Richard T
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Posts posted by Richard T
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To fill Ratcliffe lock on the Soar you currently need both paddles - it only has gate ones- fully open and your boat shaft in the mitre of the bottom gates!! Or lean very hard on the top gates and get a wedge in the mitre. The bottom gates were meant to be renewed this winter but the floods stopped this happening, so we have to wait for the autumn for them to be done. Each lock on the Soar behaves differently sharing with GRP boats requires a lot of care!
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Decent quality screwdrivers. I have a set of stubby metric spanners - they were an Aldi buy - they have proved to be very useful. Cable ties always come in handy for securing things. With a PRM gearbox I have made a wooden dipstick as its very difficult to read oil levels on the one in the box. Easy to make and keep with the 18mm spanner. I've attached the manual for a PRM150 in case there isn't one on the boat.
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Bumped any thoughts @David Schweizer or @dave moore?
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Stainless steel tanks regularly fail at welds. They can flex when being filled. Does your tank bang and bong when being filled?
If it does need to be replaced its not cheap. Ours was replaced this time last year. It entailed cutting out the cockpit floor, cutting up the old tank in situ, replacing with a polypropolene one. Moving filler location and breather, connect to existing water system, replace cockpit floor and repainting. The tank was £660, and vat took the bill to just under £2000. The replacement tank came from Goodwin tanks at Crewe.
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Who might have painted the very battered water can, hand bowl and cabin block in these pictures? They are part of the display in the exhibition on canal boating in Loughborough. They are all on loan from the Leicestershire Museums service but no attribution is given. To my eye the hand bowl looks relatively modern but i could be wrong. The exhibition organisors would like to know who might have done the painting.
Sorry about the quality of the photos but they are in display cabinets which makes taking photos difficult.
Thanks
Richard
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Leicestershire County Records office have a collection of drawings by William Jessop for the construction of the Leicester Navigation. These include details of locks and bridges. I have a copy of the bridge details but not the locks. The locks are broad but the principles will be the same. The catalogue details are below.
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9 hours ago, cuthound said:
A self drive UCC camping boat similar to this was my first experience of canalling back in July 1973, courtesy of my local mixed venture scout group.
That looks like Kimberley. I hired Lindsey in 1976 with a group of scouts.
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Not easy to do =if it doesn't work be prepared for a big bill. Welds failed on our ss tank - I didn't get much change out of £2k for having it replaced with a rigid plastic one. To get the ss one out the sole plate of the cockpit had to be cut out, the tank cut up in situ, new tank(£660 +vat) fitted along with new filler and connections. Sole plate refitted and all repainted. Remember the tax man adds 20% to costs.
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Our first hire was in October 1974 when we hired Larch from Willow Wren Kearns at Middlwich. This was and maybe still is a 50ft wooden topped boat sleeping 8. We were a group of 7 and took it to llangollen and back. It was powered by a 3cylinder Lister. Cabin heating was by a catalytic gas heater.
Willow Wren at Middlewich subsequently became Middlewich Narrowboats which was run by Chris Cliffe and his wife for many years. Chris is still around living in Sandbach we met him about 3 years ago at Glascote moving a boat south, he was still wearing a Middlewich Narrowboats boiler suit! They had a fleet of wooden topped boats with steel bridge guards on the front. Overtime they acquired some all steel boats.
From memory there were three 70ft 12berth boats - Oak, Beech and Sycamore - I have seen the latter fairly recently at Weedon. There was then several 50ft either 6 or 8berth boats, these included Larch, Pine, Cherry, Ash. There was also a camping boat Rowan.
I have some photos of these boats which will need scanning. Others are on my Photobucket page which they now want a ransom to allow me to access them.
The yard at Middlwich was distinctive with its canopy. Some of the wooden tops are visible in this photo.
As I've said in another post hire boats from the 60's and 70's are poorly represented in the current fleet of boats. If a suitable one had come on the market a few years ago I would have bought it and restored to its hire configuration but I'm a bit too old to do that now.!!
I've now found some photos of the wooden tops. The photo of Pine was taken after it had been sold and was moored on the Dee branch at Chester. Ash was on the K&A.
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Tempting - if it had been a Willow Wren wooden top I would have had a look at it. What should have happened is that it should have been restored to as near the condition it was in when UCC had it as a hire boat. There is a definite gap in the boating history - early hire boats are rarely kept in their original layout and finish.
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I went to the opening of an exhibition put together by the local studies team at Loughborough library this morning. Its called Where the Boatmen Dwell. It's quite interesting with photos and commentary. There some artefacts on loan from the Foxton Inclined plane museum and some from Leicestershire Museums. They include a very old and battered Buckby can and a hand bowl, No attribution as to the painters were given to these. I will go back and try and get some photos to post so that the forum experts can try and give one.
