was still dark and didn't get light until 7am by which time we were past Carlisle. It seemed to take forever to travel the 150 miles to Stranraer. Just after 9am on a bright Sunday morning we arrived at the next fair. Right away "r" and I built up the DZ before the other rides arrived on site that would probably hinder the erecting of the tower on this very narrow fair. Job done it was back to Glasgow.

A fairgound life (Park Life)

2009-09-26T01:42:00.002Z

So Thursday morning we head over to park life in Strathclyde park. The event was larger than I thought with four large tents/arenas. The fair was moved from prime tober to a part at the end of the event, in fact it was that near the end of the event that it was literally in its own fenced off pen. So at 4pm we headed in with the miami. The ride was set up on the end of the semi trailer that housed the Polish workers that had erected the tents. It was a tight fit , leaving only enough room for the tower to erect just inside the event gates. We erected the miami along the edge of the fence. I was relieved to see that we were on tarmac after all the rain we have had lately. The next day we arrived with the dz and set it along the fence too.The fire master decided that the polish abode was a fire hazard and needed to be removed from the site, only problem was that the miami was now in the way! Luckily we managed to shift the miami pay box to let the semi trailer out and away. We were finished for T time and headed home again. The next day was Saturday and we were due to open at 12 noon. The gig opened at noon but the punters didn't find their way down to us until after 2pm. It was a hard position where we where and it was even harder as the security would not let the punters in to us if they had drink in their hands of if they seemed drunk! Now lets look at this-- drinks were £4 a pop and every body had been drinking since noon!! not much scope for many clientele getting thru to us. To be fair we did knock out half a living but we lost three times as much. At 10 pm the gig ended and we got the rides down pronto. By 11:30 pm both rides were heading out of the park.I took the rides back to a lay by and left them overnight until the next morning.

a fairground life(21 and a half hours)

2009-09-21T22:38:00.002Z

7am and the alarm goes off. I get up and shout "R" up. Its dry and bright so it looks like we may get a dry Saturday. I start to build the show up and "r" appears a few minutes later. At around 8am I went down to Tesco's garage and got Derv in 25lt cans to put into the lorries so that tonight after we have pulled down we can leave. At 9am I get in the jeep and head for Ingliston to mind the DZ there while "r" and the missus look after the rest of the kit at Blairgowrie. The jeep is messing about a bit and I keep it at 50 mph all the way to Edinburgh. It is bright there too and I do a little finishing off work before we open at noon. Skyliner "c" shows up to give me a hand on the DZ today (big thanks to him ) and at noon we open. The crowds are slow coming in but at 1pm we are riding full with a Q in the pen. I was worried about the 80 kva hire set not being man enough to run the DZ but it did so fine, even though its amp meters were maxing out on the big drops at over 100 amps per phase."C" looks after the DZ while I more or less take it easy. There was a lot to see and do at this gig and I watched the "Strictly" stars do a turn on the stage. The numbers were about a couple of thousand strong, they were also a nice class of people attending with their families. At 3:30pm we stopped for half an hour while they attempted to break the world record for the most people doing the air guitar. The record was set at Glastonbury so it was a tall order but they did manage to beat their sister event in London last month by 100 people with 1300 and odd people doing the head bopping, feet stomping air guitar. At 4:15pm we opened up again and rode full until we closed at 6pm. "Bjorn Again" was on stage and Abba music rang out as I left the event heading back to Blair, hopefully just in time for the gaff starting around 7pm.The rain started at Edinburgh and continued all the way to Perth , then it stopped. I was hopeful it would stay dry at Blair. At 7:15pm we pulled into the town. I could see all the crew had arrived and were at their posts. I went onto the skydiver and the missus moved over to help "r" on the miami. At 7:30pm the crowds started to arrive. It stayed dry until closing at 10:40pm. I had pulled the show down first and "m" took this away while Mrs showman followed with the trailer. Two hour later "r" and I left with the Skydiver and Miami. At Perth I lost all gears! The lorry was still in gear but the selector was sloppy, I realised that it was probably that bolt again that had broken two years ago and cost me a clutch. Having learned my lesson the first time I pulled into the kerb. "r" pulled in behind me. It was pitch black and I didn't have a torch but then "r" suggested the light from the Skydiver lighting set. He removed it from the case and attached it to the batteries on the lorry. The cable was just long enough to reach under and from the faint light I could see the sheared bolt laying on top of the gearbox. All we had to do now was find an 8mm bolt 50mm long with a nut. Eventually we removed one from the miami paybox chair. It was 50mm long with a nut but only 6mm in dia. It got us moving but the gear change was rough and the gear sometimes jumped out again. Around 2am we pulled into the services near Dumblane and put more Derv in the lorries. We continued on and after 3am we arrived at the next port of call and set the vehicles. Mrs showman arrived shortly after to pick us up with the car. Off we headed for home and at 4:30am I finally got into kip, 21 and a half hours after leaving it.

a fairground life

2009-09-10T08:30:00.000Z

Thursday morning 7am and the rain has battered down all night. I'm still at Dunkeld with the Hobby caravan and about to leave to go to Ingliston near Edinburgh for a private event. When I look out I see that the ground is flooded. I couple the jeep to the Hobby and make a charge for the roadway. The jeep slips and slides but does manage to reach the road. When I look in the mirror the front of the Hobby is covered in thick brown mud that is running down the front and dripping off like a chocolate fountain. We cant go on the road like that so I get out in the teaming rain and using the washing brush I wash the front of the trailer with a puddle! The heavy rain finishes off the job and after 10 mins the trailer is clean again. On arrival at Ingliston I find the organiser. The rain is still falling and the location for the event is flooded, so we have to do a quick re think of the set up. About 30 mins later we bring in the first of the rides and start to set them. We do have tarmac paths to work from but some attractions still have to go onto the grass area. Fortunately the grass is hard underneath and we manage to get the DZ onto its plot. At that the other rides appear from Glasgow and we set them. The rain fell constantly all day and it slowed our progress as it was nearly 6pm before we were finished. I didn't plan on returning home but as we were soaked thru I left to return to the house for a hot shower. The next morning we returned to set the other ride that had came up from Newcastle. We were expecting a large crowd and I had arranged for 100 barriers to be delivered so that we could fence the rides and make larger queue pens for the patrons. At 4pm we left to return to Blargowrie for opening. En route the jeep made a couple of alarming clicking noises like a cog jumping and I could feel power loss for a second. I think this is more differential problems. I eased on the speed down to 50 MPH to make sure we got to Blair. It was 5:45pm when we arrived and Mrs Showman managed to rustle up a quick tea before we opened at 6:30pm. Friday night is usually short and sweet here and this year was no different as we were closed for 8:45pm.

a fairground life

2009-09-08T21:34:00.002Z

Wednesday morning 5am and the alarm goes off. I hadn't slept since after 3am anyway. At that I heard my bros jeep pull up outside. I got up, dressed and knocked up "r" as I passed his trailer. It was still dark and very foggy. I headed down to the field where the lorries were parked and started up the Maimi's Foden and the show's ERF.I could see the twist side lights as it pulled up to the gate to leave. I got into the Foden to move it out too but it would not move, it was skidding. I pulled the show in front of it and wound out the winch cable. At that "r" arrived and climbed into the Foden. It was about 40ft of wire rope we had wound out and I began to tighten the rope. The winch pressure climbed to around 3500 Psi and the Foden slowly inched forward out of the ruts. "r" gave it a little help in first gear and the needle dropped back to around 2000 psi. So there we go the winch was tested a whole year early, how wrong could I be when I suggested next year? I headed to the gate but the twist was still there, stuck due to the fence on the corner. We reversed it back in again and took another angle out. This time it made the corner. So at 5:55am we headed off to Blairgowrie, me in the miami, "r" in the Skydiver and my Bro in his twist. I had only done about 1/2 mile when I heard a jingle, then a jangle then a rattle. It sounded like a loose wheel cap so I pulled over. When I looked out the wheel cap was ok so I looked under the lorry. One of the exhaust straps had bust (possibly caught on mud) and the silencer had drooped enough for the end pipe to scrape the road. Only option was to tie it up, so I looked in the cab for something pliable but non combustible. I found a 10m extension cable, so I tied up the hot exhaust with part of the cable and then wound the excess back and forth around the two front couplings to take up the excess. It did the trick and 3/4 of an hour later I was in Blairgowrie. Unfortunately the extension cable will now have to be trimmed to about 8m due to the extreme heat.The carpark was clear and we started to set up the rides immediately. We erected the Skydiver first then the Miami. After tea I went back and brought over the show lorry.

a fairground life( Tits n tyres)

