Fairground
This 3d CAD model I created and rendered is of the English Showman Tony Spurrett's .22 rifle range. This version travelled the Cotswolds, Midlands and Southern England predominantly in the late 60's. It was built by Tony himself using parts from previous truck mounted versions as well as new and found components. It was built onto a 30' long ERF KV 6 wheel 'Chinese 6' truck, the name given to trucks with this wheel configuration with twin steering axles at the front and a single axle at the rear.
Later versions of this rifle range had to have plexiglass spacers between each shooter and the rifles chained to limit the motion so it could only be pointed towards the targets. The ammunition used was live .22 frangible ammo, this shattered on impact eliminating the chance of ricochets off the steel and injuring someone. It could still do damage though if shot at a person. Tonys 'shooter' (as they were generally known) was the last known live ammunition shooter to travel the UK. Later versions had him mount a smaller version of this that customers shot down the end of a 24' trailer which was much quicker and easier to put up and tear down.
This rifle range used to be right outside my front door when I lived in Woodstock in the UK. the first Monday and Tuesday in October Woodstock had a street fair that was first chartered in the 1500's by Henry VIII. He became a very good friend to my family (Tony that is not Henry VIII).
There are hardly any colour photos of it in operation that I'm aware of, but I do very much remember the colours he used for all the parts in these 3d renderings. Sadly Tony died in 2017 but he was a very much respected showman and very friendly man too all who met him.
To see a more detailed version of each picture right click on it, select 'open image in new tab' click on that new tab and you'll be able to zoom in even more on most of these pictures and download them too if you want to.
The targets were mostly made from 1/4" steel plate, sometimes on the back of each target you could see the diamond pattern from the non skid surface of diamond plate steel used for walking surfaces in industrial applications. Some targets travelled on a continuous chain with the target mounted on it, if it got shot down it would flip on its back which got automatically flipped back to vertical on it's next revolution. Other targets such as the steel target dead centre and the two clowns had a hole in the middle which if you shot into it a klaxon horn would blare out.
The stars were on spinners that spun around, people liked shooting them to keep them spinning. He had a windsceeen wiper motor hung in the roof of the joint with some coat hangers hung from it and coke cans hung from them. The motor moved the whole arrangement in a random spasmodic way which was fun for keen shooters to hit. One of the hot targets in it's day was pictures of JR the evil character from TV's Dallas show. Another favorite target was the 8" paper target which wheeled out on wires and a crank handle that could be retrieved for the shooter to keep after he had finished his round.
Tony giving advice to a customer.
Tony himself with his niece Cherry Hatwell in about 1970, note theJR pictures hung up at the back.
My preminary 2d layout drawings started from a lucky find online of a dimensioned ERF drawing from the 60's that showed an '8 legger' truck, the 6 wheeler just had the rear axle of the two at the back.
My early 3d progress of the ERF cab and a detailed view of the ERF grille and badge that took me 3 evenings to draw in 3d.
Closeup view of the 3d model targets that Tony cut from steel plate.
This ERF above was very similar to the truck Tony mounted his rifle range onto, it was a flatbed vehicle originally just as shown.
This is the very truck Tony owned after he had removed all of the rifle range parts and moved them to his smaller 24 trailer mounted model and sold this truck for scrap. I found this photo on the web, kind of sad to see it like this but it ends this story nicely I feel.