Leaderboard

Trains don’t have automatic brakes. Stopping a body with huge momentum and very little friction between the wheels and what they are rolling on is arguably the most difficult aspect and one that’s very much more difficult than stopping a car. Learning and retaining route knowledge is a key factor as is the behavioural response to adverse signal indications. A sizeable proportion of people actually don’t have the necessary cognitive and behavioural skills required for the job. You don’t properly understand what you’re saying.

Made Margaret more comfortable with the situation whether necessary or not.

The Zeus is up and running and charging my batteries right now with a limited field duty cycle to keep the alternator cool. I have not yet installed the alternator shunt or alternator thermistor and there are in-line fuses dangling on flying leads, but my Amazon fuse boxes have just arrived so will tidy up tomorrow. I am struggling a bit with the app but as my backgound is PC engineering software I find all mobile phone GUI's very non intuitive and frustrating. It does look good and comprehensive and can even do a top off charge on Lead Acids, so the Trojans can be really happy for the last bit of their lives till I go lithium. A firmware update was painless. Much more detail another day.

Paying for a mooring is a pretty good definition of "such longer period as is reasonable in the circumstances."

I too am deeply uncomfortable with all these unrealistically low licence fees. Unless CRT grasp the nettle and ramp them up properly to match what it costs to maintain the canals, we are at risk of losing them totally. A LOT, (one helluvalot) of money grabbing is needed to secure the future of the canal system.

So yesterday I bought a steel Dutch cruiser, its a boaty boat rather than a corridor 🤣 I currently have a widebeam but I have lusted after this boat for a few years, it has a Sole 44 diesel engine with 146 hours on it. The previous to last owners can only be described as the artful Bodger! He didn't fix anything correctly ever!!!! The list of bodges he did are endless, as I sort them I will list them, i have fixed the water leak on the front hatch already. I only have until the end of may to do it as that's when the BSS runs out, pictures for perusal

Greeting from Florida. Not the Miami end or the Disney middle, we are way out west near Pensacola. I used to be a contractor working in Iraq. After Covid, I had the pleasure of sitting 16 days locked in a hotel room in Dubai for quarantine. Here I discovered David Johns and Cruising the Cut. I feel in love with the idea of cruising the canals. To make life even better, when I returned home and showed my discovery to my wife, she was as enthusiastic as I. We have watch every one of his Vlogs (but skipped the "Not-a-Vlog). Some other favorites are "Chugging Along" and "MinimalList" Our long term dream would be after I retire in a few years, to buy a boat and cruise it for the 6 months a visa would allow us to stay in England, then sell it. We are not waiting that long for our first experience! We have booked a 2 week holiday with Cafwin Cruises on Arthur Owl out of Droitwich Marina starting the last week of April. Why April? A. The boat was not booked yet for that time. 2. I'm hoping to avoid the busier times. Why Cafwin Cruises? 1. The boat looks AMAZING! B. It has the largest bed of any hire boat I looked at! Number C. Catherine has been greatly helpful and is a Vet. (My wife and I are too!) We don't have a lot of interest in urban cruising in Birmingham so have planed to do the Anti-Clockwise Avon Ring. If the River Severn doesn't want to cooperate I think we will head up to King's Norton Junction and head east toward the Hatton Flight to wherever day 6 or 7 brings us, turn around have head back to Droitwich. The plan is figured on about 5 hours cruising a day. That should make for some stress free boating. The idea of Vloging the trip is attractive but I would do all the post production after I get home. You'll just have to wait to see how our trip went! I've been reading posts here and learning a lot. I have figured out the intricacies of Canal Plan and have the appropriate Nicholson guidebooks. Cafwin Cruises also have some detailed itineraries for some ring trips that are very helpful. We will hit a few Pubs for chow but neither of us drink much. We are looking forward to long walks in villages, seeing old churches and taking in the countryside. We have wellingtons and raincoats but hope to have some nice spring days too. One thing that has me curious; In many YouTube videos the men stay at the tiller while the ladies work the locks. It seems to me the more chivalrous thing would be to let my wife run the boat and let me do most of the locks. What say you? Comments, questions or concerns? We would love to hear them!

