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It's an odd title, and I dare say won't attract many responses, but I thought I'd share what I've been up to this past three weeks. My wife works in a bakery shop, and off her own back has for several years made up window displays for the seasons and a few public holidays. For this Summer, she asked me to build a narrow boat for her (sorry about this!) Rosie & Jim dolls. They are quite large, and have voice recordings with a variety of sayings and giggleings. Nuff said. The following shows the model I have constructed using scrap cardboard and a few pieces of plywood, held together with glue from a hot glue gun and gummed brown paper strip. I based it on a Thomas Clayton tanker boat as depicted on the cover of Tony Lewery's 'Narrow Boat Painting' GIFFORD, but it's not accurate as you will see. Nonetheless, comments welcome. I guess it will burn well once I've tired of trying to find somewhere to put it. It's in the shop window in Wenlock right now. Probably be there until Halloween. The rudder is out of proportion - the blade should be much higher, and the back end looks more like a GU butty, but it's hung in the traditional way using a Schrader valve collar; piece of welding wire, and an old metal tent peg. No chimney brass for Rosie & Jim, spent too much on cakes. Plates and crochet fitted. Scumbling cardboard is not to be recomended, especially with 40yr old scumble paint. More theatre than accuracy. The range shows a flickerin fire through the 'bars' courtesy of two electronic 'tea' candles though switched off in this shot. The lamp is made from a straw; piece of rubber fuel line; a shortened nail (wick adjuster); a plastic bottle top for the shade, all squeezed into a plated casting that was a tea pot, with the spout and handle cut off. Regretably it does not light up. Catherine's Bakery, 20 Barrow Street, Much Wenlock.

I was four at the time. I was allowed to stay up for the landing, but I have no memory of it, so I suspect I was asleep on the sofa. What I do remember is my class at infant school being trooped into the hall to sit cross-legged on the floor and watch one of the later missions on one of those big B&W tellies with legs and wheels and doors which schools used to have. After a while the class was trooped out again to get on with whatever they were supposed to be doing but I refused to move, and sat there all afternoon, spellbound, as other classes trooped in and out. The inner nerd was strong, even then. MP.

Blimey, dont tel the NBTA

I thought you meant that they were selling moorings somewhere on the canal?

Can I suggest a rather less theoretical approach? How about three long sticks with the ends tied to form a U shape. Plunge the "crossbar" under the boat at the stern and mark the waterline on both vertical sticks where they emerge from the water. The draft will then be the average of both wet lines on the vertical sticks? All very practical but it should work to the tolerances you need for the task.

Would be better to feed it into an anaerobic digestor to produce more gas.

Well, I like it!! I ignore all the incorrect ways of saying things and the clatters and bangs and the wrong information about this and that. What I'm seeing is a pretty mismatched group of people who are discovering what a joy it is to be on the water, on a boat and be part of the landscape, the community, the history. Good old John Prescott is genuinely impressed with all the engineering side and I love that. Michael Buerk is astonished at how much he's come to enjoy it all. And I don't believe either of those two are putting it on. So it makes me remember my earliest days on the water. I was hooked after a week and I probably did most of the things they've been doing. But I don't care; I still feel exactly the same about going out on the boat as I did a couple of decades ago, so if they are picking up on just a tiny bit of what we all feel then I'm really pleased for them. Jo

I have just been reading one of these metal information signs on the side Middlewich about amoungst things the origin of boat people. It says in the "did you know" section that Gypsies were employed to paint the early narrowboats and that in 1795 there were 103 boat masters registered of gypsy heritage. This seems to be contrary to all the history books I have read such as Hadfield who suggest boat people were recruited from farmers, who were already skilled with horses, river workers and even navies. The fact that the figure of 103 families is stated with authority implies they are referring to some official census. Does anyone know of such a register? Or can this be put down to the perpetuation of the myth of gypsies and narrowboats.

Don't you mock the legendary Wigan Burger!

