David Schweizer

I am one of the smaller number of people on this forum who actually remember the Jam 'ole Run along with the Harefield Gas Works run, the Lime Juice run, and the Willow Wren Northamptonshire Grain Run, all operating on the Southern GU in the I960's Apart from one or two family double pairings, most working boats pairs tended to operate independantly, and whilst as many as a dozen pairs might pass through in a day, they were rarely bunched together in groups and if so never more than two or three, unless there had been a stoppage, or in the morning, close to a favourite overnight stopping place. It was quite unusual to see the Blue Line pairs moving together and there were only three pairs in Michael Streats time, so seven or eight pairs moving in convoy is completely unauthentic., and misrepresents what actually used to happen.

And some of the wekend idiots on the Thames seem to think that the "Steam gives way to sail" convention will protect them from tacking right across the bows of a narrowboat cruising at maximum speed, Some of them can use some very colouful language when you attempt to manouvere your boat rapidly to avoid a full on collision.

He said it frequently, he also used to talk about a scheme where he would hire the boats to the Captains and contract them to take single runs for which they were payed, the boats would then be returned empty to collect the next load, and because the captain was self employed, he was eligible to claim the dole for the week when he had no payed work.

I have subscribed to Narrowboat since it's re-introduction in Spring 2006, but much of what I am interested in has not, and probably never will be re-published in those pages. Thanks for the suggestion Jill, although I would be very surprised if "Old Grumpy" does not have every issue since day one, but it could be worth a try. I assume that you are still moored at Bradford on Avon, or are you off cruising?

I would be interested to know what took you to Uxbridge in the 1960's. I spent almost every winter time Wednesday evening and all day Saturday between 1965 and 1971 on Pisces, which was moored immediately below the Uxbridge Lock Bridge, summer visits were a bit more sporadic depending on the cruising schedues. If you spent a lot of time there we must have seen each other, but apart from Hugh McKnight, I cannot recall any other person interested in Workintg Boats hanging around Uxbridge lock, unless you were on a boat, in which case I may remember the boat.

The magazines I have start about 1997 so not that old, so it will be the re-cycling centre for most of them. What about earlyissues of "Old Glory" Magazines? I have a box full of them as well, running from issue No.3 (July/Aug 1989) to issue No62 (April 1995) Now some of those must be worth something. The Railway Modeller magazines were cleared out years ago after I dismanted and sold off the model railway layout in 1997. to Help raise the funds to buy our boat.

That would be about right for age, Roger bought it second hand only a few years old in about 1963/4 (he was an Estate Agent and had oodles of money compared with rthe rest of us). From memory the colour was more like Salmon Pink than bright rose pink, but it was very pink, something which made him well known to the local Constabulary. The reference to the A35 is also familiar, My girlfriend's father had an A35 Van, and we all used to refer to the Midget as an A35 in a skirt!! It was also too small to do any serious courting in, wheras the Riley, which was a LHD export model (in cream custom coachwork) was huge by standards in those days, and being LHD a good "Kerbside Chatting up" car.

You under estimate the Riley RM series cars, they were the natural development of a long line of successful pre-war racing cars and had far superior performance and handling power than most other cars of their era. The engine, although over square, had twin cams with a cross flow head and hemispherical combustion chambers, which made it very lively The rack and pinion steering combined with the independant front suspension, it's low centre of gravity and long wheelbase made it an extreemly stable car even when cornering at speed. Probably one of the reasons why the Riley RM series cars were used by the Devon and Cornwall Police as a fast pursuit car (lots of twisty lanes in that part of the country) Where the Midget did suceed was in lighter steering, better brakes, and much better fuel consumption.

Over the years I have accumulated a large quantity of Waterways World and Canal Boat Magazines which are taking up too much space. Apart from a few copies containing historical informationn Articles, I would like to dispose of them. I know that in the past the Waterways Recovery Group used to take these Magazines to sell at shows etc, raising funds for their work, but cannot find anything on their website about this. Does anyone know if they still take back issues and if so does anyone have a contact. It would be a shame to have to take them down to the re-cycling depot.