And the engine because we have seen many misidentifications Right - a broken engine (your words) does not require a service kit, but it may require a selection of parts. Unless you become a bit more forthcoming about what is wrong with it, symptoms, etc. we still can't be much help. I suspect that your best bet for engine parts may be via the vintage tractor magazines (especially Nuffield) or vintage London taxis. early diesel taxies had the BMC 2.2 diesel. Whilst I think most of us know just how hard it is for a new boater who has little practical engine experience to know what to ask, it is something you need to grasp and get over it. Do your best and if we don't understand we will ask or make suggestions. You may get some replies that seem brutal or rude, but usually that is a poor sense of humour. Just to point out that the hire fleet I worked for had a lot of BMC 2.2s coupled to a hydraulic drives, but I can't help unless I know what you are talkin about. So would I, I think our fleet were the most prolific users of 2.2s coupled with hydraulic drives, most tended to use Perkins, but if it is one of our boats it must have gone north on a lorry. Only a complete nut would try to take an inland boat up north by sea.

Have to say i never considered this, i did the licensing online as part of my "boat jobs list" that J wrote for me when we bought the boat so it's all in my name. Despite that, i'm still told which side of the bed i'm allowed to sleep on (against the wall, obviously). She's a ginger, i'm not going to argue with her

Is she getting a survey done

They sold steel plate as kits to be welded up by you or your boat-builder, and plenty of sailaway type shells for home fitting (which is why some of them can be a bit... B and Q...). Mine was fitted by a narrow-boat company (fitter? builder? Hurst boats) so was nicely spray-foamed and fitted. The Linssen is definitely more yot though.

The forget me not that is shown in one of your pictures with a motor stern is now with the wooden boat trust near Manchester. not the same one. Had a quick look on face book a lot of information on these boats there. A quick quote has Mabel being built in 1929 and forget me not as 1928 they worked as hotel boats from 1957 - 1987, it also mentions forget me not as being owned by Samuel Barlow coal co.

I'd really like to see a photo of this boat.

Mabel was originally owned and run by John and Mary Wilson nee Humphries. Mabel was later sold to Michael Rogers who ran her as a working boat before converting her to a hotel boat at Tooley's yard Banbury. See A Canal People page 122 Longden / Rolt. There was a Forget me Not run by Rose & Jack Skinner, horse boat. I'm not sure if this is the same boat. There is also a Forget me Knot originally owned by Henry Grantham which became Golden Boy and the rebuilt Sunny Valley in the film Painted boats.

No but if the boat is in your name and you die your widow has to re licence it as a new owner

Its great they are still on the cut. As long as they are not an obstruction this is where they should stay and become part of the scenery. Whether a Boat is a Boat in use or a reed bed or garden makes little difference. Its part of history and if it is wooden with some iron ribs it deserves to stay. I would not advocate this solution for clapped out old steel Boats. They need to be cut up but wood is wood and will go back to nature.

New Islington only really work if you plan to go up the Rochdale as its two (wide) locks up from the top of the Rochdale 9/Ashton canal. If the plan is an overnight stay while transiting the Bridgewater then all of the moorings mentioned here (except Castlefield itself) involve doing the Rochdale 9 which is not a trivial thing. As I've said before, we use New Islington as a stop before going up the Rochdale so arrive in the afternoon, head for the bar, and leave New Islington just before first light. This avoids paying the mooring fee. The beer comes to much more than £25 but is a better investment.

The driverless trains in the UK are some underground lines I believe, where the driver is just watching and making sure. Plus the DLR where there is no driver. On the mainline there are no driverless trains, and the drivers are very much driving. Some trains are more difficult to drive, with braking, as already mentioned, the one aspect where different trains really can differ. What has improved safety is better training, and improved safety systems. But the driver is still very much in charge.