What a damned silly place to park a car!? George

The only thing that could write off a stern tube / stern gland and shaft is serious misalignment, the shaft may have worn the front part of the stuffing box. Either that or there is virtually no packing in it. This is one of those times that I wish I lived nearer as there are a lot of 'experts' around that really aren't. Unfortunately I am nowhere near you. If I were you I would offer a couple of cans of beer to some untidy and oily boater to have a quick look. I fear you may be getting bad advice - I hope not but another opinion could be useful.

The only rare species that has been lost from the area is the dam keeper, I wonder if they did a risk analysis back then............

I am worried that a wildlife preservation review was not carried out before the Chinooks were drafted in. How many rare species were living in that part of the spillway before the aggregate was dropped on it?

Yeah poor choice of word, 14 days is what I meant.

We have a domino jointer if you need to align boards.

You spent a fortune on a new oil pressure switch? What other work has the engineer done?

hi every one all sorted know ..i got a nice leather one from furniture warehouse lichfield i will put a photo up when it comes over the weekend ..regards

I've found it: PRESSURE SWITCH - cuts in at 1.0bar (15psi) - cuts out at 1.7bar (25psi) So my accumulator should be at 12psi and my expansion vessel at 28psi

Which makes it a bit limiting!!

Eeee! thems was the days, and didn't we all look funny trapsing off ter school with us shaved heads painted purple cos of the ringworm? I wish somebody had told me earlier about top access for servicing on cars. Last year I spent ages with a torch rolling around on the road underneath my Saab 93 convertible trying to figure out where the hell they'd hidden the oil filter. I even looked in the boot before stomping my way indoor to whizz off an email to the successors of Saab promising them if they were to give me some You're Hot/You're Cold clues it would remain our secret. I'd not breath a word to anyone else. Turned out I only had to remove the massive plastic doo-hicky that sits on top of the engine, and there it was about on line (height wise) with the air filter! Tomorrow I'm greasing the electric hood mechanism, I imagine I'll start by jacking the car up and removing the headlights.

Presumably you mean function as they are built the same. An accumulator stores a (say) a litre of water at pump pressure, so when you turn on the tap the accumulator will supply until the pressure drops and the pump starts, whilst the pump is running the accumulator tends to hold the pressure fairly steady. Without an accumulator, if you only take a very small flow the pump will turn on/off every few seconds, with an accumulator it will turn on/off a lot less often. Result is less pressure/flow fluctuations at the tap, and less contact wear on the pump pressure switch. Expansion vessel - most calorifiers have a non return valve to stop hot water going back into the cold pipe. When water heats up it expands and if it can not push the water into the cold pipe, then it increases pressure in the calorifier, if someone uses some hot water this will release the excess pressure, but if they don’t the pressure will rise, possibly to the point the ‘emergency’ pressure release valve opens. The other worry, is that if this happens frequently then it will stress the copper walls of your calorifier which will eventually cause it to crack and leak. At least one calorifier manufacturer will not give warranty for this type of failure. The expansion vessel will take the ‘expanded’ water so preventing excessive pressure increase. For these ‘bottles’ to work correctly they must be at the correct pressure to do their job (see posts above), there is a tire valve at the opposite end to the pipe which is where you pump air in if it needs adjusting.

Well given your track record of scaring off tradesmen, I'd say it doesn't matter what the total height of the boat is, as the transport lorry won't turn up anyway!

If the river is high enough to be able to step straight off, I'd rather not be on it on a narrowboat.

Try Matty40's of this forum. When I got my boat the horizontal red surfaces (handrails, edges of Houdini hatches etc) were shot but the rest OK. He did an admirable job outside at my mooring at a reasonable price.

It's an expansion vessel.....