2009-08-31T21:51:00.004Z

Sunday at Crieff was very windy. As a result a small trade stand was party flattened by a branch that fell from a tree.Luckily no one was hurt. I don't know how but it managed to stay dry through out the day. I assume that the wind kept the rain at bay. Business was slightly back on the previous year but in this economic climate it was nothing to complain about. The crew had arrived and at 6pm just as the game's grand finale (motor bike stunt show this year) was ending we began to pack up. Since I was heading to Irvine in the morning with the DZ I wanted the Skydiver and Miami down and away to the next gaff, namely Dunkeld. They would be parked there on site for a week waiting until I came back up with the DZ to open for the games. So a little after 9pm we were heading for Dunkeld. It was pitch black when we arrived there. I was in first with the Skydiver and headed down into the field. I followed the new gravel road that the games committee had laid right into the site of the fair. I spotted the tree that marked my position and swung onto the plot. I pulled forward to straighten the load up and then reversed back onto the position again with the wheels starting to slip. I got out for a look and could see I wasn't quite bang on but was sure it would be close enough for the ride to set up on the following week. Meanwhile "r" had brought the Miami in and he too has set almost perfect onto it's position. It was after 10pm now and we headed back to Crieff. Monday morning "r" took the DZ and I followed with his pick up and trailer. It was just over 104 miles from fair to fair. When we arrived at Irvine we quickly set the trailers. The ground was soft in patches with all the rain that had fell. Some rides were already stuck in places. The DZ was set onto a plot about 90ft further along than last year. We built up as quickly as possible as we were hindering the next two rides as they had to wait until our tower was raised. It took us about 30 mins longer to build up as Irvine is very hilly in parts and the rear side of the DZ was an extra 12 inches higher on packing. So we had to lay good foundations for the ride to set up on. We didn't return to Irvine until Wednesday night for opening. The rain fell again in sheets and biz was poor. It is a large fair and this year there were 16 big rides,2 funhouses and a ghost train plus enough side stalls and juveniles to encircle the whole fair. Again it was raining on Thursday night and the fair was getting really muddy in parts. Friday stayed mainly dry but was well back on last year. Saturday started off bright and only threatened to rain after closing at 9pm. Again biz was well back on previous years. The drinking ban is still in force and this made the Saturday comfortable. We could not pull down on Saturday night as the Topstar ride was in the way of lowering the tower so we had to leave it until Sunday morning. That night the rain was torrential all night, I thought it was coming through the trailer roof!In the morning the Topstar was pulled down but could not move out of our way until the Energystorm had finished and moved. It was 2pm before the energystorm was towed out the way by a tractor. Then the Topstar was towed out by the tractor too. Finally "r" and I pulled the DZ down. At 4pm the tractor towed us out as well. Then we headed all the way we had come the week before back up to Dunkeld.It was raining heavily again. When we arrived there at 7pm the ground was soft. The two jeeps just managed to get the trailers onto the plots in 4WD. We left the DZ on the path as we knew it would be an operation in the morning. Monday and we begin putting the other loads into the field. Since the DZ is going to be set across the gate it has to wait until everyone else is in. To be honest it was only the gate of the fair that was soft and as all the other rides were set during the week it was not that bad. Only BJ's skyliner and TI's arcade were to come in and they did so quite easily. "r" and I built up the Skydiver first, had some dinner then went out to set the DZ. The position was muddy and we had to tow the DZ onto its plot. It's small truck tyres sunk thru the mud and didn't even turn as the mud just piled up in front of them. We put the show lorry on the front with a chain and luckily it managed to drag the DZ into position.It was at this time that we worked out what was wrong with the show gearbox (whining when air building up and hard to change gear), it was simple- someone had pulled the PTO knob to engage. So when the air got to 80 PSI it engaged, but since we didn't know it was trying to engage we were not holding the clutch out resulting in a whining noise until the gears finally meshed which then made it hard to change gear. Lucky we never blew it up on the road doing 40 mph!! We can only assume that someone engaged it during towing through the mud (at Bridge of Allan) thinking it was a crosslock for the axles as this button is next to the lock diff lever in the cab. We built the DZ up and left the miami until the next morning. Tuesday and the rain was falling lightly again. I built up the miami while "r" did maintenance on the DZ, fitting a couple of new brush contacts. Then we set up the show. I called JM the engineer to request the winch part be fixed for tomorrow as it had been over 18 months now. I had a feeling we were going to need it at the weekend. That night we returned to the house. I had a Guild meeting on Wednesday morning and my wife had a pile of washing to get done. My father in law came over and requested that "r" and I help him demolish his outside kitchen on the chalet as he is getting a new one built. So Wed morning at 7:30 am we head down to the yard with a sledgehammer and electric chain saw. It was raining heavily again but we just set to it and two hours later the outside kitchen was a pile of timber. I went off to my meeting while "r" ferried the waste away to the coup (civic amenity re cycling site in 21st century spin).Thursday and we pick up the winch part (hydraulic piston pump end cap). Oh no!! JM has machined the o ring grove too deep. The rubber ring sits below the face of the end cap, what a blunder considering he had a sample to copy. Nothing for it we decide to get a bigger o ring. So off we go to track one down. At Barnshaw seals in Bellshill it becomes evident that one o ring cant do the job so we double two up. Maybe it will work, maybe not. Back to Dunkeld for opening and the rain is torrential again from 5pm thru to midnight. We did open for an hour but only really to try out. Friday morning "r" put the winch together.We try it and the drum winds in the loose rope from 18 months ago. Well that seems ok but lets pressure test it. We wind the rope in and attach the end to the shows own coupling gab. Then we wind in until the rope tightens, we watch the pressure gauge climb and we stop at 2000 psi. No leaks evident but I've seen the winch working between 3500-4000 PSI! Time will tell. It stays dry that night and the local teenagers turn out to visit the fair. As in previous years they all turn up with carry outs. This is a growing problem here that we only used to see in the larger cities. There were around 80 youths and half were falling about drunk. There was only one incident when one threw a can of larger that hit a girl on the forehead and split it open. A deep cut about 15 mm across. "r" gave her medical treatment at the maimi pay box while I went over and had a word with the culprit (I later got his name and address from another youth for future reference). Thing is that they all seem to know each other and I suppose it will be sorted out at a later date. We never ever have had a wrong word at Dunkeld and the alcohol problem is going to change this. A lot of the youths also come from smaller towns nearby like Aberfeldy and Pitlochry. At 10 pm we closed and the crowd headed off. Saturday morning and it is bright and breezy. There is a lot on in this area today- Blair Atholl Bikers rally, Run Rig concert. So it was well into the afternoon before the numbers grew. The games finished after 5pm and at 6pm the youths returned with more alcohol, by the case. It seems that a bottle to share is not enough anymore, they all need a 40 oz each! At 7:30pm the local police make an appearance but they don't confiscate any drink, not even from the ones that are under age. There presence does quieten down the youngsters though. At 8pm the police leave with a promise that they will return around 9pm for the fair closing. The youths continue with their drinking marathon again. At 8 pm the side stalls begin to pack up as all the family people have left (wonder why?). The crew had arrived by this time and "r" packs up the skydiver at the bottom end of the fair. It was 9:45 pm when I closed up the DZ. "R" had just finished the Skydiver and had even got the unit coupled under it. Mrs Showman closed the Miami at 9:50pm as enough was enough. We began to pulldown as the youths headed off for their buses etc, the police never appeared again, maybe they were busy elsewhere. We pulled down the miami to get it out the way of the Tower. Then we tackled the DZ. It was too dark and muddy to attempt coupling up so at 11:45 pm we called it a night. Sunday morning and we start moving vehicles. The DZ couples up but can't move so we put the show on it with a chain and pull it out. Then the miami couples up and the Foden double drive pulls away, does a circuit of the fair to turn and gets out onto the path ok. Next is the skydiver, "r" had coupled it up the evening before, it could not pull out of its divots so we put the show on with a chain again and give it a tow out. Again no problems right onto the path. It seems that the winch will have to get tested at a later date (next year now as that is all the fields over for this year). So with everything out on the path earlier than expected we find time to change a tyre on the DZ trailer that had developed an egg (more expense). As an uncle once said-"anything with tits or tyres will always give you trouble!"

short days make long weeks!

