A near death waltz!

[brightspark]

Yeh but theses bad boys were chocked up level with of cuts of Pallet wood and decking

so are mobile cranes and a lot of other stuff jacked up and on wagons holding tons of steel theres nothing better than wood

 

[Tinbasherdan]

Oddly enough a waltzer type ride did sling a young girl off in Cumbria a few weeks back. She’s currently still critical but stable

 

[brightspark]

Oddly enough a waltzer type ride did sling a young girl off in Cumbria a few weeks back. She’s currently still critical but stable

it happened in yarm over 60 years ago a car came off and injured a few

 

[Parm]

One of our lot will be there when it goes wrong.

I would never ever go on a ride at a travelling fair. Never

 

[mcostello]

We had one over here kill a Guy. The Manufacturer never capped the ends of tubing. Some of Them stay upright and filled with water and rusted to pieces in an unexpected place and broke launching Some One to a half day off. Was inspected by the proper Government employees.

 

[JMS1972]

One of our lot will be there when it goes wrong.

I would never ever go on a ride at a travelling fair. Never

Not just me then?

 

[mrsbruce]

The travelling community are in a class of their own without a doubt but the fairground folk have always struck me as having much higher standards.

These guys have to be safe or they wouldn't be asked to come back, and when was the last time a fairground wagon lost its wobble box on the motorway and caused a 10 mile traffic queue? And don't forget that while these folk operate under "showmans" regulations, more often than not having an extended tractor unit coupled to a 50' trailer with a wobble box behind that, they're still subject to the same rules of the road as everyone else so it's not in their interests to run dodgy death traps.

I remember one time ages ago, when walking along The Meadows in Edinburgh when the Fair was being set up. A crowd of the Fair folk all gathered around on ride that was being built up, and making it very clear to the owners of that ride that it was not in a safe condition to be used.

There again, you could tell by their caravans that these were ‘quality’ show people.

 

[AndersK]

A few years back we were at one of the largest parks here. Mother in law was constantly trying to get me and brother in law to take a ride with her in one of their infamous rides. That thing was known for stopping a couple of times, sometimes leaving people hanging in the safety gear upside down 15m high for hours.
Finally brother in law got tired and agreed to go with her. In cue the last cart was full and they would be the first ones on the next. While waiting there was that noise of metal to metal and with a bang a support wheel from one cart was ripped of and came tumbling thru the air, landing literally just at their feet. Never seen a living person so white in the face before as he left the cue.

 

[ajlelectronics]

Something that many don't realise is that showmen and women are NOT anything to do with cararavan utilising, nomadic types. In general, they are decent people who make a living by taking their equipment to places who want it. In Gloucester, we have two big fairground businesses that we have done many jobs for over the last 30 years and never once have we had any bother from any of them. All are nice, honest and friendly people, with just one exception although many families have a black sheep of course.

 

[Morrisman]

I took my daughter on one of those small fun fairs in the Philippines, when we lived there, and was somewhat perturbed by the third world engineering. Next day it was all over the news, a car had fallen off the very ride we had been on the night before, and killed a couple of young kids.

 

[highseas]

Oddly enough a waltzer type ride did sling a young girl off in Cumbria a few weeks back. She’s currently still critical but stable

Funny enough I am in Cumbria...

 

[highseas]

Something that many don't realise is that showmen and women are NOT anything to do with cararavan utilising, nomadic types. In general, they are decent people who make a living by taking their equipment to places who want it. In Gloucester, we have two big fairground businesses that we have done many jobs for over the last 30 years and never once have we had any bother from any of them. All are nice, honest and friendly people, with just one exception although many families have a black sheep of course.

I would agree with that, my dad spent a lot of years in his younger days with a travelling fair and circus, the days of elephants ect, but I know one of “king crackheads” minions is a travelling lad from Durham, we sell horses to his dad

 

[gerrymoore]

I built this 'fairground ride' in the early '90's after being made redundant. I had seen a ride called a Spaceball but they were very expensive.....I love to copy things!!

Once built I had to have it safety checked by a qualified engineer and it had to be tested with twice the weight it would ever carry....also liability insurance was compulsory.

We (me and a friend) used it on many occasions at fairs, garden fetes, parks, and big days like the tall ships visiting Liverpool. It was very popular and proved to be a good money maker although we both ended up with arms like Popeye from spinning it around.

Sold it on after a year or so ...... brings back happy memories!!

 

[Wozzaaah]

I built this 'fairground ride' in the early '90's after being made redundant. I had seen a ride called a Spaceball but they were very expensive.....I love to copy things!!

Once built I had to have it safety checked by a qualified engineer and it had to be tested with twice the weight it would ever carry....also liability insurance was compulsory.

We (me and a friend) used it on many occasions at fairs, garden fetes, parks, and big days like the tall ships visiting Liverpool. It was very popular and proved to be a good money maker although we both ended up with arms like Popeye from spinning it around.

Sold it on after a year or so ...... brings back happy memories!!

View attachment 310266

As a kid there wasn't many fairground rides I didn't get off and projectile vomit, I doubt I'd have even made it off that one.

 

[Revs1972]

I have to make detours to make sure I don’t drive past the fair with the kids in the car when it’s in town.
Small details like re using old bolts that have been tightened using impact wrenches are a no no for me. Wouldn‘t do it on a static structure (we rebuild a TV set once a year and supply new bolts for it each time), let alone something that is dynamically loaded.
Even the big theme parks have a lot of questionable structures. Went to Alton Towers when I was an apprentice and saw missing bolts, holding down bolts with loose nuts etc. All this on live rides

 

[mtt.tr]

If something is being taken apart and put back together every couple of weeks its probably better maintained than something thats in the same place all the time.

Mot so sure, see more crane disasters regards tower cranes than port cranes or even gantry's

 

[Morrisman]

I have to make detours to make sure I don’t drive past the fair with the kids in the car when it’s in town.
Small details like re using old bolts that have been tightened using impact wrenches are a no no for me. Wouldn‘t do it on a static structure (we rebuild a TV set once a year and supply new bolts for it each time), let alone something that is dynamically loaded.
Even the big theme parks have a lot of questionable structures. Went to Alton Towers when I was an apprentice and saw missing bolts, holding down bolts with loose nuts etc. All this on live rides

Being a mechanic and general metal bashing man myself, that’s the sort of stuff I always look after on anything man made, to check for mistakes and ‘questionable engineering‘.

Even up the Eiffel tower I had a good gander at how it was fabricated and put together. That’s definitely an impressive structure.

 

[tom2207]

As some know , I did mobile stages for a while , mine was inspected yearly , and a report done . At every event an inspection had to be carried out and a build sheet completed , a safety inspection and check list sheet was completed and signed off , a council health and safety rep inspected the structure and associated equipment, and only then was I allowed to use it as a stage . Some of the fairground rides I used to set up beside were scary , very very scary.