A couple came in last month, engine basically stopped dead whilst coming through a bridge a mile away...they drifted to the side and called RCR. They were halfway round the Oxford ring, and had to be in Henley in a weeks time. Agent attended, looked at engine tried to start it, it wouldn't, although solenoid clicked. He diagnosed faulty starter motor, possibly also starter battery, and probably complete engine seizure. He said nobody from RCR could come out for 6 days to do the starter motor....which had to be changed before they could try anything else. The.couple came in, asked if there were any starter motor repair places nearby, we said, bring the boat to us, we will have a look.. .and gave them our two punting poles. They arrived next morning after dropping their car to us, not expecting an easy or quick fix, and drove off to Henley. We tried to start the engine, ..I said gearbox. An identical noise only a previous week in another boat with a Hurth,...with the same symptoms on an ancient boat I was moving. We tested batteries ,no problem. We dropped the gearbox off the engine, the engine turned easily. New hurth gearbox installed, starter was working as it should, gave the couple a call, who had only just got home, and told them they could continue their cruise. They came back next morning and set off. ? Funnily enough, 3 days later, they called us with another problem. They came out of a lock in Hemel Hempstead and the engine kept cutting out, it would start again, and then, cut out, they managed to moor up and call us. I told them they had run out of fuel, they said, no, we should have had plenty. I asked when they last filled up, it became vague, so I said, use your RCR membership for something they can help you with, but dont tell them you have run out of fuel. RcR attended, and sure enough, sheepish chap came to pick his car up a week later and took the stick he was due for running out of fuel very well.?

Noodles! (Eventually ...)

Same here. I'm now at an age when I simply can't safely get down into the bilge round the engine and expect to get out again without a fair bit of long term pain. And my original engineer is older than me... That being said, the parts I really worry about are things like the starter, alternator, flexible coupling and gearbox, all of which are covered. I don't think my current oil leak will be covered at all as it's probably wear and tear anyway, or possibly the result of a botched previous repair, but then I haven't actually broken down and can get to a yard under my own steam. If i couldn't, they'd tow me. If I'm anywhere near either of my longterm engineers, I'd rather call them out myself and pay them for the job because I know what they can do, but if I'm not, having the insurance of RCR is reassuring. The guys they use are variable in quality, that's all.

For a boat that length, no map is going to give you a definitive answer whether it will fit through a particular lock. There are simply too many variables in the exact length of the boat and shape of the bow and stern, together with diferences in the exact layout of individual locks of nominally the same size.

I'm not saying it cannot be discussed (Nor commented on) I'm saying that in this thread alone I've seen 3 or 4 theories all different. Until some kind of investigation has taken place its mostly just theory and what people think. But with only 3 posts I'm not sure I'm allowed to say more. Already the post above mine says the vegetation was of no major concern. And no, i don't work for CART. I've just tired of the incessant theorising. I will say that the vegetation seen on that spillway would not restrict water flow greatly - should it have been there, probably not - i don't know I've only got 4 posts now.

Same here, too fast round the bends and in the bushes, shouted at for passing moored boats too fast, I had throttled back but 15 tons of steel take a bit of time to slow down. Wond the paddles to fast. But then I am not one of the lucky few who are not only perfect but also expert at everything they try for the first time.

Just use the picture. Measure the cabin window for scale, and work it out from there.

The old coal chutes at Longford Coventry by the then gas works. I think it is what was the Courtaulds Little Heath factory in the background. Now all gone. The gas works are The Ricoh Arena and a shopping complex. The Courtaulds site a mixture of a car showroom, housing and business development.

You have to be careful doing that otherwise you’ll find little protons appearing all over the place.

Its an environment issue. When the worlds governments get together and ban the millions of flights for holidays each year burning millions of tons of fossil fuel and after we have an infrastructure to charge the millions of nissan leafs we are all going to be driving in less than nineteen years in the UK, then perhaps an infrastructure will be put in for grey water tanks?

I'm guessing that the £150 is to have something fitted professionally, not to do it yourself? Otherwise yes, maybe £30 to £40 for a suitable vessel, and maybe another tenner for the plumbing bits required. It's not always entirely obvious, but a flexible tap connector is often the best way of joining to the parallel threaded brass connector that many are fitted with.