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Captain Pegg

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Posts posted by Captain Pegg

  1. 7 hours ago, gatekrash said:

    And here is the reason he got hung up, from Rich on Roach who was moored below him....

     

     

    Further info on the boat that sank in Gregory's top lock.  He is now tied up below the lock and drying out.  He had gutted the boat prior to a refit (so not much damage inside) but is now trying to get the engine working.  A local said it had caught up on a sunken motorbike, but then we stopped to buy coal from Rich on fuel boat Roach who had been moored below when it happened.  He said it had been overplated and the chine was now much wider than it should have been, so his boat was effectively over 7' wide.  Gregory's top is apparently the narrowest lock on the W&B so he got stuck.  He went home to sleep till CRT came back in the morning, but as Rich explained, the canal weirs through these locks (ie no bywash) so his boat was functioning as a gate ... till the water came over the stern and into the boat.  He looked quite cheerful though down his engine hole!

     

     

     


    I don’t think these locks weir through the gates, both Gregory’s Mill locks have weirs above on the towpath side so it may appear they don’t have by-washes. In general W&B locks have easily visible offside by-washes.

     

    Also right from the outset I recall the CRT notices stated the navigation was blocked by a sinking boat rather than a stuck boat.

  2. 55 minutes ago, robtheplod said:

    Well we're a week away and I'm keeping a close eye on the Severn water levels. At present its not closed but give caution (yellow). When like this is it generally OK to continue or best only for the very confident and experienced?  Also until end of March its closed two days a week and you need to book locks - we'll get there early April - what is the normal procedure on the Severn locks between Stourport and Droitwich outside of Winter closure... do you honk?? :)

     

    image.png.2991156df922ef393ad5fb445f24bac2.png


    Severn locks have lights and the lock keeper will see you approach. You’ll get a flashing red light as they prepare the lock. They will also signal which side of the lock they wish you to be.

    • Greenie 2
  3. 22 minutes ago, BoatinglifeupNorth said:

    An old woman who I spoke to who had her new buy boat moved from West Stockwith to Thorne, said she was charged £600 by a professional boatmover, the journey at the time of year and Trent tides could be done in a day/2 days most. Which I thought was ridiculously high.

     


    That move is very unlikely to be able to be completed in one day by a boat mover.

     

    They’d have to travel from home and back again on a day with a very favourable tide and having had suitable time to ensure the boat is prepared and ready for a tidal passage.

     

    I’d guess that price reflects two people for two days. I think the reason some folk tell tales of inflated prices is because moves are priced for two people which is absolutely unnecessary on the canal network but if you don’t know a particular stretch of tidal water taking along someone that does is arguably a wise thing to do.

     

    On my website I say I don’t offer any service on tidal waters. While not strictly true because I have done some it’s simply because for some passages I’m not the best person for the job. You want someone that knows the water for certain jobs.

     

    I don’t think you can complain too much about anyone willing to take full commercial accountability for your craft on the tidal Trent for a three figure sum.

    • Greenie 1
  4. Thanks for the mentions @matty40s and @MtB.

     

    I’m currently recovering from eye surgery so may not be able to help in the timescales but I have PMed @Liz E with a few pointers of what she should be looking for in terms of price and insurance.

     

    A couple of my customers at the back end of last year told me they’d had quotes from elsewhere that were broadly double what I charged them. And my rates are comparable with a couple of other boat movers I know.

    • Greenie 3
  5. 4 hours ago, Ronaldo47 said:

    Last year a columnist in "Modern Railways"  mentioned how, in times gone by,  emergency maintenance at an inaccessible spot would mean a gang walking there, carrying their tools, lunch, water, a Primus stove for heating their kettle, and a pack of toilet paper. Nowadays H&S means they have to construct a temporary access road leading to a wheelchair-accessible amenity block, all of which results in delays and a vast increase in costs. 


    So that’s easier than enabling heavy plant and lorries access to a place where there’s a thousand tonnes of earth to be moved?

     

    And who needs messing and toilet facilities in the workplace?

     

    It’s a partial truth at best anyway, and one that’s not really related to re-construction of earthworks.

     

    There’s very little “modern” in the thinking that goes into Modern Railways.

    • Greenie 1
  6. 3 hours ago, beerbeerbeerbeerbeer said:

    I’ll have to face up to Cov one day. Each time I head that way I chicken out and turn off down the Oxford or Ashby. 
    I think I’d rather face going up to Failsworth and Rochdale. 
     

     


    I find it strange that someone who avidly boats to all corners of the BCN worries about Coventry and Nuneaton. And if you worry about them you should really fear Bedworth.

