JCO

Hi Grassman, We booked a week on the Mon & Brec two years ago - Easter time - hiring an all-electric boat from castle Narrowboats at Gilwern. It was a 4 berth cruiser, fitted with a former milk float engine and realistically limited to 2.5mi/h cruising speed. The dredged depth and the fact that the entire canal can be cruised well within a week meant that this was a suitable speed. The advice, from memory, from the hire base was to to moor up at a charging point every night to recharge but we could get away with 2 day's worth of cruising at a pinch. As it happened, the places we would have moored at anyway on the way up - Llangynidr, Tal-y-Bont and Brecon - had dedicated and well-signed mooring/charging points. This meant that we were guaranteed a mooring. Similarly, we would have chosen to moor at Llanfoist and Pontypool on the southern section anyway. Once we'd got used to the quiet, electric cruising is no different to diesel cruising and the M & B is well worth the visit as an interesting canal to do. We'd happily do it all again once we've fully retired. JCO

One for Magpie Patrick, A couple of years ago there was a thread on the Glamorganshire Canal, discussing the North Road bridge by Cardiff Castle and the paddle gear. Not the best pic, but does it help? JCO

Rob, If I'm reading your avatar pic correctly, you have no. 7 in the fleet of which we had no. 8. In over 12 years of cruising, we never had a problem with the pumpout process at the end of a cruise nor needing intermediate pumpouts on a fortnight's cruise with a crew of 4+. At the input end of the system, the principle of "don't put anything down here that's not been eaten first" served us well. I have no memory of any problems - major or minor - in all the time we had the boat. JCO

Fascinating stuff from Ogwr. I spent my Uni days in the late 70's in Cardiff and used to use this underpass regularly. I don't recall whether the paddle gear was a bolt-on or a genuine relic of a former lock there. The North Road car park Graham refers to was the car park for our Uni buildings and I also used to mooch around and see what bits of the old Glamorganshire Canal I could find. I never got as far as Melingriffith though. As you do, I clicked on some of Bob's Rail Relics other videos and found some more fascinating stuff. I used to commute regularly between Barry and Rhymney or Merthyr by rail and would wonder at the bits of long-lost railway architecture I'd go past. I found the clips of the Walnut Tree and Llanbradach viaducts very interesting. Thanks for the post Ogwr.

Similar to my thoughts Mr Athy. When I first saw it on my GCSE Physics paper markscheme, I thought it had leaked across from the EngLit (Chaucer) markscheme.

Or words to that effect - I wasn't sure if I had remembered the wording accurately, outwith the "outwith".

"Door kept locked outwith office hours" (owtte) - seen on a ground-floor entrance to Prince's Quay car park, Hull, a few years ago.

Thanks for that Pluto - it all makes sense to me. I would often wonder - whilst chugging along at 3.5 mi/h on a quaint, hopelessly-outdated transport system that is no longer fit for original purpose - what would have happened if Brindley had had the foresight, finance and civil engineering capability to build the T & M to broad dimensions. How might the rest of the system have evolved differently? JCO

To follow on from Pluto's point above about Worsley to Manchester coal traffic being carried in 7 foot beam boats, I have a question: When the Trent and Mersey was being planned, did the pre-existence of narrow craft inform the decision to build it to 7 foot dimensions - even though it linked two broad navigations - or were the constructional difficulties of boring Harecastle Tunnel any wider the deciding factor? JCO

Howard, Thanks for that. JCO

Howard, Thanks for the detail. I have vague memories of it being seen and discussed elsewhere but it was the the first time I’d seen it in real life on a recent visit to Grovehill lock. As others have commented, I expect it’s a pig to steer but it’s an interesting piece of kit nevertheless. It is a shame about the cancellation of the barge-pulling contest, especially as the weather seems to have improved. Are there any plans to reschedule it? (Good picture of Syntan in natural habitat by the way) JCO

TheBiscuits, Good research - thanks for that. JCO.

In response to Messrs Athy’s and Ray T’s posts, that was my first thought when I saw the boat. I remember sharing locks with the Navy’s boats on the way up the Trent in 1976 (I think) to the National Rally of Boats in Nottingham. The four boats cruised as fairly bog-standard narrowboats (tiller-steered) and only when in exhibition mode had bits of naval superstructure added on. The boat in my picture looks wider than 7” beam as well. JCO.

Good morning all, I came across this boat on my travels the other day. I'm interested to know more about it - there was no one around to ask when I took the pictures. Can any forum member help. Thanks JCO