alan_fincher

Ah! - I did say I could be wrong! 😁

The butty DABCHICK pictured was part of a pair operated by the Willow Wren carrying company. It was originally an LMS "station" boat - a horse drawn boat - and would have been used for short haul interchange traffic on the BCN. They were elegant boats, but with lower hull sides than on many purpose built motors and butties, which limited their carrying capacity, particularly on cargoes that were bulky rather than dense. The boatmen tended to favour boats they could put bigger loads on, as they were paid by weight carried. I think DABCHICK might have been the only LMS station boat to end up in the Willow Wren fleet - though I could be wrong.

My thoughts exactly... Perhaps it has a hydraulic motor in the rudder...

Why was he being defiant?

That, I suspect, may well be what was driving "archie57's" answer. Those who have shown an interest in such things over many years often have a near encyclopedic knowledge of what boats were where and when, particularly if they were on the BW maintenance fleet, as such boats were often confined to a fairly small area of operation.

Or middle Northwich ??? 😁

To me the image is so low resolution that I wouldn't care to say with any certainty whether it is Northwich or Woolwich. I'd be more prepared to say it is a "Small" boat though, though even that I'm not certain of.

If, as it seems, you have not even decided if you want a narrow boat or a wide beam, then you have, as you suggest, a long journey towards choosing the right boat for you. There is huge amounts of past opinion on the forum about the realities of owning a wide beam, and where you can, (and can not), take it. You need to be 100% sure on this choice before even thinking about further options.

At that location it may well be that the bulk of the tree has been piled up on the opposite (non towpath side) bank. I think that's the side that most of the bigger trees are, and in some cases they are right up bank-side, such that if the bank gets further eroded thee is nothing much left to support uncovered roots. The wind has been strong in Berkhamsted overnight - or at least that's why I assume the neighbors wheely bin is lying down in my front garden.

It was very far from being just a canal Boat festival. Little of what took place in the Aquadrome was really directly canal related, and included a large repertoire of musical acts, for example. I can't think of many other canal events that combined quite as many entertainments. We shall miss it - it actually got us dragging two heavyweight historic boats through many lock intensive miles - something we are far less likely to do if there's no event at the end of it.

I see you are measuring the voltage across the actual battery terminals when trying to start. I may have missed whether you have also read the voltage across the starter motor terminals. Any difference must be what is being lost in cables or connectors. I have always understood that ideally one would be delivering at least 10 volts at the motor, (although many engines will of course start on far less). It's interesting if you have bought a so called "multi purpose" battery and it actually has a cold cranking amps figure - I can't recall ever buying a "leisure" battery marked with a CCA figure - pretty certain I have only ever seen it on a straight "starter" battery

I agree! If you accept that the current house is a replacement or at least partial rebuild, then Matty's suggestion seems a good 'un.

Point of order... The "candlestick" or "Dalek" paddle gear used on all the modernised locks on the Birmingham main line from Calcutt to Knowle is most definitely not hydraulic. It is entirely mechanical with gears, something that can be proved by peering through the openings into the inner workings. To me it is a strong possibility that this is on the wide section of the GU Leicester main line. I say this because I am very familiar with the Southern GU locks, Brentford to Braunston, but have not gone up or down the Leicester / Soar section in many decades. I feel the picture is of somewhere I have not been in a very long while - but I'm probably wrong!

The house / lock cottage is unusual with a gable end facing the lock, rather than in line with the towpath. A great many of the lock cottages south of Braunston, whether still extant or long since demolished are/were single story. I can't immediately place it at all. The relatively small number of wires in the telegraph pole run would suggest quite a long way up from Brentford to me. At the Southern end the poles were doubled up, at least by the end, although maybe they grew to that. My overall feeling looking at brickwork, cill, gates etc is how unlikely it now is to find any of the GU locks in such good order!

I don't think anybody has yet mentioned the apparent presence of a brass porthole which, if it were real, would be illuminating the inside of a cupboard, and not the cabin itself. I'm not sure if any working boats ever had a port hole in that position on the left hand side, but "Grand Union" boats like RENFREW most certainly did not!

It's the RENFREW. And yes, it is historic, being a "Large Northwich" built in the mid-1930s. The boat, and its owner, are usually Braunston based.

That is surely the first time I have ever seen a tonneau cover on the baack of a butty!

Unless I'm missing something a plug to fit that socket can go in either of 2 ways around. If you are connecting something where polarity is important it looks like you could easily end up with positive connected to negative, and negative connected to positive. If polarity is the wrong way around then you could end up destroying the equipment involved, unless it has circuitry to guard against wrong polarity.

My Grandmother was born in Holt. She lived to 103, so they must be doing something right!

WATER WAGTAIL was I believe the COROLLA before conversion to a Zoo Bus. These days it has reverted to COROLLA, of course, and is one of the smartest ex Grand Union boats around.

Look at the slender "Severn & Canal and Cadburys" volume by Alan Faulkner in the Robert Wilson's Design series. Page 32 shows Severner "Ash" sign-written as follows:- Severn & Canal Carrying Co Ltd M B Ash There is also the Severner "Willow" a converted boat owned by enthusiasts James and Amy. Recent pictures of "Willow" show it carrying- Severn & Canal Carrying Co Ltd M B Willow

From memory some of the motor boats operated by the Severn and Canal Carrying company prefixed the same of the boat where it was painted on the cabin sides with "MB" Example "MB Ash" on Charles Hill built "Severner" motor boat. I'm not sure if and other carriers did similar.

It's never going to fit through those railings!