Derek R.
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Posts posted by Derek R.
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So, do I win the Wooden Spoon award?
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This crops up every year. We have a contributor from; Manchester; Bath; and the Peak Forest. If any of those folk have been personally disadvantaged in any way by such a run, perhaps their complaints can be directed to the alleged miscreants.
Would any who are actually, or might be affected by the passing of a train of boats like to speak up? There will always be some.
In '83 we were headed for Wigan and the IWA National. Our path was a slow three month cruise taking in the Peak Forest and Ashton canals. At the top of Marple we were hailed and vociferously complained to by a resident boater (we also lived afloat at that time) in that we were using water that they needed to keep afloat. 'Too many boats going to the National' was the cry.
There are some I will not boat with, and whose practices I do not condone. This is not a moan about whingers, nor a voice for letting 'em rip as some might like to in recreating what they believe was standard practice years ago. But it does seem that whenever something from the past turns up in the garden, out come the guns - it's hunting season. Be it traction engines, old lorries, old buses, old motorbikes with speeds that 'hold up' the modern traffic - something that gives off a little smoke, picking Blackberries from a hedgerow "you know that's stealing" - if anything is certain, our 'nanny state' has taught us how to moan.
There will be boats passing some at early hours and late. It's once every other year - so far - in which lock working efficiency comes to the fore. Genuine problems for others will, I am sure, be few and far between - that much is appreciated by the organisers, and by most who participate. I will not be, it's just not something that attracts me. Though if I were in the vicinity, I would gladly set a lock or three and help them through for the sake of remembering the crews that lived the life, and just a little of what was once the canal's reason for being.
Derek
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I read somewhere that Leslie Morton once said it would be more profitable for Willow Wren to bring the empty boats back from Croxley on a lorry......
(snip)
The same has been said about running light Locomotives over Network Rail's lines - cheaper on a lorry.
He said it frequently, he also used to talk about a scheme where he would hire the boats to the Captains and contract them to take single runs for which they were payed, the boats would then be returned empty to collect the next load, and because the captain was self employed, he was eligible to claim the dole for the week when he had no payed work.I do not know the requirements that needed to be fulfilled at that time, but later in 1980, dole could only be collected after six weeks of unemployment, I neither know if Lesley Morton's comments were tongue in cheek to wind up certain factions, but it does sound like they might have been. The sums may have been done and possibly proven to be more 'economical', but the consequences for crews may not have been seriously considered - even considered at all - does anyone know?
Ask Jackanory?
Derek
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Rose Whitlock, nee Ward, was born to Susan and Michael Ward in 1917 in a rented cottage by the locks at Rickmansworth. Her Father was away in France in charge of food supply barges, and her Mother had taken work at the boat docks at Rickmansworth for the duration. Upon returning, they went back on the boats.
The full story of Rose Whitlock has been published in the Historic Narrow Boat Owners Club Newsletter from issue 2006/2 through to 2007/4 in seven parts, and 'narrated' by Tim Coghlan.
Derek
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Possibly coupled with the likelyhood that carrying on would leave them either outside the dock in 'no man's land', or inside and trapped. Uxbridge has facilities and entertainment close by, and a short morning trip would see them in the dock and available for unloading.
I know when I drove delivery vans, if we finished the round early, we didn't rush back to the depot and get lumbered with 'odd jobs' to keep us busy, the caff was far more inviting!
Derek
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What are the dates for this?
Late October. Contact Tom for exact dates.
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As a matter of interest, how much did the owners pay? and what would a realistic price have been?
I personally do not know the owners nor the price, but the second question may be countered by another - how long is a piece of string? A realistic price may be the most the vendor can get from the buyer - to the vendor. Conversely, the least that can be paid by the buyer. As with any market, a realistic price is one agreed to on both sides. What price? How long is a piece of . . .
It's all relative to what you can afford, what value you place upon the item (an emotive aspect, unless you are a 'dealer'), and of course, what you intend to do with it. A realistic price may be one you can afford, and one which leaves you with enough left over to carry out the required plan. Then when all is done, and the item has reached the desired condition, it either gives immense satisfaction of a plan achieved, or it is sold on, and most likely realise perhaps less than half of that which has been spent on it completing the 'plan'.