If in town its worth spending half an hour looking at the exhibition.
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On 17/01/2024 at 17:04, Richard T said:
Which navigable river does this swingbridge cross. The bridge has now been replaced as it became unsafe with a high level one. My other post might help you out
This is the entrance to the Mira river in Cape Breton island. It is navigable for small boats for about 40km.
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19 hours ago, matty40s said:
Loughborough, the one behind the Loughborough Arena, is it Town Lock?
Was it delayed by the floods?
Yes it is Loughborough Town lock taken a few years ago.
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Which navigable river does this swingbridge cross. The bridge has now been replaced as it became unsafe with a high level one. My other post might help you out
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Which lock is this having new gates?
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1 hour ago, matty40s said:
The Newbold Coleorton end of the Charnwood Canal??
Nearly right Matty, It is Blackbrook resevoir. It was originally built to serve the canal with an earth dam which breached. The site was then reused to construct a new masonry dam around 1900 to improve the water supply to Loughborough. The photo and further ones show the construction of this dam around 1900 - the resevoir opened for use in 1906. The photos can be found here http://geoscenic.bgs.ac.uk/asset-bank/action/quickSearch?CSRF=alf5xRxUluB9HrlqWHJi&newSearch=true&quickSearch=true&includeImplicitCategoryMembers=true&keywords=blackbrook
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I Have been to Barrow on Soar today to check on a plot of land that the Scouts own, its between the railway line and the river below Pillings weir. The land is fine. The sunk wide beam appears to have been refloated as its no longer there. I also went to Barrow bridge. The sunk boat is still there but with care a narrow boat can squeeze past it to get under the bridge, one did whilst I was there. Refloating the boat will not be easy, the stern is almost out of the water with the bow in the navigable channel. Some big air bags may well be needed. From the last photo you can see the bridge buttresses which caused the boat to roll on its side. Air bags under it so it was lifted off them may have prevented this from happening.
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The drained resevoir of a canal which was officially abandoned in 1846 but was disused by around 1800. There are still some small sections still in water.
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On 12/01/2024 at 15:22, Richard T said:
Two more locks to be identified
Firstly I'm not certain who dictated that this thread had to be exclusively related to British canals - my post is certainly not the first North American one in it.
The first photo is the St Peter's canal CapeBreton island Nova Scotia. It is only 800m long and links the Atlantic ocean and the inland sea Bras D'or. Both are tidal but the times of their tides are different hence the lock having 4 pairs of gates, which pairs are used depends on the state of the tide. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Peters_Canal
The second image is the Canso Canal, this links the Atlantic ocean with the St Lawrence seaway. It was built when the Canso causeway was built to link Cape Breton island with mainland Nova Scotia. It was built to the same dimensions as locks on the St Lawrence seaway. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canso_Canal
Cape Breton island is a lovely place to visit especially in the autumn when the colours of the trees are wonderful and they have a Celtic music festival each year. It is one of the few places in the world where gaelic is spoken!!
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18 hours ago, Richard T said:
Two more locks to be identified
A clue to these locks - the water is tidal at both ends of them and the canals are very short and they are on an island.
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3 minutes ago, matty40s said:
I'm going for the Great Lakes St Lawrence seaway, possibly St Lamberts Locks, but that's a guess.
No, it's not St Lambert.
No its not.
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Two more locks to be identified
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3 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:
The River Soar as the flood waters drop :
Leicester: Floods leave river 'festooned' with litter - BBC News
The Outdoor Pursuit Centre at Birstall are organizing regular litter picks along the stretch of the river that they use, to help clear away the debris left by the flood. Much of the rubbish comes in from the stream that enters the navigable section on the right below Lime Kiln Lock.
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On 03/01/2024 at 10:38, BilgePump said:
Either fretsaw or scroll saw. I've got an old Hobbies treadle fretsaw of my dad's that works pretty well for tiny stuff, in addition to a modern electric scroll saw. The old treadle saws can still be picked up from about £20. Making jigsaws was exactly what I used it for when I was a wee nipper.
I still handcut jigsaws using a fretsaw, The problem for those doing them is they just get a bag of pieces with no picture to help them!! I reckon on about 200 pieces for an A3 sized picture
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Boat Blacking Recommendations 2024
in Boat Building & Maintenance
Posted
Other options are Paul Barber at Sheet Stores basin on the Erewash, Kegworth Marine and Sileby Mill Boatyard on the river Soar. All have good reputations.