And if you want to extend your stay on the Bridgewater beyond the free 7 + 3 days you can pay on line here. https://bridgewatercanal.co.uk/boating/pay-online/

Mooring is free like on a crt canal but crt registered boats only have a week (or 10 days by ticking the 3 day extension box when booking Bridgewater passage) for free as it’s a privately owned canal owned by Peel Holdings example pictured below

I’ve stayed near where beerbeerbeerbeerbeer points out for a night and found it okay, a few boats moored on the towpath as well which is always a good sign. Regards to castlefield I believe you can stay on the Bridgewater for 10 days by ticking the “extend by 3 days to return to your home navigation” box but there’s no return for 28 days. Bridgewater licence is £40 a week once the free trial ends last time I looked.

Gives no errors on opening or saving in Excel now, and all the previously blank fields seem to have data

Obviously. CRT doesn't have enough money to run the show , so what do you expect? Economic zen master, he say in monopoly situation with locked-in consumers, costs go up, non-consumer income go down, prices they go up. Zen master he also say, tin floaty toy be luxury item, you not want pay whack, you go play trombone instead.

The waterbus on the L&LC was originally operated by the narrowboat Apollo, with Water Prince being purchased subsequently. David Lowe will have better details, as I think it was his initiative which resulted in the service. I have attached the 1990 leaflet, and a photo of Apollo towing the West-Country keel Gwendoline down to Rodley in 2001, where it was loaded onto a lorry for delivery to Ellesmenre Port. 1990 Apollo cruises and water bus.pdf

Correct with luck I will licence it today for next month, she is currently on a trade plate, I will move the trade plate onto Joyce and cancel the license on her. I am very taken with Dutch Lady when sold in York to the Artful Bodger she changed hands for 30K! Looking at the pictures she was in nice condition though, it shows that if boats don't get looked after they devalue quickly. I tried her out yesterday and the electric raw water pump is useless except at tick over, hopefully the proper pump will be here this week to sort it all out

I also have a spreadsheet, that I am using to show to CRT the slots that I think are needed on each tide during the year. Current version is here, but this is subject to change .... tides_v5.xlsx

I've posted the spreadsheet (it's a Libreoffice one not Excel) in the Canalworld FB group as I can't see how to place it in the forums here...

The installation is taking a bit of effort, retro fitting/upgrading into a limited space is difficult. The captive thermistor connector is a pain as it won't feed through the existing cable hole, so had to empty out the cupboard/wardrobe and drill a new hole in the bulkhead, then thought I would tidy up some other wires. Need to get a couple of fuse boxes from Amazon/eBay but can maybe get an improvised install working tomoro. Will then report back on how it goes. The LED would have been better on the top rather than the bottom. The alternator harness was just a couple of inches too short, a longer harness would not add much at all to their manufacturing costs. I would like a lot more detail and background in the documentation? are feature ins and "allow to charge" active lo or active hi etc. can the "allow to charge" be shared with other things like victron?

Thanks for drawing this thread to my attention. Three representatives (from SPCC, IWA and the DBA/Limehouse residents) had a useful meeting with CRT a few days ago. They have accepted that the current slots offered on the website are not right, and in particular don't allow for the various options for arriving and departing. Watch this space! A few other points I would add: I strongly agree with @Peugeot 106 that the skipper needs to do their own passage planning and understand the tides. One certainly should not rely on a website to tell you when to depart. The winter hours (0800-1600) only apply from November to February inclusive. The other 8 months are 0700-1900. We are still discussing these hours with CRT. It's not going to be easy to persuade them to change - this is a national policy and one that makes sense in many contexts (but the moon does not cooperate so far as tidal locks are concerned). These new hours will mean there are quite a few days, even in summer, where Brentford to Limehouse (and vv) transits are not possible. And some days when Limehouse to/from Teddington is not possible (unless you fancy bashing against the tide) CRT have started training people to operate the lock (and the bridge, which is temperamental). I have volunteered myself. Ditto Brentford Thames lock (which is simpler). We have been trying to engage the PLA on all this, but no luck yet. I will have another go at their open meeting (they are normally excellent events) in Putney on Monday week.