  7. 7 minutes ago, blackrose said:

    If you put a motor on the end of a butty or joey is it still traditional? I thought they were both examples of traditional unpowered craft? I can't help thinking that if you want a motorised boat then you should buy a boat designed for an engine rather than bastardising traditional unpowered boats.


    There’s a significant history of motorising boats built to be towed.

     

    The reality is that a much larger number of unpowered boats than have already would meet their demise if they weren’t converted in some form.

     

    Lesser of two evils perhaps. Boats are living things.

     

     

    • Greenie 1
  8. 1 hour ago, captain flint said:

    I've read a few comments in various threads that refer to 2 pack being applied without shot blasting. Pretty sure some have even suggested it can be done without going back to bare metal. 

     

    Two good outfits I know who do it swear that's wrong, and that it really needs shot blasting to adhere properly. They both talk disapprovingly of those who use it without that level of prep, and how often they have seen and had to deal with problems resulting.

     

    You might think, "Well they would say that," - after all they both offer shot blasting and 2 pack application! But I've seen examples of it flaking off when the person who did it swears they got right back to bare metal. And I'm not just talking below the waterline (although I do also know someone who bought a brand new boat by a pretty well known maker whose boats go by his name, where the 2 pack epoxy below the waterline started flaking off within a year). 

     

    I don't have any 2 pack plans right now, I'm only stirring, sorry, I mean asking, as I think it will be interesting to hear what people's views are and how they back them up, and what their experiences have been. 

     

     


    In respect of the new build you refer to it’s probable that the paint remained properly adhered but to mill scale rather than the base steel and it’s the mill scale that has fallen off taking the paint with it.

  9. 3 hours ago, Ray T said:


    Mike Humphris always called the 3 locks at what is now Calcutt, “The Wigram’s Three.” Never Calcutt locks. Bearing in mind he came from 6 generations of Oxford boat people.

    When ever I spoke to Mike I had to use place names and terms he recognised otherwise he would say “I don’t know what you are talking about Ray.” E.g. the Ashby Canal was always “The Moira ( prounounced ‘Moiree’ by Mike) Cut.”

    I always loved listening to Mike speak, he would say Oxford with a lovely drawl and in almost the next breath come out with ‘tis arr in a perfect Black Country accent.

     

     


    Sounds like he never entirely lost some Oxford from his accent. The issue isn’t the use of the name or the pronunciation though, it’s the way it’s written. I dare say my boating ancestors - with an almost identical family history to Mike - also used the name but I’ll wager they never wrote it.  And I’d be certain if they could have written it they’d have been sure to spell it correctly.

     

    In any case I’d also bet that what boat people actually called it was a lot closer to “Wigrums” than “Wigrams” phonetically.

    • Greenie 1
  10. My own dislike is the use of the name ‘Wigrams’. It’s a term that seems to have come back into modern usage probably via the books published by the wartime female trainees (themselves never called Idle Women in their own time).

     

    I don’t dispute that boaters once used this term but what they were saying was “Wiggerham’s” in the hybrid Midlands accent that boaters tended to have.

     

    It’s someone’s name so somewhere along the way somebody should have done some research and got the spelling correct, particularly for the marina which in my view spoils the look of the place to boot.

     

    How crap to be remembered by folk that never knew you and can’t be arsed to spell your name correctly.

  11. 17 minutes ago, BoatinglifeupNorth said:

    Wilson is originally from the Potteries and he calls them Fore or Front Cabins.

     Maybe boat owners want to make new names up to feel a bit nostalgic.


    I doubt any of us here had heard the term until @IanD referenced it when describing his layout for Rallentando.

     

    I very much doubt any boater made the term up and Ian himself is avowed in his dislike of nods to tradition - real or faux - so I can’t see he would be guilty of using the term for the reason you suggest.

  12. 21 minutes ago, BoatinglifeupNorth said:

    Is that the historic boat builder that’s been building for the last 100 years or the one that’s been building for about 7 year? 
     Looking at the Fore cabins you wouldn’t get a great deal of  cargo in them, more likely a place to store boat running gear, ropes, spikes, canvas?

     


    Fore-cabins were for people, additional space for children to sleep.

     

    The term seems to originate in its modern (only?) usage with Tyler Wilson and I’d guess that’s from the part that’s from Newcastle-under-Lyme rather than the one from Sheffield.

     

    @David Mack, I think it’s pretty clear that I don’t know if the term has any true historical provenance. However looking through A Canal People the only fore-cabins pictured are over the bows. These being ex-FMC general cargo boats repurposed for the coal trade.
     