2009-08-15T19:40:00.001Z

Short days make a long week.
Bridge of Allan was dry for Wednesday night. We had swapped the DropZone and Miami positions over from the previous year. This was because we thought that the Miami would do better at the top end of the fair next to the waltzer and Crazyfrog. Not to be the case as the ride was down biz wise every night of the fair. The DZ however was the same as last year. The Thursday was also mainly dry but Friday and Saturday were a bit wet. Sunday was dry for a change, even though the numbers didn't seem up to the usual attendance.Its a shame but a sign of the times as this was a premier fair only a few years ago but it has fell away year on year and I doubt if it will ever regain its former glory. We weren't open long when "r" called in the first mishap of the day. One of the Miami motor shaft seals had sprung a leak and a steady drip of hydraulic oil ran down when the ride was in motion. Although we had a spare seal, it would take an hour to fit it and the gaff would be nearly over by then so we put 20lts of oil into the system to compensate for what we may loose over the day. The new seal will get fitted at another more opportune time. I had only just wiped my hands when the second mishap was to arise. On the skydiver one of the car shock absorbers went kaput so we had to fit a replacement. This took twenty minutes to replace as they are mounted at one end by welded in pins. So an hour after that, just when I thought things had settled down the water lasers sprung a leak. One of the hose clips on a pressure feed from the main pump had popped and water leaked out when the game was working. I found a hose clip in a drawer and a few minutes later this too was sorted. From 1pm-6pm everything seemed to run smooth. Biz was a wee bit better than last year for the DZ but the skydiver and Miami were not having a better day. Just on 6pm and crunch! Almost a year to the day and the DZ had done in another ball race! This time however the damage was worse as the centre of the nylon pulley that the race fitted into was also damaged. That was that, the DZ would be shut permanently the rest of the day. Now I had a major problem-it was Sunday and we were pulling down tonight and heading off to the Black Isle for Wednesday and Thursday. I sent an email to Italy right away to arrange a spare to be sent immediately even though I new it would not arrive in time for Wednesday. Then I called JM the engineer to see if he could help. "Bad news" he said,"I'm off to York tomorrow on holiday". I told him my predicament, almost pleading to get some help. "Ok" he said, "bring it to the workshop for 4pm, I'll see what I can do". That was a great relief as I know now that we would have half a chance of getting operational for the Muir of Ord show. That night we closed at 9pm. "r" and the crew tackled the skydiver whilst I did the Show and Miami. We did not even attempt to couple the units under as the ground was still sodden from the previous days of rain. When we went to the DZ we could not swing the tower around as the funhouse of EPs was in the way. He had tried to move it out of our way but his lorry was just skidding. I went and brought the show lorry up the rear of the fair on the path to tow him. We put a big nylon rope between the two lorries. The show couldn't pull him out from a dead lift so we used the nylon rope "bungee" fashion. Basically we backed the show lorry up to the towed lorry then drove away as fast as possible. When the rope tightens it starts to stretch and gradually slows down the towing vehicle to a stop. At this point the towed vehicle starts to drive and the bungee rope's elastic properties shrink the rope again and pull the vehicle out of the mud, in this case a whole 4ft. We repeated the process several times and eventually the funhouse was out and onto the path. We then completed the pull down of the DZ. It was just after midnight now, time for kip. The next morning we were up at 7:30am to get started. The first order of the day was to get the Miami out. To avoid the ruts we made when pulling in, we decided to couple up jack knife. Again we used the show lorry (double drive 6 wheeler) to push the Foden under with a straight bar and then pull the ride out with a long wire rope. This we accomplished without too much trouble and we placed the ride on the path ready for leaving. The DZ was already on firmer ground and the EC10 coupled to it easily and drove out onto terra firma. The skydiver was next. The EC11 unit got itself coupled under but couldn't reverse the ride out of the soft so we attached the show onto the back by hooking a chain onto the trailer chassis. The ride was pulled out no problem but in the process one of the mud flaps got caught under a wheel and resulted in the whole mudguard,arms and brackets getting ripped off! Now everything was out the soft we removed the damaged pulley from the DZ in preparation for getting it repaired.Sure enough when we got the pulley off the centre bore had grown from 60mm to about 120mm due to the failure of the races. I called the engineer to confirm again our meeting, but now he said 5pm not 4pm and I felt sure thing were about to go pear shaped, especially as I still had to find two replacement races. We helped out a couple more with the show lorry coupled to two tractors to get the Superstar and Superbob out. It was 2pm now and we took the skydiver,show and Miami to the yard to close up for the next week. When we arrived "m" complained that the show was hard to get into gear , crunching all the time-maybe the heavy towing had knackered the clutch? "r" commented that the Foden had a vibration, I checked the shafts and sure enough one of the hardy splicers was missing a cap retaining bolt for the rollers and the one remaining was loose. I tightened that one up but would need to find another before we took the Foden out next week. "r" and I headed for Glasgow to find ball races en route to the engineers in Ayrshire. Luckily the first place we tried had them. Wasting no time I headed right for the engineers arriving at his place at 4pm. I called JM and he appeared 15 mins later, at least that was 45 mins gained on the day. He looked at the job and pulled an old nylon wheel out from a corner. "This'll do" he said,"It's an old wheel off AD's wild mouse roller coaster". It was too big but an hour on the lathe and it was turned down, narrowed, bored and sized for the two ball races. Then the pulley was turned out and the new centre pressed in. It was a tight fit and the nylon grunted as it went home on the press. At a glance we could see the job was a good un! We headed off to BOA again to pick up the DZ and set of 184 miles to Muir of Ord. When we arrived back and got moving it was after 8pm. Mrs showman told me that many others who had left earlier had been pulled in by VOSA at Perth. A few were overweight and had been held until they removed some of their load. Every cloud has a silver lining and as we were leaving late now we had missed this potential problem. I headed over to the services and put in 220 litres of derv.It was a smooth trip up and just before midnight we pulled onto the show field. We set the trailers for the night and fell into bed. The next morning we started to build up. The DZ was ready for lifting the tower around midday, but before we could we had to fit the repaired pulley. An hour later it was on. Then we took advantage of the weather & time available and did a few other jobs to the ride. We fitted a second set of cables to the bands that had been causing us connection problems. We ran the new wiring up the trunking to make it tidy then drilled a 5mm hole thru each of the bands to attach the crimped cable ends to via M4 nuts and bolts. Finally we connected the wiring into the circuit using terminal block. Hopefully that will be the end of that problem. The lights were looked at and we put in 100 bulbs, we needed a few more but ran out. Next we jet washed the rides tower and floor.We also discovered a leaking air valve on the rides compressor. It was 8pm now, time for a shower at the onsite toilet block. You had to be John Wayne to use these showers as they were stone cold. It was the quickest shower in history then I found out too late that the new block had hot water at the other end of the site. Wednesday I went into Inverness, I had a shopping list- air valve, Foden bolt,ERF mudguard brackets,mudguard and spray grease.The mudguard was got at CV components for £20, the air valve and spray grease was from MacGregors Highland supplies for £18.50, I called Fodens at Elgin and got the thread type of the missing bolt-3/8 UNF which I got at a nearby fasteners company for 50p ( I was so happy to get it I gave the chap a whole £1!) Then I went to ERFs for the brackets. They had them alright, but I couldn't bring myself to spend £50.16p each plus VAT. No way, I would have to improvise something. That night we opened at 4pm for the preview night of the show. The weather was lovely and sunny but we did better last year in the rain. Thursday was good weather too. As I was walking around the show I spotted a chap demonstrating a Plasma Cutter on various plates of steel. He was generally cutting shapes and squiggles into it.I had a brain wave and went back to the EC10. Since it was the same as the EC11 I sized the mudguard brackets and made a paper template.I went around to the Plasma stand and said to the chap (bold as brass in front of all his potential customers),"do you want to do something useful with that instead of just cutting squiggles?". He looked up and asked what. I said "two of these from 10mm plate!" Now he had been challenged and no way was any of the onlookers going to let him duck out of it. So with a good banter being heckled back and forth from the crowd,myself and the chap (from Yorkshire), he cut out the two plates for my mudguard brackets. He was a sport and didn't want anything so I dropped him a fiver to get a pint. I'll see how good they fit (if at all) next week. Later that day UPS parcel force called me. The driver had tried to deliver the parcel in the morning but could not wait in the show traffic so he decided to deliver it later at T time. Only problem was that the traffic was now leaving the show and the Police would not let him enter the site, so he parked in a field across the way that was being used as a car park. I went out on foot as I spoke to him on the mobile and luckily found him just before he decided to leave again. The package contained my new pulley and a bill for €301 about £260 ouch!.Again biz was poor compared to last year, at 10pm we were pulling down. Just before midnight "r" and I went to Strathpeffer to check out the road. We would be going there on Saturday for the highland games but had to find an alternative route to miss a 13'3" bridge. This we managed by going around the town and coming in from the other end. It would be a few miles longer and as we travelled thru the hills we could see GS's new Inversion ride (at Muir of Ord) 6 miles away. The blue LED lighting was clearly visible thru the clear night. Seemingly LED lighting has a different wavelength from normal bulbs and can be seen from greater distances, this was first noticed by airline pilots who said that they could see neon long before streetlights when approaching cities. Any way we mapped our route and headed back to Muir of Ord. Friday at 6am and we are up and away with the DZ to Dornoch Highland games. Its only an afternoon so we left the trailers at Ord and "r" and I left in the DZ. We arrived on site at 9am and quickly built up ready for opening at 11am. The DZ is one of only two rides present, the other being SE's Miami. The rest of the fair is also mainly made up from Ord tenants. At 5pm we were closed again and pulling down. The day was not busy busy but a fair days wage for the work involved. At 6:30pm we were heading straight to Strathpeffer. We followed our previously mapped out route, which was just as well we did the recon, as we had prior knowledge of the 16ft arch bridge in the middle of a blind S bend! We pulled into Strathpeffer for 8pm just in time for the midges to hatch out and start eating us, they were worse than West Linton!We soldiered on and built up the DZ again, its not often that we do two build ups , two shifts and a pull down in the same day. At 9:30pm Mrs showman came over and picked us up and took us back to Ord. Saturday morning at 9am we head back to open. Again just after 5pm we are pulling down. "r" heads off for St Andrews 163 miles away, en route he stops and puts in 170 ltrs of derv as we don't want a repeat of last years fiasco. Meanwhile we head back to pick up the trailers at Ord then follow on to St Andrews. It was 11pm when we arrived at the town. "r" had parked the ride in the lay by across from the Old Course Hotel. The trailers all park on the Sands next to the Bay about 1 mile away by road. It was after midnight when we got the trailers set. The next morning "r" and I headed up to South St to check out our plot for obstructions. We measured the nearby lamp post and although it would be close we calculated that it would miss the tower by at least a few inches whilst we were raising it. Back down at the lay by we washed the ride again using DT's hose connected to a stand pipe. We all wait in the lay by from 4:30-6pm when finally the last two cars (lifted I believe) are cleared from the street. At that the WPC officer gives us the nod and we all head out of the lay by (like the wacky races) in a convoy into the town. The police stop the traffic at all junctions to let us in and even arrange that some can go up the one way street the wrong way to get access on to their plots. We were on a new plot this year and it was easier for us as it was at a less congested area of the fair.Alas during the build up another showmen accidently bumped my lorry and cracked the grill, but that wasn't the worst of it, oh no, Blakey was open directly across from me!! Within a few hours South St is filled with a complete fair. WM's Capriola (returned a few months ago from the states) is the tallest ride at 125ft! Monday morning at 11am we opened. Again as the trend has been this season we were back on last year. AT 11:15pm we closed for the night. Tuesday morning was wet, we replaced a sticky limit switch that had been giving us a problem the day before and opened a little later at 11:50am. Again it was slow in the afternoon but did dry up at night. The smaller stuff started to pull down just after 9pm, we started to pull down after 11pm. For 1am everything was in the lay by again ready for heading off to Crieff in the morning for another Highland games. I had a long lay in and didn't leave for Crieff until midday. "r" took the DZ and I took his trailer with the L200. We pulled in to the Games park and set the Trailers then headed off to Stirling to pick up the other loads. En route we passed my father in law coming up from Glasgow. Arriving at Stirling I prepared the show whilst "r" put the 3/8 UNF bolt into the Foden shaft coupling. We set off for Crieff again. I noticed that the show gearbox (fuller ZF 4 up 4 down) made a whinning noise as I started the lorry then it went away. The lorry pulled great but the gear changing was clunky n grinding and I started catching it on the revs to make the changes smooth. Maybe the slave cylinder is on its way out or maybe it needs some clutch fluid or gearbox oil? The lorry has plenty of pulling power so I'm not worried too much that it could be the clutch. We arrived back at Crieff and the committee were there marking out the plots. Guess who was giving them a hand?-- Ewan McGregor (star wars, down with love, long way around) as this is his home town and he has helped the games committee before. Not wanting to be a pest I resisted the urge to ask for a photo with him while measuring out the plots. We returned to Stirling again to pick up the skydiver and it was dark when we got back to Crieff. We just left it in the middle of the park until tomorrow when we would start to build up. It seemed like weeks since we had left BOA but it had only been 9 days. That's when "r" coined the phrase "short days make a long week!"
Thursday morning around 11am and we start by setting the show,skydiver then Miami and finally DZ on to the plots. I spied someone finishing off marking the plots for the rest of the games stances and went over to confirm that the end mark was correct. It was Ewan again but I hadn't realised until he look up from marking the plot with an aerosol.The positions here are very tight and if I'm short any footage it won't all fit in. Anyhow he was spot on with the marking off. That day "r" and I worked like Trojans building up the skydiver then DZ then Miami. Meanwhile my father in law had completed the funhouse. It was now 8pm and time to call it a day. Friday was a day off back at the house on the hill for a hot shower this time. Saturday- its stopped raining for a bit so we crack on with the jobs. First up was the oil seal on the Miami shaft. That only takes about 45 mins to complete. For a change all the bolts are free and the pinion slides off easily. There are a few slithers of metal laying in the motor housing so no doubt further investigation will be required when we get down time. Hopefully in the meanwhile the new shaft seal will stop the oil leak. Next we fit the mudguard onto the EC11. The two plates fit a treat and don't need the holes drilled out. Was that good luck or good judgement? I cut a couple of pieces of tube and welded them to the plates, next I slid the mudguard arms over them. When everything was lined up I welded it all solid. Being on a roll we did a few minor jobs to the skydiver and Miami before calling it a day at 6pm. It has stayed dry but the wind is gusting and I hope it dies away for tomorrow.