[quote name='Hairy-Neil' date='Sep 23 2009, 09:00 PM' post='419852' The Braunston lock keeper's log book I have (1962 - 64 inc.) shows the Brays, on average, taking slightly longer than the Whitlocks. I am sure you are correct, but of course the Whitlocks had three adults and two younger family members operating a pair, and Bill Whiltock was well known for the swiftness in which he could turn a lock The Brays only had two adults and one younger member, and Rose Bray, although mobile was not fast. I do not know where the Whitlocks moored prior to arriving at Southall, but somehow recall the Collins' sometimes mooring down near the Swan and Bottle in Uxbridge.

Having a late start one day or early finish is completely authentic. Our boat was moored immediately below Uxbridge lock in the 1960's and the Brays would regularly arrive some time in the afternoon, and either moor almost opposite us or in front of us on our moorings. If they moored opposite, they would set off on foot for Uxbridge about 6.30pm to visit the Cinema. They would then have a leisurly couple of hours to Southall the next morning. Yes they normally worked very long days, but it wasn't always rush rush rush as some people would have you believe.

The MG Midget was a Wussie's car. back in the 1960's a friend of mine had one, and it was all noise and no action. I had a 1951 Riley RM one and a half litre at the time (more than 15 years older than the MG) and I could take it any time. Near us there was what we considered in those days to be a fairly steep hill on the A40 between Uxbridge and Hillingdon. From a standing start at the bottom of the hill the MG would shoot off, The Riley weighing over a ton took a bit more effort to get moving, but at about 50mph I would shoot past and be doing nearly 80mph at the top of the hill. The MG could barely achieve 70mph. Another friend had a Triumph Roadster with similar performance to the Riley, we both considered the MG to be a bit Girlie, and being painted Pink didn't help much either!!

I have three 12volt drills, one of which is kept permanently on the boat, I have run it from the domestic battery system for more than ten years without any problems. I made up a wooden plug, which fits into the battery socket on the base of the drill. The plug has two brass contact strips on it which locate onto the contacts inside the drill base, and has two spade terminals screwed into them which connect to a twin cable with a 5amp plug on the end. This is plugged into the most convenient 5amp socket available. 12 volt drills are getting a bit harder to find these days but there are still a few on the market, the one I use on the boat is a cheapy cheapo DIY Barn own brand and has served me very well, without failure. The motor is quite tolerant of variations in voltage, and actually produces a bit more torque when run off a fully charged Domestic battery, which will be slightly higher than 12 volts. If I have a particularly toughh job, I run the ngine so that it pumps 14.8 volts into it, it hasn't complained yet. The only downside is that it is very difficult to get a 12volt drill that will do much more than 900rpm withiout shelling out a lot of cash, so they have their limitations.

We had to learn all the sound signals as part of my Boatmaster Licence training, and the Assessor required us to be able to identify any signal he chose to give us without hesitation. I can still remember them today but rarely, if ever, use them apart from the long single warning signal. There was one occassion some years ago when I needed to bring the trip boat off it's mooring onto the opposite bank. I recognosed the distant boat approaching me as "Pussers Rum" , a boat owned and operated by Officers from the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm at Yeovilton, so I gave the correct maritime signal indicating that I was moving to port, They responded that were going to cross over by also giving the signal indicating that they were moving to Port , and promptly moved to Starboard !!! After that I took the view that ifrthe Navy did not understand the code, then the average amateur boater would not have a clue. Although I am fully conversant with the signals, it is my view that apart from their use on Commercial and Tidal Waterways, they are somewhat outdated on the mainly recreational canals.

During a brief conversation with an angler at Wolfhampcote on Sunday, I commented that he was the first angler I had seen in four days. He informed me that there are virtually no fish in that sectuion of the G.U. because a "Carnivorous Creature was in the water which had eaten all the fish. So what is it and how did it get there?