    Gifford being a Clayton’s tar boat also carried a cargo where mass likely governed over volume in terms of loading. So maybe there is something in it. Are there photos of boats in the Potteries with fore-cabins at the front of the hold?

     

    Just because we don’t know something to be true doesn’t mean it’s false.

     

  13. 10 minutes ago, BoatinglifeupNorth said:

     Seams to be the new “hip” name with people getting these on their boats. Spoke to the builder that’s doing a few of these for the front bedroom design, he referred to them as you say as   “Fore” or “Front” while the new owners with the finished boat called it the Potters cabin.

     Maybe they like to tell the story of valuable Wedgewood being transported in there, wrapped in straw.😂


    I’m pretty sure that @IanD picked the term up from his builder and the explanation was that the space in which it sits was available because the boats concerned carried raw materials of high density to the Potteries, i.e. clay, rather than finished products.

     

    Whether this is true, or if it is that the term was ever used historically, I know not.

  14. 1 hour ago, sarahavfc said:

    A fore cabin being called a “potters cabin” is my pet hate!


    Assuming it even was a real thing once upon a time isn’t a potter’s cabin supposed to sit further back than a fore cabin, in the space where the cratch is on most carrying boats?

     

    And there’s another one, cratch instead of deck board.

    • Greenie 1
  15. 1 hour ago, JungleJames said:

    I'm not sure who it was, but someone seemed to make out that having these so called auto brakes, made the job easy.

    Incorrect, because if you were trying to make your job easy by utilising them, you wouldn't get anywhere near completing your training. 

     

    As for Croydon. Depends if any sharp bends have TPWS beforehand. If for example, Morpeth speed limit does not have TPWS, then the same thing could happen.

    Maybe Capt Pegg will know if there are TPWS grids before the Morpeth curve.

    I still stand by the comment that ATP is the closest to automatic brakes. But I see your point. 

     

    Of course, Thameslink I believe may be fully automatic in the core. But you can't claim you can drive just because you can sit in the drivers seat through the central core. 

     

    Likewise as pointed out numerous times. The original comment itself is way off, because you would not be deemed competent if you had to rely on AWS, driver vigilance, or TPWS

     

    Morpeth - which is a curve with a 50mph speed restriction with a maximum permissible approach speed of 110mph - does have Train Protection and Warning System (TPWS). TPWS is a tertiary system, the driver being the primary system and Automatic Warning System (AWS) the secondary.

     

    On the approach to any speed restriction with a reduction of 30mph or more an advance warning board must be provided. This is an inverted triangular lineside sign displaying the speed ahead in black numerals on a white background with an orange border. The advance warning board is situated ahead of the commencement of the actual restriction at a distance that enables all trains to reduce speed suffciently.  180m in advance of this board will be an AWS magnet situated in the four foot space (i.e. between the rails so the train passes over it) that triggers both visual and audible warnings in the driving cab. The driver has 2.7 seconds to cancel those warnings by depressing a button on the control desk otherwise an uncommanded emergency brake application will be made. (Should this happen the train will also be de-configured in some way and possibly lose all brake pipe pressure meaning it will need to be re-configured before proceeding. It requires reporting to the signaller in all circumstances. It's more an immoboliser than an automatic brake).

     

    Once cancelled the AWS plays no more part and what happens next is entirely at the drivers command. However should the driver fail to slow the train sufficently by the time it reaches the TPWS overspeed sensors that are situated between the advance warning board and the commencement of the restriction and it is travelling faster than a pre-programmed speed the emergency brake will again intervene. Neither of these systems offers full protection for a variety of reasons it's probably not worth going into but it's principally because they are retro-fitted to a pre-existing railway rather than designed into a fully integrated system from scratch and are also provided on a cost vs benefit basis.

     

    It's entirely possible to drive a train through these warning systems and arrive at the curve in an overspeed condition. Only the European Train Control System (ETCS) provides direct full speed and over-run supervision; although tilting trains have a form of continuous speed supervision because of the increased overturning risk.

     

    Automatic Train Protection (ATP) only exists in isolation in two locations and is a more fully effective system than TPWS but obsolete. It offers protection against rear-end collision or level crossing incursion that is not provided by TPWS.

      

     

  16. I believe Forget Me Not was built by Sephton’s in 1928 for John George Grantham.

     

    According to Narrow Boat magazine It was acquired by Samuel Barlow Coal Co Ltd in 1940 from a Joseph Grantham. John George Grantham had a son of that name so assuming both of the above pieces of information are correct that’s likely to be the connection.

     

    There were multiple boats in the Grantham family called Forget Me Not.