a fairground life (river fest)

2009-07-30T14:10:00.004Z

The river festival was the main topic of last weeks activities. I started on the Sunday prior by erecting signs in the carpark. These were to inform the drivers that the area would be closed on Thursday night from 7pm and vehicles left on site after that time would be crushed!(well not exactly those terms, but indicating that some difficulties may arise if the cars were not timely removed). It did seem to help and 75% of the carpark was clear on pulling in night. There were two rouge cars that hindered the setting of the twist until noon the next day. Apart from that everyone was onsite, set ready for building up by 9:30pm. We only had one major hiccup, the Energystorm broke a kerbstone pulling in. "r" and I returned early the next morning and repaired the damage by forming the shape with timber and pouring concrete into the mould. The repair is almost invisible to the eye, but I would not recommend driving over that one again. The event was popular as ever and at our end of the site (under the Finnieston crane) the fair looked inviting. I met with building control for an on site meeting for the funfair area license handover. Then we were joined by the Environmental Officer and finally by the Legal Dept Agent. After everyone was in agreement that the fair was good to go, I was presented with the License. How easy the showmen in England have it, not needing to have a license for a fair south of the border. It has taken since April this year to start the licensing procedure. I had to attend the licensing court, supply all safety certs , insurance docs , a scale plan and finally a police background check of all the showmen attending. We had to supply names, DOBs and addresses. Let nobody say that showmen are here today and gone tomorrow! The weather was glorious on Saturday and an estimated 50,000 flocked to the Clyde side. I assume this was because they knew of the bad forecast for Sunday. At the main pinch point of the event(along side the new BBC Scotland building), mounted Police had to control the crowds. By 4:30pm it had started to slow down. No doubt many people left early due to the congestion.

Sunday.

The rain fell into early afternoon and deterred many folk from the final day of the river festival. It was dry from 1 pm but too late as the main part of the day was over. At 6pm the fair was pulling down. I headed over to the mall to pull down there. At 7:15pm I was headed out to BOA with the miami. When I got there the ground was sodden and puddles laid on the surface. The plot was marked out but I got stuck in the mud and had to be towed into position. That would pretty much set the scene for the next day for all the heavier loads. I returned to the mall and "r" & the crew had the final loads ready to move. Again we headed off to BOA. On arrival it was too dark to see and to avoid any unnecessary damage we left the loads on the hard until morning.

the picts are of the river festival, look at those crowds.

a fairground life

2009-07-19T20:11:00.002Z

The last couple of days have been spent testing some of the rides. Not much happening at the minute. "r" has received a second recall on his L200 for faulty U bolts on the rear axle. I don't know if I mentioned it earlier but in June we had to get two new leaf springs fitted under warranty as both were broken! This means that the U bolts will have been off 3 times this year alone on the L200. Went over to the carpark we use for the Glasgow River Festival and put up some closure signs to try and thin out the amount of traffic we have to contend with on pulling in day. Hopefully this will help. The dates have changed again this year and it is now another week later falling on the last weekend of July. We have been lucky for the last 3 years as it has been dry for the event. What's the odds on four out of four??? Apart from that all I have been doing is paper work, print,copy,print,copy so that I am all ready for moving again.

a fairground life

2009-07-17T14:33:00.004Z

Ups and downs this week, I got the non return for the set and fitted it. No go, I mean no go literally as the set wouldn't start. Its possible I didn't spend enough time bleeding it but I think its possible that the lift pump was not strong enough to open the valve on the suck side and yes I did have it in the correct way (big arrow on side). So in a fit of temper I removed it and tightened up the pipes into the new filter extra tight. The kind of tight you wouldn't apply normally incase you break something. Put it all back together and got the set started for 12:30pm, a whole hour after I started the job. As we opened I got my first 3 punters on the DZ. It wouldn't go either. I checked all brushes, cleaned all bands,checked all lap bar limit switches,check fuse box, relays, check brushes and clean bands again (at this point the ride was for sale at a knock down price) and finally found a suspect resistor with a heat mark on its body. So I went off to RS components for another while "R" scaled the tower and started removing the wiring connections to the bands. When I returned we fitted the new resistor, "r" had cleaned all band connections except two that had the access bolts rusted solid. We tried the ride---no go. So "r" went up with a hammer and chisel and removed the two seized bolts the old fashioned way. He cleaned the last two connections. We tried the ride and it finally went, 6 hours after we started on the thing. By the way the heat marked resistor is working fine. On the bright side, for the last two days the set has started without bleeding-that fit of temper on the filter housing has did the trick.

Today Prince Andrew came and visited the Clydebuilt Museum, there was a small army of security and Police with him (just out of shot in the picts). I don't know if it was a secret of if nobody was interested but the crowd was only about a dozen passers by. I bet Di would have pulled in the crowds. Then again Andy fought for his country during the Falklands. HE IS SECOND LEFT OF THE LAMP POST, FACING THIS WAY SHAKING HANDS.

a fairground life

2009-07-12T11:30:00.003Z

Since last week I have fitted a new bellhousing to the skydiver pump. This was to reduce vibration coming from the pump motor coupling as it was running very very slightly out of line. I had ordered the part a couple of days before but it was unclear whether the bellhousing would be correct as the motor plate number did not correspond with the measurements I took. So after closing one night at 8pm we decided to fit it. We cut off the old mounting brackets, removed the piping and took the pump off. After a couple of measuring sessions with the tape we calculated that the motor end of the coupling would have to come forward 9mm. So out with the pulley draws to do this. "r" removed the retaining grub and we drew the coupling forward. We inserted the rubber spider and tried the bellhousing on. Yippee it fitted (good job we went with measurements instead of plate number) as I did have visions of welding all the old gear back on again. After an hour and half we tried it out. With the new arrangement we have zero vibration and at least a 30% reduction in motor noise, plus it looks professional, a success I would say.

As for the filter arrangement on the set its not as successful. The fuel seems to be running back, but its too quick to be an air leak in the piping. No I think the two filter arrangements are creating some kind of vacuum. So I fitted a new lift pump again just to be sure but it still needs bleeding in between start ups. So I'm gonna try a non return valve between the filters. Failing that I might try a loop in the fuel pipe. Now that's an idea!, I could extend the fuel feed pipe and run it higher than the engine then drop it down to the new filter, this way the fuel can't syphon back to tank, plus that would be cheaper than a valve! decisions decisions!

a fairground life

2009-07-05T15:02:00.000Z

So all the kit is back together for the next few weeks. Last Monday was spent fixing a wiring problem in my mothers home. It took so long that "r" and I only got to erecting the Skydiver at 7pm. We only did half of it and knocked of at 8:30pm. The next morning I was at licensing court in Glasgow for the hearing of my application for a PE license for the River Festival. It started at 9:30 am with Taxi drivers and continued until mine came up at 11am. There were a few other showmen attending too for other events around the city. Its always a worry that the hearings are left to the last minute as any problems wont have time to be overcome. After that I headed out to finish the Skydiver with "r". The next day was his graduation and although the fair at the mall was supposed to open at 12 noon the Maimi and DZ were closed until 4pm when Mrs showman and I arrived. It was quiet, just as well cos at 5pm the DZ acted up. It wouldn't go again, similar to the SECC problem, but this time it was only a blown fuse in the control panel. I think I may have caused this myself changing a bulb in the carriage lights. So 20 minutes later it was all systems go. Thursday was quiet a good day but Friday rained heavy for most of the afternoon. At teatime the set chucked it, it was dirt in the lift pump. This is getting to be a problem now so I'm going to fit another fuel filter before the lift pump.Saturday seen the skydiver develop a hydraulic leak. A pump manifold blew off a fixing stud. It was a 5/16" Whitworth thread so I had to go and source one. Being Saturday afternoon every major supplier was closed so I ended up at Bills tool store down at the barras. They only had a small selection of whitworth but I managed to get something to fit. Meanwhile "r" was washing up the 20-25 litres of oil we lost. We were all systems go again for 3pm. I had travelled 25 miles, spent £5 of fuel and lost two hours trade plus hydraulic oil all for a 15p stud!!!

a fairground life (graduate)

2009-07-01T16:05:00.003Z

Congratulations to "r" who graduated today from Strathclyde University as a Bachelor of Civil Engineering with Honours, BEng (Hon).

