alan_fincher

My (very faded) memory is also that the team at Brinklow Boat Services, (so including Steve Priest) were responsible for saving her at the last moment, but I never knew any details. I don't think she is at their yard on the Stretton arm, (they are usually pretty strapped for space there). I'd suggest contacting Steve, Simon or Dave

I've seen Polytrol yield very good results. However on our very faded and chalked paintwork we tried it, and it failed to improve things at all. We have very little rusting, as well - most of the boat is covered in paint - just not shiny paint. I thing there is a limit as to how grotty it has become. if Polytrol is to stand a chance. It sounds like Dave's boat may well be bad enough for it to have no good outcome.

From memory of quite a few years ago, I think brokers were charging 5% to 6%. However I think there is VAT to pay on top of their quoted fee. I've no idea how things have changed since, though, but when VAT is added it will be a largish slice of the selling price. But then you have to consider how much better the selling price might be via a broker, rather than if you sell direct. If you don't use a broker don't underestimate the time you would spend letting "fender kickers" look at the boat, nor what the costs to you might be driving to it repeatedly. A definite argument for not dumping it in London, I think.

Agreed. Bonkers. Probably unusable, and a safety hazard ifyou try.

As already stated, 6 months without starting is nothing unusual in the world of boat diesels. If your battery is fully charged and there is enough oil in the engine simply see if it will start. If the engine is in good health, it should easily.

Not a bad guess, as there are not many narrow locks on the Grand Union, but definitely Northampton Arm I believe.

Northampton Arm of the GU. Top Lock (Lock 1) I think. It's a narrow lock!

For what it's worth, we have one, and with no fan running I believe it is pretty silent. Caveat: I have impaired hearing, assisted by hearing aids - my definition of "silent" may not align totally with other people with less hearing loss.

Pedants alert! Some wide locks have 6 leaves - Tuel Lane is an example. What about a broad lock with a guillotine at one end? Is that 2 leaves, (i.e don't count guillotine), or 3, (count it)?

Looking at a Nicholsons, if it is as above, then there would be a winding hole at about the point it looks like there could be one. However after that, not very far at all from the bottom lock, shows as Moss Hall Aqueduct. I'm not knowledgable enough on the Shroppie to know what that aqueduct looks like, but unless it doesn't involve any change to the canal width, and has no walls or railings visible from the cut it does seem inconsistent with the picture.

I can't work out what the load is. Clearly nothing very heavy for that type of butty to be showing so much dry sides. I assume that description indicates below the Audlem flight, moving away from it. Did the canal there really look like that?

There is, however, a fixed limit on the total volume of water that CRT are allowed to extract using the Cowroast and Northchurch pumps. When things get difficult the limit can be reached so extraction has to stop, even though more water is desperately needed.

There are a lot of "leave empty, with a paddle left up" locks in this town, or very close by to it... Obviously for these, if the top gates are not pretty watertight, with ground and (if present) gate paddles are not fully down, then there is not a second line of defence offered by the bottom gates. Not only that, even if everybody does exactly as CRT wish, any pound that is above a "leave empty" lock potentially has extra water wasted from it where it is necessary for a "downhill" boat to fill it, to replace water lost by the "leave empty" instruction.

Local youth with too much time on their hands that have found a windlass some boater has failed to pick up when they worked through a lock. (Possibly !) Berko doesn't feel a strong contender in the vandalism sakes, but it is not that many years ago that AV locks were fitted to most of the locks in this town- something I don't recall anywhere else on the Grand Union mainline between Brentford and Birmingham

Correct. You need to swap the fittings to imperial ones. It used to be possible to buy ones where the supplier had exchanged the fittings to imperial I bought from SoCal (Southampton Calor) but that was many moons ago, and you would need to check the current position.

Hadley (Rear end) & Whitby (Fore end)

Charity Dock boatyard was one of the venues visited by salvage expert for the television series "Salvage Hunters". I may be wrong but seem to recall it was one of those rare occasions whee he came away relatively empty handed, having found very little he thought he could ell on for a profit. The segment of this particular program gave the distinct impression that the vast amount of stuff in the various piles had nothing to do with canals or canal boats.

Yes, I think my experience is the same.

I reckon that would form the basis for the gear changing mechanism for a Grand Union boat that is short of a mechanism for a gear wheel. It bears more than a passing resemblance to what was there originally. I'd happily pay a fair price for that - but wouldn't need that wheel you have circled, so that could be passed on to a good home!

Of course i is, now you point it out. I was stuck on the idea of a bridge on the main line - not one across the entrance of an arm. Slightly wild idea, but could they be gauging weights in the hold? They don't look unlike the item that there are still two of in Arcas, repurposed as ballast.

Looks to be during its use as a maintenance boat - maybe carrying concrete piles from the Marsworth yard that produced them? The location of the second photo ought to be easy to identify, but I'm currently struggling. There are not many bridges on the southern GU where there is no towpath through the bridge, other than those at the tail of some locks, which clearly thi isn't. I can't think of anywhere with a tall building like that on the right, but it is possible the bridge exists but the building no longer does.

Agreed - it does produce a lot of ash. Otherwise we like it.

Is that an optical illusion, or is it really as low down as it appears? It wouldn't make getting in and out without bruising your head any easier!

From past experience about the only Halfords oil suitable for older boat diesels is this one. It is a 20W/50 with an API-CC spec, so is very suitable in engines with that requirement. I'm not familiar with yours, but I suspect there could be a mismatch. https://www.halfords.com/motoring/engine-oils-and-fluids/engine-oil/halfords-classic-oil-20w50-5l-537977.html

I really don't know how important it is, but note that several of the oil blenders stress not to mix oils from different supplies. My guess is that it is no big deal, but I'm happy to be educated if that is a wrong assumption. If an engine says don't use synthetic or semi synthetic I would take that seriously, though.