     

    Forget Me Not is of course the butty of the hotel boat pair and is the one on the outside with the hold full of weeds in the above picture. Its cabin was removed (or perhaps disintegrated) many years ago now.
     

    Mabel still has an extant cabin.

    • Greenie 1
  17. 22 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

     

    I suppose that if we are looking for a modern instance of the lack of train protection in the UK causing problems, not that there was any form of accident or injury, we could look at the antics West Coast Railways got up to with disabling the automatic train protection system.


    If you’re referring to Wootton Bassett what was notable about that incident was that the driver’s inappropriate response to failing to clear the Automatic Warning System (AWS) horn relating to a speed restriction lead to them both missing an adverse signal indication and failing to trigger the Train Protection & Warning System (TPWS) that should have prevented the train from passing a red signal.

     

    What it shows is that all safeguards have their limitations and that driver behaviour is the primary factor in maintaining safety. I don’t doubt that the driver was highly competent in the mechanics of operating the train’s controls, but they were totally lacking in other key skills required to do the job.

  18. 1 minute ago, Tony Brooks said:

     

    I meant the Croydon tram where, for whatever reason, the driver did not slow the tram down for a sharp bend. I understand the enquiry was critical because the tram had no automatic braking system.


    OK. Very different rules and requirements on tramways hence it didn’t occur to me that’s what you were referring to. Sorry.

     

    Similar situations have occurred on railways historically and as a result are in general protected by warning systems.
     

    Mistakes that lead to uncommanded brake applications will soon lead to a driver being removed from driving duties. They are an indicator that the driver concerned isn’t actually capable of driving a train to the required standard which I thought is what we were discussing.

     

  19. 13 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

     

    I think that both you and JJ are acknowledging that train brakes can be and are at times applied automatically. If you are, then you can't claim that they are not automatic, as Tracy claimed. If, for whatever reason, the driver fails to make the correct response, the brakes do come on with no intervention from the driver. Basically in everyday use you are both correct, they are not automatic, but in a dangerous situation they do come on automatically. We saw at Croydon what happens when such systems are not in use.


    I think you mean Clapham not Croydon and in any case the functioning of the automatic warning system was not a factor.

     

    The use of the engineered safeguards to protect the train is not part of driving a train properly which is the task being discussed. It’s quite the opposite.

     

    But apparently it’s a wind up so I’ll leave you and your mate to glory in your own ignorance.

  20. 4 hours ago, Tony Brooks said:

     

    Please, will you explain what happens if the driver does not knowledge the ATP (or whatever) buzzer/hooter within time? I was under the impression that the brakes came on automatically.


    The emergency brake will be activated. That’s done by venting the air pipe to atmosphere meaning the driver has no immediate means of releasing the brakes. It’s very much not the same thing as applying the service brakes.

  21. On 25/02/2024 at 08:51, Grassman said:

     

    I've been told from a very informed source that the once the HS2 trains join the existing WCML at Handsacre they will be slower than the existing trains for the rest of the journey north because they won't have the tilt mechanism, so any time gained coming from London will be lost once it joins the WCML.  Also the HS2 carriages will be shorter so the capacity might be less as well.

     

    The same person told me that there's already a bottleneck on the WCML caused by Handsacre Tunnel where the existing WCML has to reduce from 4 lines to 2 lines, so the addition of HS2 trains will make it even worse and probably slow  the journey down even more.


    The bit about the carriages being shorter does not appear to be true.

     

    It is in any case a little irrelevant because overall train length is key. And therein lies an issue which may have rendered the message you relayed a little lost in translation.
     

    Interoperability requirements for new build high speed railways require the operation of 200m or 400m long trains whereas existing trains serving the conventional route are up to 265m long.

     

    Configuring the conventional network north of HS2 for 400m trains (which would be 2x200m trains) is particularly problematic hence the possibilty that trains north of Birmingham may end up being exclusively 200m long trains.

     

    That’s a particular problem for Manchester - by far and away the largest market north of Birmingham - as the new station alongside Piccadilly would have been configured with 400m long platforms and there is likely a demand for such trains. The inability to operate them would reduce line capacity between Birmingham and Manchester to less than it is today. The alternative is a hugely expensive set of works to accommodate them which in itself would probably reduce station capacity along the route, particularly at Manchester.

     

    What the Government don’t tell you - possibly because they don’t understand it - is that for every £1bn they save on HS2 they will need an awful lot of it to reconfigure the conventional network for the operation of the new trains and providing on board equipment on trains that they wouldn’t otherwise have needed since many would have been captive to HS2.

     

    • Greenie 1
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