We attended the "Barony Hall" for the ceremony, Mrs showman had me in suit and tie. The weather was scorching and with a few hundred people packed in to watch their offspring graduate the temperature rocketed. Everyone was sweating bullets for well over 90 minutes. That said it was something to see, all the pomp and ceremony including a Piper. As "r" was capped & hooded he walked back up the side aisle of the church and Mrs showman had many a tear in her eyes. When the show ended we caught up with him in the gardens of the campus were there was a Champaign reception. It was only then, when I saw him with his study mates & lecturers that I realised how he had been living two separate lives for the last four years. WELL DONE SON.

a fairground life (three wet in a row)

2009-06-30T22:35:00.000Z

Three wet Saturdays in a row and three wet Galashiels Saturdays in a row too, thats three years in a row since 2007 that it has rained at Gala on the main day. There was also a music event on in a park nearby so as you might expect biz was well back on last year with the crunch piled on top of everything else. The rain fell as a fine mist all afternoon until about 5pm. After this it was too late as the families had all left. It was only the younger mob left and I do mean mob as by 10pm they were all full of god knows what and having running battles with each other. The five community wardens had did their best throughout the afternoon to keep the peace but by 9pm I reckon they either knocked off for the night or had just had enough and decided to let the rabble get on with it. The only police presence I seen was two officers on the fairground around 4pm. It was much quieter at the back of the fair where the DZ was positioned and I never seen much of the troubles but at the front of the fair where the Miami was "r" and Mrs showman could easily see all the commotion as the youths ran riot from the waltzer up to the tagada. That said those rides didn't close until 11pm and by that time "r" and I had most of the DZ away and were about starting on the Miami. It was nearly 1am when we finished. Next day we left at 11am with the Miami and DZ heading into Glasgow. We dropped the rides off and I left "r" to erect the both of them himself (well he is a big boy) while I headed back for the trailers. That night at 7pm I picked him up and we headed off to Burntisland to get the show and Skydiver. He was well knackered by this time and it showed as we pulled the skydiver down. It was 11:20pm when we left the ground. I headed off in the skydiver while "r" took the show. About 50mins later I was near Larbet when the lorry began to die. I know it! bloody filter again, that's three filters since December about 500 miles. I must have the Diesel Bug. Anyway the cab wouldn't lift again, even with more oil put in the pump so I had to squeeze under the cab. I could feel the filter but couldn't turn it so I decided to knock it off with a hammer and chisel. Only problem was I couldn't see in the dark, then I remembered that a long time ago I had put a wandering battery light in the canopy of the generator. A few moments later after fumbling around inside the case of the set I had found it. I attached the wires to the battery terminals and hey presto, it still worked and shone brightly a whole 21w. Problem was that the 2m of wire wasn't long enough to reach were I wanted so I just let it dangle to the ground and luckily the faint glimmer was enough to work with. I tapped the filter round a bit then drove the chisel through the side and used it as a handle to twist the filter cartridge off. I spun on the new cartridge (primed with gas oil from the set, well needs must) and crawled out from behind the cab. Alas I packed away all the tools and light before I thought to look into the old filter to see if it was water that was the problem. This had all cost me the best part of an hour and it was 1am by now. "R" had taken the Forth road bridge route so had never passed me and was now sitting awaiting my arrival. Just before 2am I pulled onto the fairground. It was back to the house for a shower, meal and into kip for 3am.

a fairground life (newcastle)

2009-06-24T20:50:00.006Z

We went to the Hoppings Fair today for a visit. A sign of the times is that the sellers on swag mans alley were few and their merchandise was even fewer. Also I've been told that 30 round stalls had given up their tober. This was plainly visible as there were large voids on the fair. The weather was hot, the earth was baked hard and the grass was completely worn away on some of the walkways so people were out in numbers just not spending. I've attached a few pictures, sorry that the TopBuzz video is sideways (how do you rotate video then???) but this ride is still impressive to watch in motion.

a fairground life

2009-06-23T21:20:00.004Z

On Monday morning I was in Gala for 6:45 am. The ground was hard even after the previous nights rain fall. It was after 10am when the DZ was set on its plot. We erected this first before setting the Miami. There were a few light showers throughout the day but the weather turned nice at night. At 2:30 pm the miami was erected too, apart from attaching the weights. We headed off in search of a pipe. The engineer at Selkirk made a couple of calls and sent us to a chap in Bonchester Bridge. He had a small work shop but it was full of first class machinery. When we arrived he had already started the new pipe. Only five minutes later it was all finished. This chap does a lot of work for the forrestry chaps hence why he had the heavy duty hydraulic gear. An hour later we were back at Gala and the pipe was fitted. The ride was finished off and all systems seem go. Last night a few of the lads decided to have a party, live music from two guitar players come singers, strobe lighting, laser lighting, BBQ and beer. It sounded like (from my bed 50 yrds away) that it was going to be a real good night, only thing was 10 minutes in and the gig was cancelled when the boys in blue arrived due to a complaint. Maybe they over done it with two guitars or maybe it was just the awful singing?

Today was a real scorcher, like what summers used to be, not much chance of Gala getting messed up at this rate, but never say never.

a fairground life

2009-06-22T22:46:00.002Z

It had been a short 18 years since I last attended Broxburn Gala. The fairground was on a different site then, which itself was a new site at the time as the fair had been moved onto several areas due to new development over the years. Back then it was the upright Paratrooper we operated. Presently we returned with the DropZone. This fair is much smaller than previous locations and the lessee did well to squeeze in as many attractions as he did. The DZ was a last minute booking and it went in edge ways to fit in a 20ft gap between the Waltzer and Superbob. As the Miami and Skydiver were open elsewhere I also had to hire a generator for the weekend. I did get built up though by tapping onto the Superbob set for an hour. Wednesday night was the first opening, the weather was fine and this turned out to be the best weeknight, no doubt due to it being cheap night. In between times we did a bit of visiting to Livingston to see a friends new purchase, a Tagada ride from Sweden (I think). Saturday started off with blistering sunshine but in a repeat of last week it quickly turned into heavy showers. As a result the gala was cancelled at 2pm. The fair did still hold good numbers until around 3pm when another heavy downpour almost cleared it. "r" called after 4pm to let me know that the Miami had a leaking pipe. It had developed a pinhole burst on the main motor hydraulic feed pipe. To avoid any chance of a full scale burst and oil spillage he closed the ride. At 9pm we were pulling down at Broxburn. I had to wait on the Superbob clearing its position before I could swing the tower around. For midnight I was pulled down. Sunday morning I was up at 7am to return the hire set to Glasgow before setting off for Galashiels. I met up with "r" later at Melrose and we managed to get the leaking pipe loosened. I did try to call out Hydrasun on their emergency line but there was no answer. I wondered if this was because it was fathers day or because it was Sunday or because their place is in Broxburn and its the morning after the Gala. Probably an accumulation of all three. Anyway we will have to sort it tomorrow after getting into Gala and building up. Passing by the ground I noticed that the tracking is laid at the gate, I hope it stays dry as we don't want a repeat of two years ago!

a fairground life

2009-06-17T00:26:00.000Z

Two weeks to catch up on.

We arrived on the green at W, Linton on Tuesday afternoon. The sun was shining and the tober was rock hard. It didn't take long to set the loads as there were no changes from last year. "r" and I started on the skydiver first. It wasn't long before we had the ride set up. After a quick tea we erected the DropZone. While we had been doing these rides Blakey had set up his modern amusements. The weather was lovely, the Green was beautiful and it felt good to be out of Glasgow for a change.

Wednesday morning I raised the cab on the show lorry to see if I could find the boiling problem. Sure enough, a water mark down the side of the engine led me to a burst pipe. I took it off and headed for Edinburgh to get a replacement. Three hours and six stops later I finally got some pipe from Pirtek (hydraulics). By the time I got back to WL, "r" had arrived from Glasgow and a few minutes later the pipe was fitted. I wasn't sure if the burst pipe was the problem or the symptom but the next journey would probably tell.

Thursday and back to Glasgow to pick up the miami and take it out to the music event. The layout was different this time with the rides being split up and the miami was in duff tober. "r" and I set it up and headed back to WL for early afternoon.

Friday, It was opening night tonight and at 7pm there were a lot of people around to watch the floats go by. Last year it rained and ruined biz but not this year and we enjoyed a fair nights trade. The marquee was in full swing until 2am when the music finally faded.

Saturday afternoon was quiet, my wife and "r" headed off to the music event at 2pm. I called them after 8pm, our fears had been realised with the miami being in duff tober and this reduced trade by 40%. I didnt get to sleep until 5am on Sunday morning until I knew that they were finished, the ride pulled down and moved away safely.

Sunday, quiet quiet quiet and as my wife arrived back, I immediately left to meet "r" at Selkirk. The fair was marked out prior and we erected the Miami right away. At 6pm we headed back to WL. That night and the next morning all the other gear would come in to Selkirk from Hawick.

Monday was a day off and we went on a short road trip down by Holy Isle to Berwick and on to Amble.

Tuesday I called Kia in Edinburgh to order a section of intercooler pipe, that night we opened for the rugby tournament on the green and closed at 9pm."r" had left earlier with his trailer to go to Selkirk.

Wednesday I fitted the new pipe and yippee, no black smoke from the jeep as it kicks down. This night we opened for the pram race but it was poorly supported with only 5 entrants. In previous years there were so many prams that they had to race in heats.

Thursday back to Glasgow to set SE's miami at Back to the 80's gig.

Friday I spent the afternoons doing maintenance around the rides, a few bulbs, holders,wires and I also fitted a new hydraulic pipe to the floor rams.

Saturday morning was a heat wave then it was a wash out, by 2pm the sports day was cancelled, it was a long drag until we closed later after 9pm. The weather had knacked us again. The crew had turned up for the pulldown and we did the skydiver first. "r" arrived from Selkirk to help with the tower. For midnight we were all packed up.

