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Dave123

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Everything posted by Dave123

  1. This is exactly what they have been doing, and why it costs so much. They have to put a dam in either side of the bridge, dig out a tough for a tube for the hydraulics to run under the canal, then the bridge can be opened from the towpath side by hydraulics. I think someone at CRT H&S realised a bridge could fall onto a boat/boaters head and CRT might be liable? Single handed boats (and any crewed boat encountering an already open bridge) go through without the bridge necessarily being secured in the open position (whether by a lock, pole or a crew member). Several bridges, Chisnell in particular, can blow shut in the wrong conditions, possibly helped by being heavy from recent rain? As far as I know they are hydraulic windlass operated. From the scale of operation at Wolvercote 2 years ago I wouldn't be surprised if it was £150k per bridge😔🤦. They needed permanently running diesel generators powering pumps to shift the water around the two dams, which kept getting over topped by high water levels from rain etc
  2. Does anyone known how the levels at which red boards are displayed were originally calculated? I know for the Thames it is to do with the % of weir gates that are open, but on CRT navigations with fixed weirs, like the Cherwell stretch, or the trent at Alrewas, or the Kennet or Soar, it's just based on the river height? Did someone actually try and work out what flow of water was too much for an average narrowboat to push against? I imagine the concept of red boards was brought in during the early days of the leisure industry, or was it in place during the working years of canals? Wondering as it seems to vary a lot from river to river...eg the Kennet can be trickier in "green" than other rivers are in yellow or even red...
  3. The Kennet river sections are another example of a navigation that has very unspecific information about the location of red boards. The CRT strong stream website usually gives information just for county lock, Woolhampton swing bridge and occasionally Newbury town bridge/lock. The CRT email/stoppage notices however, are given as blanket red board notices for entire stretches, eg from Guyers lock to County lock and sometimes even as far as Kintbury, even though there are many entirely canal sections within this stretch.
  4. You'll be fine there provided you are set up for possibly not moving until the spring. It's secure and a popular spot as far as town centres go
  5. I am sure they will just increase it, it is priced like an extra to whatever the equivalent CRT only licence would be anyway, so it wouldn't make sense to be cheaper than a CRT only licence
  6. Exactly my thoughts. Charging widebeams more isn't really about the extra space or use of facilities that widebeams may or may not entail, it is simply the closest and easiest way for CRT to a means-tested licence increase, in which the more expensive boats pay more.
  7. I imagine there are some wealthy weekend boaters, who think this change to licences will magically make the untidy boats they hate so much, dissappear.
  8. I thought the profile of rivers is usually deepest immediately above a weir, and shallowest below?
  9. I found going in at Keadby far less nerve-wracking than steering through Standedge tunnel!
  10. I was living on my narrowboat whilst working as a post doc at uni in London (which is close to being a student I guess)😅. If anything it was easier than living on a boat and working for a company (which I now do) as Uni is a very flexible sort of workplace.
  11. Most boats aren't set up to be heated by electricity though? I've always thought this is a major oversight of all these schemes to make town centre moorings smoke/emission free by installing electric bollards...it might save engine or generator running to charge batteries but in the winter most emissions are stoves or diesel heaters, which won't change with electric bollards...
  12. What about shutting the navigation during the hours of darkness, providing more secure moorings, and increasing the flow rate significantly after dark?
  13. Can't really think of anything that would justify this...unless the couple on the boat were the last two Prime Ministers 😂
  14. Crofton was open for a couple of months at least...but I am generally encouraged that CRT are investing in big projects like the work at Crofton. It isn't meant to be shut this coming winter
  15. I suppose...though I think it makes people feel a bit safer and more inclined to share info?
  16. True. I'm in two minds about this. Having a high flow rate on these canals would cause navigational issues and structural ones (eg errosion of banks; CRT blamed the Middlewich breach on someone opening all the paddles on a lock and causing a high flow on the canal). Equally, anything that gives the canals increased relevance and funding is a good thing. Boats manage on the Llangollen and also some of the narrower faster parts of the K&A, eg Theale VMs and below Thatcham
  17. Generally if a canal has a specific facebook page it's very useful, eg the K&A, Oxford&Cov, L&L etc
  18. Increasingly news related to canals appears on Facebook and not on here though. Take the stoppage page on here for example, it used to be the first place I checked before a cruise but now I don't bother and rely on Facebook instead, stoppage info appears there much quicker now.
  19. Aren't there already back pumps at most of those locks? If they went via Warwick and Napton then certainly there are back pumps all the way at each lock flight.
  20. K&A has had multiple stoppages over the last few months that never appear on here. Guessing not many forum members in this area...heard rumours of too many scruffy boats😂 but just wanted to post this as it was the fastest repair I've encountered in about 20 years! Was preparing for a long wait after the balance beam snapped off Copse lock 80, but two working days later it was fixed with this....
  21. Same thing happens to the Devizes elsan each week. Conspiracy theories range from broken/blocked piping somewhere underground to idiot liveabords to local street drinkers...
  22. A few points to add to this; 1) It was comprehensively demonstrated (but I can't find the references) that the cost of closing a canal is close to the cost of maintaining it. You can't just walk away from a canal and stop spending anything on it. Locks would need damming up, embankments and cuttings either complete removal or regular inspection and maintenance anyway. Every watercourse joining a canal (eg sewers and streams) needs diverting or culverting etc etc plus the towpaths would still need maintaining, they couldn't be closed (as was demonstrated during lockdown when various groups of boaters tried this themselves in places). Many canals provide a water supply to sewage works/farms/factories/fiber optic cable cooling so this would need to continue? 2) No one ever discusses the many canal restoration projects when talking of the imminent demise of the CRT navigations. I do wonder if some of the resource put into these should or could be diverted? 3) Am quite concerned by the lack of planned winter closures this year though, so obviously CRT have some idea they are going to be left with little money?
  23. But that won't work in the deeper locks (which these mostly are). The bow would initially be sliding up the cill not the gate, and as it got high enough it would jump forwards and bang into the gate
  24. I can't think of many places on the typical narrow canal where I'd let a boat overtake. Only if it was sufficiently wide and straight that I knew I wouldn't go aground or get pushed into overhanging trees or moored boats, and could see nothing was coming the other way...
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