The most 'real' factor in the equation, is that at the end of the day, the buyer will be poorer of pocket though hopefully wiser, and possibly without in this case a boat, or - enjoying a euphoric state of mind that exists in dreamers (albeit with the cost of ongoing maintenance and other associated fees).
Long live dreamers. It's just a pity that money gets in the way of the fulfilment for most. Then again, one persons dream may be another persons nightmare, which brings us back to looking at that last picture of what was 'Spitfire'.
Derek
PS Most peoples material dreams when fulfilled are enjoyed by spiders in the main. Mine have been.
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This is your man Casper:
Hi all,Its Tom here again. I would like to announce I am organising a Jam Ole Run 2010. It is going to be the 40th anniversary since the last delivery of coal to the Jam Factory in Southall so I would like to make it the biggest and best one ever. If you are interested, please don't say so on here because I haven't the time to keep checking this site, but if you could please email me on tomben@hotmail.co.uk. There is only space for around 12 - 14 boats due to the queues at locks and there will be plenty of crew needed, so get in touch, NOW!!
Hope to hear from you all soon!
Tom Stewart
Jam Ole Run Organiser
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That would have to go. but i quite like the rest
Well, as you like chocolate, and it looks like a floating Toblerone . . .
Don't be taken in by the "25% discount on licence fees". In his dreams - it's 10%, and proof of a percentage of the boat has to be shown. In which case this one could be debatable.
I've got a chicken run that shape.
Derek
PS Looking at the inside, I'm reminded of an aircraft with a line of paratroopers waiting to drop over Arnhem.
The bottom fell out of that one too.
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I've a great deal of respect for corrugated iron, but getting back to Spitfire - it's as though someone has grafted the bottom part of a Reliant Robin onto an Aston Martin.
I'm sure the owners believe they are doing the best they can with whatever finances are available, but that does not show much respect for either a bit of industrial history or the reason for its original shape. One can either take the view that it has been 'butchered', or saved from a worse fate: sunk; sectioned and scrapped.
Derek
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I think we are all a bit speechless about that sight.
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As a life long motorcyclist - 45yrs+ - twenty eight of which was spent despatch riding, I have a different outlook to motorcycling than most who ride to work or for pleasure at the weekends. It formed a way of life that riding for fun never did. Yet at no time did I consider myself aloof, or better than any others except perhaps in the case of experience - and I was always willing and ready to impart any that I thought might help a lesser experienced person especially when asked.
I am not the easiest person to approach and chat with, but strike the right chord and I don't stop. However, this exchange is becoming like cats spitting, and without noticing, those spitting loudest have not seen the sodding great Rotweiller coming round the corner with H.M. on its collar. With impending financial cuts, Waterways are going to be 'up against it', much like motorcycling is currently.
We are going to need all the collective support there is if our chosen lifestyles are to survive in the face of legislative and financial problems ahead.
Derek
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It is an interesting subject, and I have yet to spy one just like that shown in Banstead. Perhaps Richard might recognise it at Past Times Radio:
http://www.pasttimesradio.co.uk/index.html
I think as Alan implies, many would have jumped on the 'new' transistor radios of the sixties. Prior to that, maybe 'word of mouth' was more reliable than batteries!!
Derek
many thanks for everybody's thoughts,info and quips!The query came about as an idea to embellish a working butty's (=brighton) cabin with an authentic domestic radio of ww2 or a later period up to the effective end of commercial carrying.
It would appear that in the 1930's and through WW2 a few simple battery sets (and maybe crystal sets before that) as used on the bank several or many years before were in use mainly for entertainment purposes at night or possibly at "gatherings". HT voltage (90v?) from a dry battery and LT (2v) from wet cells (accumulators) whenever charging facilities were available on the bank. An example would be the Cossor Melody mMaker or the Osram Music Magnet----.
Perhaps with the advent of 6 or 12v power supplies from the motor of a working pair it is possible that during WW2 ex military "welfare""receivers (which utilised 6 or 12v vibrators for the valve HT supply)were available to working boat people? Examples would be the PCR range or the Hale Electric set--.