Sunday morning 5:45am we were up. The rides were coupled first then we headed off to Burntisland with the skydiver. We pulled on site before 9am. It had been a good trip and also the show hadn't boiled so the pipe must have been the problem. Not wasting any time we built up the Skydiver and it was ready for opening shortly after noon. At that we left my father in law to look after it while "r" and I returned to WL to pick up the DZ. This ride we took to Broxburn.

a fairground life

2009-06-01T22:38:00.002Z

We headed over to Drymen this afternoon to pick up skydiver. When I got there the gate on the field was locked. There was a car parked away over in the field. I walked thru the field upto where the ride was parked. All the marquees,fencing,etc etc were cleared away. I drove the ride down to the gate. I was going to cut the chain with the hacksaw but before I could a police car appeared, they had come to investigate the seemingly abandoned car. So one copper looked around the car whilst the other set off to get the keys to the field. About 20mins later the gate was opened and we were on our way. I pulled into the services at stirling and put in £140 in derv, "r" pulled in behind with the show and put £70 in that plus 3 gallon of water into the radiator!! For some reason the lorry was boiling, it was full when we left drymen 20miles ago. We headed off again and near Edinburgh we stopped and put another 3 gallon of water in the radiator. This time we kept going all the way to WL. We pulled into the ground and the tober was rock hard. I will check the radiator tomorrow to see if the water has dwindled or if it is going into the oil/ sump. There doesn't seem to be a leak so maybe the thermostat is stuck or the radiator blocked or maybe the fan is slipping???? Surely one of the above will cure the problem.

a fairground life

2009-05-31T23:58:00.004Z

It was a mission for all involved, but we did manage to put on some kind of a fair. Friday morning and "d" had got the energy storm ride in on tracking. "jw" tried to move the miami in 1m to clear the path but couldn't do it. Mean while I flattened the ruts in front of the skydiver by repeatedly driving over them with the jeep. At 2pm "jw" took the ride out of the event to clear the path. He had sent for tracking. It came around 4pm, the miami came in again and eventually got set on the tracking. This is all said in a few sentences, but it took hours due to the ride getting stuck half in and half out of the gate,then having to be reversed along a roadway and up into the event field again so as to be facing the correct way. By 11pm that night the ride was finally erected. The sun did come and there were decent numbers at the event, although biz seemed slower. Again at pulling down most items needed towed out. I used part of the miami tracking to get the skydiver out and the tractor was used for some others. Even with the baking sunshine on friday and saturday the area was still soft underfoot.

a fairground life(rice pudding)

2009-05-29T08:33:00.003Z

I left at 7am to get the first loads into Drymen. "r" is in Poland with uni pals so "m" an I are doing it all. The Skydiver was in Drymen for 9am. At 12pm we started to get set. After an hour we had the skydiver stuck just off the path. 2 hours later the tractor arrived to tow it. It managed to pull it back 20 ft to clear the path. The ride was now building up as landed, 45 degrees facing the wrong way. Next we tried to get the DZ in. The tractor towed it in but only 20ft in and it sank. The wheels were not even turning just dragging like a sledge. The tractor could not tow it out again but we got it out using a 6 wheeler on the path. With the dz out we changed angle and tried to come in down the hill. Again at 40ft in the ride sank, the tractor could not pull it in or drag it out, again a 6 wheeler on the path JUST managed to pull it out (after we dug the mud out from the front of the wheels). That was it we took it right out, end of for that ride. "d" tried to put the energy storm in on boards. It smashed thru them and promptly sunk. During all this I did get the skydiver built up but will have to do some gardening today. The ground is like a rice pudding, hard crust with mushy centre. At 8pm I brought the dz back to the yard last night, "d" is getting tracking today for the energy storm, I've had enough no dz this year.

a fairground life(worry)

2009-05-26T15:56:00.003Z

Its been another busy week. I got into the mall a week gone Sunday. I built up the skydiver on Monday with "r". Tuesday I was all day in the (Scottish) section offices as part of the committee for a meeting. Wednesday "b" and I were up at 4:30am to catch a flight to London for a Tribunal hearing of our complaints regarding other members conduct. So we were in Staines at Guild House for 10am. Unfortunately thing were running late (as usual) and we didn't get into the hearing until 2pm. So we argued our case with our opponent arguing his position. The matter is decided by a Barrister with two ex presidents (of the Guild) to advise. How we fared I do not know at this time, but it doesn't matter if you fight and lose, it only matters if you don't fight at all! Thursday we opened at the mall, I was tired from the day before's activities and closing time couldn't come quick enough. Friday at 5pm and we headed off to Bellshill with the DZ and Miami. Again we got on the street at 6pm, but this time there was a curtailment of ground due to paving work. Some tenants even lost their tober altogether. Since the street was dug up and a new oneway system installed, we had to reverse the DZ and Miami onto the street after turning them up a side street. This was the only way to get them onto the plots facing the correct way for setting up. At 9pm we were heading home again. Saturday at 11am we opened. Biz was poor but the fair did look better with the new layout, basically squashing everything up into one end. At 7:30pm we closed, that's how quiet it was. Sunday we opened at 12pm and closed at 6pm. The football may have hindered the turn out and again biz was poor. Monday was no better and at 6pm we started to pulldown. Right on cue the heavens opened up and we got wet into the bargain. The DZ was last off the street as we had wasted half an hour waiting on other equipment getting out our way before we could lower the tower. "r" and I were just leaving as three local neds walked by and bib us a fond farewell with the taunt of-"aye yer shows are sh_t_!" We were back at the yard for 9pm. Up this morning and back out to the mall to pull down the skydiver, again intermittent showers plagued us. The real problem is that the next gaff-Drymen is in danger of being cancelled due to the rain. I hope not, even if it is re scheduled for August, I need the income now! Its a worry. Oh by the way "b" has knacked the Net (top half of ride) lorry on the Dodgem, I don't know the exact details but it could be a big end or con rod!!! So Hawick for him may be iffy???

a fairground life(40s a magic number)

2009-05-18T23:16:00.002Z

I called a few tyre suppliers for quotes on the miami tyre, an odd size 275 x 70 x 22.5 . The prices ranged from £170-£320, what a difference! I decided to go for a dealer that quoted me £186 inc vat, not because he was the cheapest but because he had one in stock and he was the closest. So "r" took the blow out off, we stuck it in the pick up and off we went. On arrival at the depot we bumped into the owner, he knows a lot of showmen and offered me a part worn tyre instead. In two minds I had a look at it and it was nearly new, it had only been in for a puncture repair, plus it was only £40 now that's what Dickinson would call a "Bargain". Later in the afternoon I called fatso to see if he had paid my debt for the brake chamber. Good to his word he had been in and settled up with the head mechanic. I asked in trepidation how much? OHHHH! he said, it was dear, £40 for cash! Now that was a lot cheaper than I could have got the chamber for. So 40 is my magic number today and as I've said before- a penny saved is a penny earned!

a fairground life

2009-05-17T23:20:00.004Z

It has been interesting the last two weeks. I enjoyed my time at Langholm, my father used to come in the 60s, but this was my first time to open there. The miami (different time of year) had been there before with J Collins (the previous owner). The small fair consisted of waltzer,miami,arcade,2 juveniles,stall and a snack bar.The majority of the local kids were polite. There were a few teen drinkers the first weekend and a couple from a nearby village had to be dealt with, however they did not return for a second helping. The weather was mostly unkind and business was poor as a result. The fair was advertised from opening as £1 all rides, but this didn't seem to help (and my fuel costs were still full price). There are a couple of good scrapyards nearby and I did enjoy perusing them and picking up a couple of bargains ( airline hose and munitions casing now used to store welding rods in). Biz was quiet this Saturday. "r" was open in Dumbarton with the DZ. It was raining there too but he was still doing better than me. He finished at 6pm and started to pull the DZ down. Looks like he can go solo now. I started to pulldown at 8.30pm on Saturday night. When I coupled the Foden under the trailer I noticed the air pressure dropping. I got out and discovered the front axle near side brake chamber was leaking. Now where was I gonna get one of those for Sunday morning??? I made a few calls and a friend in Silloth had one but I would have to go and take it off in the morning. Another Showmen TH suggested that I stop at Armstrongs Haulage en route and ask the head mechanic. It made sense as I would have to pass them anyway. I also tried MAN /ERF in Carlisle just in case they had a 24h service desk, no such luck (my grandad always said Carlisle was a graveyard with lights! sorry, but that's what he said). So up in the morning at 6:45 and away. By 7:15 I was standing in Armstrongs yard. It was Sunday morning and as you might expect it was deserted, but then I spied a cab door move away at the bottom of the yard. I walked down and met a man standing next to a Jag. I explained who I was and what I was looking for and that local showmen had suggested I pop in. The chap told me that the head mechanic was not in. I asked if he knew of any motor factors that would be open in Carlisle. He replied not likely, but suggested we take a look in the stores. It turned out I was talking to Mr Armstrong himself, a few minutes later we found a new brake chamber on a shelf in the small store room. I asked him what I owed him for it, "I wouldn't know what to charge, just take it", he said and "phone in tomorrow to get the price". Since he new the local showmen well, he told me just to get them to sort it out and I could see them later. He would not even take a deposit, I know we are not all angels but its good to see that showmen in the majority have a good reputation with people they deal with. So I have left money with "fatso" so he can clear my debt and I will sort out the difference with him later. I headed right back to Langholm and started to fit the chamber. There was a slight hitch in that the old chamber was imperial and the new metric, but fatso got out his box of odds and ends. We found one length of threaded pipe about 40mm long. I cut it into two and improvised a couple of adapters, I even mocked up a couple of "O" rings to make a good seal. It took about 4 hours in total by the time I nipped up both front axle chambers and made other minor adjustment to the chamber. I tried it and yippee no leaks. So off we headed for Glasgow, all the way I was expecting a hose to blow off or something, but all was fine until I turned the corner into the yard. BOOM! I jumped out to have a look and could hear air hissing. Not another one, I thought, expecting to see a blown chamber or pipe. No, this time it was a blow out, literally right at the gate of the yard. So tyre hunting tomorrow.

