Boater Sam

Opinion only. Baths are great for keeping coal in, take too much water for any other use. Loo? Do it properly, remote tank pumped out from outside, with Baby Blakes Sea Toilet in the bathroom. It will never wear out, corrode or break but will cost you £4500. No electricity, no mess, no smells ever. Utterly dependable which is what you need above all else on a boat.

Give the tank a good hammering to get the rust off, if it stands that it is likely to be OK. Most rust through on the top first around where the dump through bowl is mounted. I prefer pump out loos, saves carrying buckets of sh*t around every other day. MDF is spawn of the Devil on canal boats, its a sponge and useless once wet. Its the last material to use for flooring. OSB is best, better than most modern plywood.

Not the Peak Forest but Romiley is fine for mooring , all the way to Woodley. Avoid the other way between Marple and Romiley, the natives of Cherry Tree estate are infamous. Mooring up the end of the Peak Forest, Bugsworth basin is invariably closed, and the terminal basin and the canal leading to it is cluttered with long stay boats. There have been problems in the past around the junction in Marple, probably better a mile or so down the Macclesfield way.

Time for a touch of heat down the inlet then. I suppose even diesel has a dew point below which it will not vapourise. My old Ford E04A Anglia, 997cc side valve with 6v battery demanded a burning oily rag on the inlet manifold in really cold weather or you just killed the battery.

The Bell Inn, Little Bourton. The Reindeer, Banbury.

I never lock my boat.

Anything modern is "smaller a little bit" than a K2! You probably will not be able to fit a big enough prop to that hull for the K2 anyway. The hull was probably built with a shallow draught, small prop in mind, you need to measure the stern post. With only a 6mm base plate you will need ballast for any engine, its easy to add weight.

The end of the Trent and Mersey may be better, Orchard Marine, Lymm Marina, Park Farm marina to suggest a few. Sent you a PM

Yank the lump out, sell it and drop a modern Canaline engine in. With a 6mm base plate, inadequate bearers and the weight of a K2 its a disaster area waiting to happen, the flex when its running will be frightening.

The Middlewich branch was built to an average 30ft width originally. ( from the original plans )

That's my problem, too big a volume. Took 24 liters of antifreeze and 80 liters of water. I have difficulty accommodating the expansion. Cools well though!

That is an exceptionally well baffled skin tank, most are just 3 or 4 "passes". I have seen several boats with pipes outside under the counter, they seem to work well. The hulls with the tank flat on the base plate under the engine are no so good.

A QUESTION ASIDE. This is a new railway network, with new track, tunnels, bridges and rolling stock, yes? Is the loading gauge and track clearances of a size to allow high speed freight use when the expected passenger increase doesn't happen? Will a standard 12m shipping container fit everywhere?

Make the waste hose from the tray waste to the pump a good bit longer than the hose from the pump to the skin fitting. Then the run back will not come up into the shower tray.

Rod licence?

Is everyone going to live and work at either end of HS2 track? Otherwise the commuting to the ends is more wasteful in time and energy than any saving HS2 could make.