Ex Brummie

I'm happy to go along with volunteers, but not other boaters who I do not know. Just one thing that bemuses me is why, when descending, volunteers only crack the paddles by a 1/4 for the first 1/2 lock.

Some years back, we booked a Viking Riverboat cruise which was affected by low water to the point that half of the cuise was by coach as water on the Maine canal was too low to take a loaded boat. Also , one day was taken up by changing boats as a lock was broken so pack your bags, they will be transferred to other boat and we all got on a coach , ended up with a verypoor lunch in a pub, then got taken to our new boat in Vienna. 30 mins later the boat we had left moored alongside us. Other friends have reported similar disorganised with Viking River Cruises. We were most disappointed particularly with a flight to Munich from Birmingham with a 4 1/2 hour chandeover at Schipol when there were 45 min direct flights.

I think New Marton causes delays because they are the only locks many hirers encounter, and everyone othe 8 or 10 crew wants a go. And with it being busy in both directions, entry and exit times can get stretched. The last time we did this, on the bottom lock we were told there was only one paddle working. I pointed out to the operator that theyshould uss the small hole on the windlass and things moved much quicker.

I have Raw water cooling on a Perkins 4108, and the symptom certainly indicates a blocked inlet. Does the flow stop immediately or does it tail off? have you disconnected the outlet of the Jabsco and checked if the flow still stops ? That would at least narrow down the fault to inlet or outlet.

I suspect the originator of the text does not know the difference between barges and narrowboats, especially when the term 'wide beam narrowboat' is widely used

https://www.birminghambeheard.org.uk/bcc/smoke-control-order-2025/ Another Council looking to extend control over moorings/residential boaters. Will this be another weapon in the armoury of the flat dwellers who suceeded in closing the Roundhouse?

I remember a washing mashing appliance. The dolly in the dolly tub relied solely on the arm power of the washerwoman. It was always a woman as the man would be in the foundry or down the pit on Monday morning😁

If you start the engine and then run the inverter/washer/iron etc, does everything work?

Once again, maybe the Council will now seriously consider the local request to install a crash barrier and limit the size of vehicles over this bridge. Turning points are much closer, as you can wind below Dimmindgsdale lock, and on the other side there is a winding hole above Wightwick Lock which is handy for anyone wishing to stop at Compton for supplies or refreshments. The Bridge is not really at the end of a long straight as it comes into a curve from Merryhill and meets a road from Penn and then crosses the bridge and diverges into two roads. There is a lot of heavy traffic using the bridge from a local quarry which may be why the Council is reluctant to introduce any traffic calming measures. In the pictures shown above, you will see the passenger door of the car is open. The young lady passenger, after the crash, opened the door not realising there was no path or road until she fell into the canal. The concensus was that the immersion speeded sobering her up.

The good people of Wolverhampton are very generous with their water deposits. Even the soapsuds will smarten up your dusty blacking as you use the Staffs and Worcs or the Shroppie.😀

It is amazing how opinion differs as to what is a life changing amount.

Because that is how the regulatory bodies specify it in their publications. Have you checked BSS requirements lately?

As one with some experience of fuel delivery (*)and metering, I suggest there is a logical explanation. All fuel meters have a specified range of delivery consisting of a minimum and maximum quantity. When small quantities are dispensed such as into cans, the operator often restricts the opening of the nozzle to avoid overfilling or spilling, andthe flow rate does not register on the meter correctly, so it is possible that a significant of fuel is unmeasured and not charged. Weight will never lie as long as the scales are accurate. * I refer to my time as an oil heating service technician when in a rented property, the landlord would 'meter' a tenant's usage from a common tank. Such a low calibrated some 10-15 years ago would cost upwards of £150, so a cheaper option was used that required a minimum much higher than a domestic boiler would use. In one instance, I know of a couple whose mother had both a boiler and an Aga in a bespoke apartment and were amazed at low her fuel bills were. The Aga would consume about 0.3 lts per hour 24/7/365 and none of this registered on the secondary meter. So at 8 litres a day, that was asignificant loss. Of course, if the seller has a commercially rated retail pump, it will cope with all quantities of dispense, but at a cost of £'000's, you need to sell a lot of fuel to cover it.

They obviously use the same AI bot as my local Housing Trust. After reporting pothole in one of their property access roads, I received a reply informing me it had been referred to the maintains survivor. In further discussions, the maintenance supervisor got quite stroppy when I kept referring to the maintains survivor.😁 The fault occurs because the individual who dictates to the bot does not bother to review their work, but I suppose if they did there would be no time saved over them doing their own work in the first place.

Surely the balance beam will swing free if the gate is struck. The only way in which the beam could fail in a strike is if it is rotten and the shock/vibration is the proverbial straw.... It's 2 or 3 years since I was on the Oxford and if this gate is in the same state as lots of the others, then maybe the lock operatives had a lucky escape, if the fail had occured when opening or closing the gate in the normal way. I find it interesting that the principle of beam temporary repair has moved on from the Armco crash barrier used on the Oxford to the varying lengths of angle iron and big bolts used on the Trent and Mersey and Staffs And Worcs, which apparently is standard equipment in what is left of CaRT response vans.