a fairground life

2009-05-15T12:11:00.002Z

I'm down in deepest darkest Langholm, no mobile internet not even my mobile phone will work. So this is only a quick blast to let everyone know I'm still alive while I was in Carlisle getting supplies. I was back in Glasgow yesteray, but only long enough to set up the DZ in Dumbarton for the Scottish pipe band championships. It was a glorious hot sunny day, just as well as the pitch was a lovely grass park (just a pity its as level as the side of a mountain). The rain is falling in buckets today, it won't bother the tober here as it is a car park, but we really need the sun to shine tomorrow in Dumbarton. Back up the road on Sunday to civilisation, well at least mobile communications.

a fairground life

2009-05-02T20:57:00.003Z

The last few weeks have seen the miami develop a severe oil leak from the hydraulic motor shafts. The oil was being pushed out of the shaft seals and dripping down the front panels. This had started off as an intermittent problem over a year ago but now had reached the point of needing to be addressed. The motor that I had serviced in the shed last year was the main culprit and I had fitted several new shaft seals over the last couple of years to try and solve the problem. I can't believe how easy a fix the problem actually was when JM told me what the problem would be (he is one clever guy), no need to remove the motors or have parts machined etc etc. It turned out that the drain line from the motor had become clogged and this led to a pressure build up in the motor casing that resulted in the oil pushing its way out through the shaft seal. All I did was put on a second drain line with a bigger bore back to tank. Cheap too, total cost £17.50. The last two days have seen nil oil drips from the motors and I can tell you I am VERY pleased. I also tweeked the drive mechanism today by cutting a massive 1mm off of the dynex lever to adjust the parking position speed, minute adjustments indeed. Hope the weather holds out until Monday..

a fairground life

2009-04-29T19:31:00.001Z

The last few days have been busy.

Friday morning I went and got the tyres fitted to the jeep, all the diff problems have disappeared. To say I'm happy would be an understatement. The rest of the day was spent doing minor jobs around the equipment. Over 30 this week for me and "r" has completed a few others too, including touching up the Foden paint, washing all the lorries and waxing the cabs, repairing some loose earth wires on the taillights and more. Not bad when you think he is still attending Uni.

Saturday started off quiet, a long lie in before starting a few jobs and fuelling up the lorries for moving this weekend. At 5pm however I got a call from my father in law. He and his wife had went up to Granton on Spey to a caravan site for the weekend. From there they were touring all the towns and villages they used to travel when they were first married. Unfortunately whilst out with the car they were victims of a bad driver. They had to swerve to avoid colliding with this other car and in the process damaged theirs. They had hit the kerb, broken the near side wish bones, coils springs, tyres and discs. The other driver quickly sped off before they could do anything. So when the dust settled they got the RAC to uplift there damaged car and drop them back at the caravan site in Granton on Spey. I drove up to take them and their caravan home while the RAC took the car away for repair (unless it written off). So at 9pm we set off from Granton. The jeep was quarter full and I thought this would get me to Perth where I could re fuel. Wrong, by the time I was approaching Pitlochry the red light was on. It was 10:20pm and I pulled of the A9 into the town to get fuel. The garage was closed and I also knew that the next two garages in Dunkeld & Birnam were closed too. Luckily we have friend in Pitlochry who keep Derv in their garage for such emergencies. An hour later with 20lts we set off for Glasgow again. It is strange that in this day and age there are no 24hr service stations between Aviemore and Perth, also there are no A9 service stations directly off the A9, you always have to drive into small towns for local services that close early. I tell you we were close to spending the night on the A9.

When we finally got down to Dunblane (after midnight) there was a patrol car sitting on the roundabout. A few minutes later he pulled me in to the hard shoulder. He asked if I knew why I was being stopped. I told him yes, because the trailer number plate doesn't match the jeeps. He asked why this was and my father in law explained. He took my details which he undoubtedly already knew before he let us go on our way again. At the back of 1am we were finally back home.

Monday, the tenants of Burntisland summer fair met in the Scottish sections guild office to discuss issues of this years fair. It was a meeting of a few hours that covered items such as fencing ,stewarding, promotions and advertising.

Tuesday, attended a meeting of the Scottish section committee, I didn't get home until 7pm.

Wednesday, attended a meeting on behalf of the Scottish section at Bradford in the Yorkshire sections offices.Drove 470 mile round trip.

a fairground life (eco or not eco that is the question)

2009-04-23T20:39:00.003Z

Today's mission was to sort out the Kia's problem. So at 9am I drove it down to the mechanic who MOT's our cars. We took it for a spin then we put it up on his ramp. His conclusion was a distribution box problem but suggested I took it around the corner to the automatic transmission specialist (who repaired my mothers old Pajero twice) for his opinion. So I did, luckily he was in and remembered me, so we took it for a spin. He too put it up on his ramp but this time he stripped off a flange mounting plate on the distribution box and put in over a litre of oil. Confident this would surely solve the problem we took it for another spin. Alas it was just the same, possibly due to the damage already being done??? Not giving up here I took it to East Kilbride to a diesel specialist there (who also had done work on my mothers old Pajero). He too was in and remembered me, but this time he could not help as he only worked on the diesel fuel injection side of things. He did offer a few words of wisdom-DONT BUY A KIA SEDONA and I should consider getting rid of my Sorento. Feeling less confident than this morning I headed off to the nearest Kia service centre for answers. I arrived at Parks in East Kilbride, the service centre was busy and after a few minutes I was front of the queue at the Kia desk. The chap was sympathetic, "if only you had kept up the service history" he said, "maybe we could have gotten Kia involved". Aye right I thought, as the car was out of warranty time by a whole year! Anyhow for £60 plus VAT they would diagnose the problem. This seemed a waste as I already new the problem was the diff winding up and it was coming from the distribution box! So I took their number and headed off home a little dismayed. Now this is where Mrs Showman comes in handy, she always seems to say the things that are too simple to be the answer, but always seem to come thru! "Why don't you phone the man from the garage where we bought the car" she said. Doing it to get peace rather than answers I did. The service chap came on and told me very confidently that my tyre tread depths were out of range. No more than 3mm tread depth difference between tyres. So not having too much faith in this I needed to test the theory before forking out hundreds on new rubber. I decided to borrow tyres to try out the theory. I knew I could not get 18" alloys anywhere, but I decided to get everyone else's brand new spares. So I took my bro's,mothers, Blakey's and mine. Four brand new tyres (245/70 17") all with the same tread depth. Over an hour later I had fitted the 4 new wheels to my jeep. Blakey and I took it for a run. Was it a wasted effort? Immediately we were out the yard and stopping at the first corner, I knew it had worked!, No whining noise, no shudder from the diffs dis-engaging. So I promptly ordered the other 2 new tyres I would need to balance my tread depths between front and rear. It is wasteful but, my two front tyres are only at 50%, a good 6 months life left in them, but I have to ditch them for new ones. The ironic situation is that I would have been better off financially by fitting two part worn tyres to the rear way back in December!!! In this world of eco friendly recycling and minimal waste to save the planet- some idiots designed a drive system that can't cope with odd sized tyres to zero point 5 percent (0.5%) of their diameter!!!

But hey- problem solved, mission accomplished. Wait a minute, may be I got it wrong, maybe this is an eco friendly car cos you are only meant to fit part worn tyres?

a fairground life

2009-04-23T00:02:00.002Z

All the equipment is in the yard at the same time, I can hardly believe it. I've been taking full advantage of this (and the sunshine) the last 3 days doing all those wee jobs that never make it to the top of the list. I drained the tank on the EC10 and the diesel looked fine, the water and dirt that came out of the bottom was very minimal, not even 1/2 a pint so what's the verdict on the diesel bug?Hey I though bio diesel was meant to be cleaner thru the engine so how come it is more corrosive??? I got the cab tilt working again, it only needed topping up. On a different note the miami was running crab after me replacing that bush & spring. When I measured the axles centre to centre there was a 16mm difference between off & near side."r" and I tried always to re align the axle by loosening the spring's U bolts and pulling with a strap, but no go. In fact somehow we made it worse to 25mm difference. At that the only solution I could see was to cut the torsion bar on one side, then pull the axle into alignment, mark the torsion bar again and cut the remainder out. So 9" grinder later we had removed 20mm then I welded it all up again. It looks good on the tape but I'll only really know when we are out on the road. My Kia's diff is making a whining noise again, I had a look under and I'm sure its lack of oil in the distribution box, but I can't see anywhere to replenish it, mind you it was lucky I looked because two shaft bolts were so slack I could turn them with my fingers!!! Just made the last payment too and I really needed this year off to try and get the overdraft down. Hope I can solve this cheaply.

As for Blakey, he's been painting painting and painting his wee machine chassis. A nice colour of Hammerite Black which is in fact GREY???? Anyhow it looks pretty good.

Blakey's Blog (interrupted by showmans travels)

2009-04-19T22:34:00.006Z

It was a lovely sunny day today, a perfect day for pulling down. At 6pm we started, the crew had arrived from Falkirk and "r" &"s" got right into the skydiver while "w" and I tackled the show. After that (35 mins) I moved onto the miami while "w" helped "r" finish off the skydiver. The miami came down well and only had the packing to pick up when I moved onto the DZ. I thought that by lowering the tower before the team came down from the skydiver I would give them a head start. Sure enough, as the tower dropped the last couple of inches onto the cradle they arrived from completing the skydiver. Another hour later and we were already for the road. "r" wanted to take the DZ so I could take the skydiver and listen for the bump bump bump. I'm pleased to say it seemed A ok. The new hub,wheel nuts , studs etc etc had cured that. Lucky for "r" he did take the DZ because as I crossed the Kingston Bridge the engine started to die. I knew instantly -filter or lack of fuel. I pulled into the hard shoulder and dipped the tank. It showed a quarter of fuel, so filter it is. It took me a few minutes to find the spare. Then the cab would not tilt (probably lack of oil) so I squeezed in behind the front wheel. I struggled to remove the filter, then realised I was turning it the wrong way! Sure enough when I finally got it off it was thick with gunge. That is the second filter in about 130 mile (going to secc in Dec). That means the tank needs cleaned out. Probably after effects of the East Kilbride saga way back in August. Any how I have only travelled about 14 mile and have created another two jobs-good job the yard isn't further away.