Well maybe we were unlucky, but there was so much rubbish and green weed at the Coventry end that it stopped the boat completely, and we had to put an enormous amount of power on to get through the entrance bridge. We did find out that the "Warden" who is normally based in the office in the basin had been on holiday for a week, so no clearing had been done for about ten days, but for that much rubbish to accumulate in ten days, does not say very much for those people who live alongside the Canal. On our way out we actually counted more than ten Sofas and Armchairs half floating in the water between Coventry and Hawkesbury not to mention the hundreds of coconuts. Three years ago we travelled through Stoke on Trent and passed through mile after mile of industrialized and developement areas, but the water was clean, and virtually rubbish free. if some cities can do it, why can't others?

Having been through the same proccedure myself, which eventually confirmed that my BMC 1.5 engine was probably a Thorneycroft based engine built in 1981. I know how difficult dating some of these engines can be. Although I did not do it myself, I wonder whether a question on one of the Classic Vintage Vehicle forums would produce an answer. They seem to be much better informed about theses things than most Boaty people.

What is the point of those silly pipe fenders whilst cruising? they only "protect" the rubbing strakes from contact with the lock sides, or another boat. Forgive me for being a bit dim, but isn't that what rubbing strakes are for (the hint is in the name rubbing strake). From my observation all the stupid things seem to manage to do is scribe a muddy arc fron water level to gunwale, wearing away the blacking from the hull sides. Or is it just Me??

Ever been to Coventry basin Phylis? It is fairly unpoulated place during the day, with almost all the shops and commercial units empty, but at night, it can become a decidedly unfriendly place if you are there on your own, there were several boats moored when we stayed, but they were all unoccupied. I actusally like industrial towns along the canal but I would not go there again, the fight through rubbish soup for three miles was not worth it. Pity really because Coventry itself was really interesting.

Oh very good!! Still that is beter than overnight ploughing, which we had on Sunday night, he finished at 2am, and started again a 7am.

When we moored in Coventry Basin, we did not have any problem from drunks, although there were a few sitting in the small garden near the bridge all night. However, we daid have consistent problems all afternoon and well into the evening with a group of teenage boys who were clambering all over every ones boat. I managed to persuade all but one of them that it wasn't a good idea, but the one individual, who I am convinced had insufficient inteligence to understand what I was saying, continued to act like an idiot all day, with his mates just watching and sniggering. When we mentioned the previous day's problems to a security man touring the basin the following morning, he informed us the the CCTV cameras are only linked to the local 9am to 5pm security office, and are not linked to the Police control desk, so no one can see what is happening on them during the evenings, So a bit like burgler alarm box without any contents!!!!

Our boat is 7ft wide and having once got well and truly stuck in a lock wth another boat which had pipe fenders down both sides, I will not even contemplate sharing a lock with another boat if they refuse to lift their fenders. We do have some of those flat black fenders which we use when moored up against concrete for lunch, but for overnight mooring and when the boat is on it's home mooring, we have two "Tyre Fenders". I made them from fairly small tyres, with S/S eye bolts bolted through the centre of the tread, and they hang conveniently from the side steps. Our boat is moored on a fairly busy, and not overwide section of the Northern GU and many boats pass too fast causing the baot to swing backwards and forwrds, the tyre fenders almost totally eliminate the rocking and banging which we would otherwise experience. And before anyone suggests that we should moor more tightly to prevent swinging, the water levels on our mooring can rise and fall signifcantly during the day, so if the level drops, the ropes loosen , no matter how tightly we have tied them.

I have re-written my earlier post because the information I gave was muddled. In short the problem occurs (intermittantly) with the Sterling Alternator Controller connected, and with it disconnected. Similarily, it will also work with normally with the Sterling connected or disconnected. I will try the test when I next visit the boat, but am still confused as to why this should have suddenly started after years of no problems. The warning lamp fiitted at the moment is rated at 12volt, 2.2watt. Some while ago ChrisW suggested that I solder a 3watt 47ohm resistor across the warning lamp terminals, would this have the same effect as a bigger bulb? (I bought the resistor, but have not tried fitting it yet.) P.S. I am assuming that by bigger bulb, you mean higher wattage.