Nope. No nerve. But facts are facts, and you were planting the blame in the wrong court. Now you have changed your points. Are you on about strikes, or whether they get paid too much? Anyway, as I've pointed out the innacuracies of your strike rant, I shall do the same for this latest one. 1- looks like you are picking up the highest pay. Please don't listen to the government. They are good at this. The average is less. Also, the skills are a lot lot lot more than you suggest. "Sit down and don't touch a steering wheel"? Honestly. You clearly have absolutely no idea, so you try and make it sound simple with stupid comments. I assume being a brain surgeon is simple as they don't need to touch a steering wheel either? I certainly couldn't say for sure if I'd be able to succeed at driving trains. A lot to it. 2- pension isn't completely rock solid from what I can gather. It is still open to the government trying to play silly billies. 3- free travel isn't quite that simple. You have to have started before privatisation to get free travel everywhere, and to keep these benefits. Otherwise it is free travel with your company only, and you lose it when you leave. Oh, and those that started before privatisation did so when the money was dire. They joined for the pure love of it. So don't go on about money and keeping free travel benefits. I know one who started a long time before privatisation. But then soon after privatisation he left the rail industry as the company in question was awful. Well, he lost all benefits. He eventually rejoined the industry elsewhere, but he was seen as a new joiner, so it was free travel with his company only, plus unlimited reduced rate travel. Well, as time went on he got a bit fed up with the way the passenger side was going, so moved over to freight. Having been seen as a post privatisation joiner, he has lost all free and reduced rate travel. So, it really isn't as you'd like to make out. As for uniform. Oh come on. Loads of places supply uniform. In fact, I'd guess most places do. You really are grasping at straws with that one. If you want to knock industries you know nothing about, I suggest you get some info from those that do before banging on. Just a suggestion.

London Euston and Birmingham Curzon St. As good as centre to centre. The mostly in tunnels bit has been caused by the likes of Matty40S complaining about how it looks. Which coincidentally adds to the cost, something these people then moan about. Forgetting they caused it in the first place. I probably won't travel on it, as I've no wish to travel under so many tunnels. But let's make sure we are fairly accurate in apportionment of blame.

Thought that was going to be for the sinkholes that have appeared near to where they are tunneling. But no it is to to realign it. You would have thought with laser lines and GPS they could have got it right

According to CRT's newsletter, the landslip was caused by climate change. Funny that, some of us thought it was due to lack of maintenance.

The first time we hired (having previously had a couple of canal holidays with my parents) we went round the Avon ring. My brother and I were the only ones in the group with any experience and it was a very pleasant route. There were five of us and we went round the ring with a side trip to Birmingham, in a week. We did travel longer days though. We hired from Wootton Wawen (near Stratford) so the other end of the river section. Experience from the earlier trips where we had planned to go on the Severn and couldn't because of the river levels meant that we covered the river section first as the levels were fine, and then finished on the canal section - this was against the advice of the hire company who suggested we go anticlockwise as you are planning to do. It turned out to be a good idea though - all their other boats followed their advice and couldn't get back; we were the only boat to make it back to base! I certainly wouldn't regard it as too difficult a route. I would probably look to run for longer on the first few days, perhaps sacrificing long stops at Worcester, Tewkesbury and Evesham for getting a bit ahead of plan time-wise and clear of any potential issues with river levels. Once you are at Stratford and off the river you can slow down. That would also give you a bit more time in hand at the beginning of the trip, which would allow you to decide what pace suits you without any need to push on to get back. If you find you like shorter days you could just go round the ring, but if you find you like cruising for longer then you could use the time in hand to go into Birmingham (only a short run up from Kingswood Junction and no extra locks) and then if you still have time in hand at the end of the trip, you could go on past Droitwich and down to Worcester again whichever way you didn't go the first time, spend a bit more time there and head back the other way (Droitwich is part of a mini-ring with the Severn, the bottom of the Worcester and Birmingham and the Droitwich canals). Alec