Peter-Bullfinch

I have searched widely locally, using all the numbers you have provided, and the good folk at Merlin Diesels at Walton Summit in Preston have made strenous efforts to track down the lift pump. They wonder if it was actually a special made just for SABB using stock parts from the AC range. I did see a lift pump in the Merlin stores with a very diff body (not an AC type) for a BMC engine with a similar arm (55mm long protruding) but the arm and holes seemed about 10mm higher over the whole length than the AC one so was reluctant to attempt to fit it for fear of damgage to my engine. I would be extremely grateful if you would consider selling me one of your old ones and I am sure I could get the usual new maintenance kit to refurbish it if needed. I would of course be happy to drive down to see you if you could possibly help me. Peter

I have been narrowboating on both hire boats and our own boat 'Bullfinch for quite a few years. I am retired now and have been asked on a few occaisions recently if I would give a talk to various groups. I have succumbed to the latest plea from the local Church Men's Society. I am sure a number of you might have given such talks and illustrated them with relevant pictures. My talk is going to last about 45 minutes with time for questions afterwards. I am wondering if any of you have a presentation which include any simple maps, even diagramatic ones of the system. A simplified map of how a canal 'climbs' over hills with summit levels and resevoirs would be useful. Have any of you any advice about using pictures/diagrams found on Google Images for example and how I might acknowledge their use? I have access to a number of 'artifacts' which I can take along to add a little colour to the evening. All advice on the content will be gratefully received. The slant I will use will be our own experiences and travels around the system and will include rivers as well as the canals. Many thanks, Peter

Crossword clue; Rumbles around in the Potteries. (7 letters) Mind you...it would have made me have a cross word with the girl too.

Dear Mike, We are both intrigued about our mutual friend living in Scotland! Ours is called Mary and at one time she did live in Culcheth but now lives just outside Inverness. But I guess that Inverness must be almost 100 miles from Aberdeen. Peter (Who has been pretending today to be busy painting his tunnel band, a 15 minute task which took almsot 3 hours due to chatting with everyone else who passed by on the pontoon)

Hya Mike, Luckily we moor at St Marys and not the dark side. Before St Marys was built we enquired at Fettlers but were told our boat was too old! We have a friend in Inverness who comes to visit us. Friends also in Warrington. Ours is the only boat with the name Bullfinch so far as we know.

We have moored a few times now at Audlem and we usually stop for a night or so. We live near Chorley in Lancashire.

Hya Dave, Youre quite correct, Roger was the previous owner. He has been very helpful indeed. The paintings of the castles he has done inside the boatman's cabin and the engine room are really good. He recently painted us a Buckby can with the name Bullfinch which looks splendid. I did ask him in a roundabout way if he might loan us a photo or two of Bullfinch's past but maybe his pictures are personal ones for him and may include Sue and his family and so on. I am a bit nervous of asking him again in case he feels he is being pressured. Roger has my email address. Regards, Peter Corbett

Our boat Bullfinch was built in 1986 by Colecraft and for many years was moored on the offside at Audlem and owned by a wonderful couple living there. We have only had the boat since 2006 but we would love to find photographs of Bullfinch before this date. We are sure many must have been taken but we can't find any. We are attempting to create a 'history' for our boat We have had the boat repainted with a new home town now of Rufford. Have any of you a picture in your files we could see? Many thanks

Our boat Bullfinch was built in 1986 by Colecraft and for many years was moored on the offside at Audlem and owned by a wonderful couple living there. We have only had the boat since 2006 but we would love to find photographs of Bullfinch before this date. We are sure many must have been taken but we can't find any. We are attempting to create a 'history' for our boat We have had the boat repainted with a new home town now of Rufford. Have any of you a picture in your files we could see? Many thanks

John...thanks..I can see your need!.....I will just keep on having to try and track down the equivalent pump maybe as a remanufacture. The big Preston dealer suggested I removed the pump and left it with them for a while to try and see if any of theirs might be the same....am a little loathe to remove the only one I have though and leave it in case it goes missing! Thanks again for your help.