As for Blakey's Blog--well you lot seem very pleased to see him back. The only good thing about him being back is that it implies he was away in the first place. And his story of knocking in a couple of fence posts is no where near as exciting as my traveling escapades. Don't encourage him, lord knows he doesn't need any.(and if you hadn't bought a mutt- you wouldn't need a fence!!!)

A fairground life

2009-04-18T13:29:00.003Z

So the big news last week was how the homecoming music event at Irvine was cancelled. Even bigger news to me, as I had 2 rides booked up for it. Luckily I have a fall back option, but maybe not so lucky for the other 8 rides booked to attend. I told you all in Januarys posts, that 09 would be an unlucky year. Anyhow we finish here Sunday, a week in the yard then out again, only not to Irvine as previously planned.

a fairground life

2009-04-14T17:24:00.003Z

Sorry its a bit dark, I took it on my phone.

I'm a bit out of touch with the kids cartoons today. I wonder if they know of yogi, the flintstones or sylvester and tweetie??? "r" did the bugs on the front its very good and impressed me that he had hidden artistic talents. Need to do the top up now. Probably a re-colour and maybe some vinyl stickers instead of painting onto the PV material.

Easter was very quiet for us too, every one must have been at the sea side. Pity KLM wasn't last week eh? Not much happening, spending a lot of time on paper work for coming events, at least I'm feeling the benefit of my mobile b/band. Everything working well (don't jinx it) , only had a couple of tack welds to do as repairs, one on a speaker hinge the other on a motor bracket. Closed next week, but have plenty of wee jobs to do unless find a last minute gaff. Replaced 1 weekend of the time capsule, just working on the other now.

a fairground life (264 easy payments)

2009-04-11T20:32:00.003Z

I've lived in the house for six months now. I love it, she hates it with a vengeance. Not the house its self ,but the life style of it. When at the house you are away from all that you have grown up with, being in a yard surrounded by familiar faces in close proximity.No one popping in for a quick chat or cuppa. There is also the security of the yard, no one enters without a reason and there is no passing traffic by your door. Our house neighbour had his house broken into while he was inside sleeping, they took his cars keys and stole both cars from his drive!!! It is also a bit harder being in the house due to the fact that during down time the rides are no longer parked outside and this means commuting to do any small maintenance jobs. I myself miss walking around to Blakey's to watch his Sky, drink his beer and eat his biscuits (even if he's at home or not). In fact since I left the yard he doesn't buy beer anymore! (and if he told the truth he would say he misses me too). But surely the benefits must out weigh these annoyances. Six months and I've never changed a gas tank, filled the kerosene tank, had to defrost the water supply or empty the WC tank, BLISS! And I'm sure that if I keep it long enough (depending on making those pesky mortgage payments) it will eventually come back upto the value that I paid for it 24 months ago. I should have known that the market would crash as soon as I got on the ladder.

So I do feel like I have achieved something, worked hard enough for all these years to get myself into mega debt, but I don't think it will stop the NEDS calling me a gypo. Only another 264 easy payments and it will be mine.

a fairground life

2009-04-09T18:15:00.003Z

If ever I needed a reminder of how frail this business is, it came today. A phone call to say that the Timecapsule fair is cancelled in Coatbridge. The swimming pool is being done up and the contractors are using the car park for storing their container bodies in. Unfortunately for us that means 2 weekends closed. The funfair organiser did try for an alternative site but 3 complaints from local bodies put paid to that. I've been on the phone most of the afternoon trying to dig something up but the fact is we are too many and events too few (at this time of the year anyway).

Now where did I put that old UB40?

a fairground life

2009-04-07T15:33:00.003Z

Went to start the (generator) set yesterday. It spun & spun & spun but did not kick up. I changed the filter, no go. I tried the lift pump to no avail. So I put it on a 1 gallon can to gravity feed the injection pump. It ran for about a minute until the gallon was used (it had no return line to it). This was only to confirm the problem was indeed the lift pump. Luckily the local supplier had a replacement on the shelf. So off I went to pick it up. I returned an hour later and had the replacement fitted in a few minutes. I turned the key and the engine growled to life, perfect timing as the rain started to fall and fall. Oh well.

Got the tyre for the jeep this morning so we will be back to full transport now. I have been sharing the pick up with "r" and begging lifts from everyone else.

Biz is very very quiet.

a fairground life( ying and yang)

2009-04-04T12:56:00.004Z

Yesterday afternoon the other skydiver lightbox went down too. So the ride was almost in total darkness apart from the coloured spot banks (AKA traffic lights). While I was trying to determine the problem, which turned out to be a loose connection, I had pulled a wire out of a small transformer on the logic board. So a quick surf of the net revealed that this was a "sub miniature transformer, mains input,100 ma load, 9v-0-9v" (great thing this internet) and Maplin around the corner had 1 in stock. This I picked up at 10am this morning. While en-route, I had a discussion with "r" about the top light box (10x4 matrix). I told him a story about how 25 years ago me and "bk" had reversed the ribbon cable inside by mistake one day and that this resulted in no lights working". OH! he said, I had the ribbon cable off by mistake and thought it would only go back on one way. Well not being too optimistic, "r" reversed the cable while I fitted the new transformer to the other light box. "Hallelujah"(hope thats not a racist remark these days), not one but two working light boxes! A few minutes later the cosmic balance was restored when my wife called and told me that she had a blow out on the jeep. One of those expensive new tyres that I put on in December. The spare is back on and yes the diffs are winding up again, top speed 10 mph!!! So I've ordered in another for Monday. I almost thought Kia's were perfect.

a fairground life

2009-04-02T21:35:00.002Z

Again up and away for 9am. I took the tyre to get the disc swapped over. While that was being done I nipped away for more aluminium paint then picked up some bulbs for the top of the Tempest. The sun was splitting the sky today and we started on the top lights of the skydiver ride. Already the day started bad, the running light box was frozen on with all lights illuminated at once. "r" opened it up and spotted a blown triac. I had none spare so nipped away to RS components to get some. Meanwhile "r" painted the rest of the floor. I came back with the triacs and promptly fitted one. We put the power on again to try it out----NOTHING,NIL,NADA,ZERO,ZILCH not even a flicker. For the last 27 years I have patched this thing up and kept it going, but today after 6 solid hours it's got me beat. There is power in, the transformer rectifier is producing 12v DC for the logic controller, there is no visible signs of any damage. I even tried a spare set of EPROMS I had. Looks like I bought those new bulbs in vain. Maybe the tooth fairy will fix it tonight?

"r" put on the lorry tyre and did numerous other small jobs while I was tinkering inside the RL box. At 8:40pm we headed home and put out the ad billboards en route.

a fairground life

2009-04-01T22:12:00.002Z

9am. Off to ERF's, well MAN now, to see about the hub. After getting nowhere fast, due to un enthusiastic counter service and being told "sorry ours internet is down", I headed off to a nearby breakers yard. He had nothing in suitable so I made a call to another breakers in Bathgate. He told me I would have to bring in the old hub as a sample as there were too many to choose from. Back to the mall to strip off the old one. In the daylight it was easy to see that the centre cap did knock out. Using a cold chisel I removed the two bearing nuts. The hub slid off very easy. Forty five minutes later I was at Bathgate searching through a good selection of front axles. We found two to choose from so I picked the one with the best looking wheel studs. Another forty five minutes of hammering and we were heading back to the mall. The only difference between the two hubs was that mine had ABS brakes, so I tapped off the serrated sensor ring and knocked it onto the replacement hub. Twenty minutes later the lot was fitted back on the lorry. I have to say the job looks a "good un". Only the tyre disc to sort out tomorrow, Fatso has given me one he had laying on the yard, all I have to do is get the tyre changed over.

The rest off the day was spent painting the skydiver boom and the floor. I had to stop at 8:30pm cos the light was failing and I had ran out of aluminium paint. Start again tomorrow.

a fairground life(a stich in time...)

2009-03-30T21:19:00.005Z

Well were back at the mall for Easter. All equipment was moved on site Sunday night. The miami suspension seemed ok but it did run out of line by about 4-6 inches so I will have another go at aligning the spring hanger, well I'll have to check the U bolt nuts anyway. Alas though we did not get to the ERF front bump bump in time. "r" was driving it in and when he arrived I noticed that the wheel nuts were slack (assume from the bump bump) and had knacked the tyres disc, wheel studs and the hub on the lorry. The lips that catch the centre of the disc were worn down. "r" in his inexperience had not stopped to inspect the bump bump when it had got louder. Any how it was my fault for not getting to the problem sooner. So tonight after erecting the rides we stripped off the wheel. One stud was stripped and turning in the hub so we had to cut this off with the 9" grinder. Unfortunately this was also the stud that held the stainless wheel cap on, so this got destroyed too. With the wheel off we then removed the brake drum. The shoes were like new. We spun the remaining part of the hub, the part with the 9 remaining studs on it. Although there was no noise or slap or movement it did seem to run slightly wobbly. By about 2-3mm of wobble. Could this cause the bump bump? had the lorry been kerbed and buckled the hub? When I first inspected the lorry way back in December regarding the bump bump, I had thought it was slack wheel nuts, but they seemed tight. Were they in fact slack, with the tyres disc moving on the hub behind but the wheel nuts seized on the studs giving the illusion that they were tight??? Is it a faulty tyre (egged or with a flat spot) that has slackened the wheel nuts over the last few journeys due to the bump bump??? Or is it another fault that was too dark to spot tonight? I will have to take the final part of the hub off, I assume that there is a big castle nut under the dome in the centre but in the poor light it did look like all one piece. If only we had got to the problem sooner we could have saved about 90% of the damage.