Thanks again! Maybe the erratic behaviour is because of the position of the arm in relation to the top of the cam of the lift pump. On mine if the engine is turned by hand half a turn, this seems to move the camshaft and drops the operating arm, thus enabling some manual pumping. Johno, would you consider selling me one of your pumps?

We visited Birkenhead the other day to get our lifejackets checked. We stopped by the Ferry terminal and saw a full size model, some 45 feet long, of the steam powered submarine Resurgam. The brass plate stated it was 330 tons(!) in weight. Now, my narrowboat full of equipment at around twice the length is barely 18 tons. Surely some mistake. I asked an engineer friend who said at one inch plate plus, ribs, timber, steam engine, crew and coal it might struggle to weigh twenty tons. Looking at Wikipedia it does state 30 tons and he thought that might be the crane loading weight for the craft full of water to be pulled from the sea bed possibly. From Wikipedia. 'The second Resurgam was built by Cohran & Co. at Birkenhead, England, and launched on 26 November 1879. Her construction was of iron plates fastened to iron frames, with the central section of the vessel clad with wood secured by iron straps and as built, she was 45 feet (14 m) long by 10 feet (3.0 m) in diameter, weighed 30 long tons (30 t), and had a crew of 3. She was powered by a closed cycle steam engine originally patented in 1872 by the American engineer Eugene Lamm which provided enough steam to turn the single propeller for up to 4 hours. She was designed to have positive buoyancy, and diving was controlled by a pair of hydroplanes amidships. At the time she cost £1,538. After successful trials in the East Float at Wallasey, it was planned that Resurgam should make her way under her own power from Birkenhead to Portsmouth for a demonstration to the Royal Navy. However, during the voyage mechanical problems caused the crew to dock at Rhyl for repairs. Once completed, the crew set sail at night in a high wind, towed by the steam yacht Elphin, which Garrett had bought to act as a tender. The Elphin developed engine problems and the Resurgam's crew transferred to her to assist. Because the entry hatch on the Resurgam could not be fastened from outside, the submarine began to ship water and the towrope broke under the added weight, the Resurgam sinking in Liverpool Bay off Rhyl on 25 February 1880.'

I visited two huge diesel engine factors in Preston and they both said they might well have the lift pump in stock but they needed another digit in the part number to be sure. We tried the obvious of adding nought to nine at the end with no success. Johno...could you please check the part number again for me...or..is there an equivalent part number for another manufacturer. Many thanks in advance!

Yes, that was us. At the end of August we met in Sandiacre. You had managed to to drop your T shaped key in the canal the day before! If I recall, your boat boat is a Colecraft too but maybe a couple of years younger than ours. Just goes to show what good boatbuilders they are. We spent three and a half months on that trip. This year, passports and visas ready, we are hoping to leave Lancashire and head to that great unknown, the south, and towards Bristol.

Wow...many thanks for everyone's help...especially you Johno......now....all I need is the name of someone who has them in stock.

Sarah and Ian, If you want to see a Sabb engine being started and run there is a slightly quirky You Tube clip of our boat on the Aire and Calder last summer. Please ignore the over the top music with it!

There are no numbers on the body of the pump and Sleeman and Hawkins (Sabb parts suppliers) over the phone seemed reluctnat to tell me the model number either despite them having one in stock.

Thanks for the lead. Somehow I still need to identify the AC part number.

Hi, We have a Sabb 2G engine which is 22HP in a 57 foot 1986 Colecraft boat. The engine is 1977. It works very well indeed. Last year we happily cruised up the tidal Ouse and the tidal Trent with no issues. We have been across the Ribble estuary also. Due to its age we don't tend to push hard and so we arrive at the locks maybe a few minutes after the others. On the canals generally it performs very well. Servicing is very easy. Oil and fuel filters are standard. Other spares are available via Sleeman and Hawkins.

I have a 1977 Sabb 2G engine fitted in a 57 foot narrowboat. The lift pump is an AC. The mechanical pump arm lever is fairly erratic in operation and I'd like to find a new unit. Sleeman and Hawkins are asking an incredible £250. I would like to identify the type I have to search for a cheaper one. Mine has 5 screws holding the body. It is the gasket version rather than the rubber ring sealing type. Can anyone point me in the right direction. Many thanks.