However by the early 1950's many civilian portable sets would have became available (Pye, Everv Ready, Cossor etc). These used new technology low voltage 1.4v valve filaments with fairly modest dry battery (LT and HT)requirements and would have served up to the end of commercial carrying in the mid 1960's?
Fianally-the radio shown in Banstead's cabin (Harry Corbett- in The Bargee) is intriguing!Does anyone recognise the make and/or did BW working boats have 230v ac generators in 1960???
thanks to all once again!
L awrie (NBT member)
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Ian is a Nurser, built at Braunston.
Don't know who owns her now but originally built in 1947 by Fellows, Morton and Clayton, at their Uxbridge yard.
I may be wrong but I believe she was the last Uxbridge boat to be built (or was that Clee).
After Nationalisation she was sunk in the Flashes but recovered by Ian Riley and restored, iirc by Malcolm Braine.
She has a Bolinder in the engine room and, yes, she is priceless (or worthless, depending on your viewpoint).
The engine is probably worth 10 times the value of the boat, btw.
Priceless in the eyes of those in love.
My little FMC booklet lists Clent as being built in December 1947, Clee as July 1947. Though there is Cotswold listed but without a date beside it, just a -. Numbered 355 and the comment scrapped, and shows no registration number. Perhaps it never got off the dock complete.
Derek
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And I thought spiders was off topic!
Seem to be in the right place after all . . .
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Compared to the other shot, there's a few ton of something in there.
Derek
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Looking out the window I can see my lawn needs mowing (quite badly), doesn't mean the house is falling down, though
That's a well kept boat ready for a paint job, in my book.
Aah! But if it was growing from your window frames?
That grass is being fed by decomposing timber as well as dust and accumulated wind blown dirt. Still, nothing that cannot be sorted out, but it does need sorting out before another season passes.
Derek
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Spiders never fail to amaze me at their ability to bridge almost impossible places! It (they) must have planted one end on the staging, took a look around, decided on a second point of anchorage, then worked out the direction in which to proceed to reach it without the silk getting stuck or hung up anywhere in between. Absolutely amazing.
Is this off topic? Where am I?
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Legs: All depends how much room you have and whereabouts you want the top plate to be level with in relation to the back step etc., and aesthetics.
That one was without legs and fitted to a couple of bits of angle screwed to the shelf. If you can get away with it, cut down legs can give some room for sundry cooking or cleaning items to slide under the stove, but you don't want it sitting on a pair of legs that poke it up too high - so cutting the legs to the required is sometimes undertaken. Level with or an inch or two above step level seems about right. A visual appraisal is best. But you do need some air space beneath - and mounted on fireproof material.
I was trying to get another picture up, but Photobucket are messing me about with resize rejections just now now matter how small I make them. Good mind to drop them for something else.
Derek
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Steve, is that Classic as in Epping Classic, or is it a different make?
Classic:
Same as seen on Blossom's website. I lost track of the name changes, might be called an Epping nowadays.
Derek
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(snip)
One word of advice, if using a Classic do get a chimney with an inner liner that drips the tar back down the middle pipe, not onto your cabin top.
Steve
Exactly. Just about any solid fuel stove with a short chimney burning low to steady will cause condensation in a single skinned chimney. A lined chimney will reduce the condensate by virtue of the small amount of insulation created by the double skin, and stop the mess over the roof and down the cabin side. Most of what runs down the inside of the pipe from roof to stove will be crisped, and removable in the normal way.
Good little stove was the Classic, ugly as sin, but worked. The one on Tycho had been overfired in the past (ashpan door left open from cold will do it), and the top plate was bowed up. Rain entering and expanding rust helped its demise, and it came out in a few more pieces than it went in.
We had a French Chappee on one boat which had a rear exit and 'T' piece to the vertical. There was a hole in the bottom of the 'T' to drain the condensate, and we would get just over a pint a day. We did burn anything on it - wet wood and all. Replaced it with a Squirrel - end of condensate problem - and hot water to boot! But that's stretching the topic a bit.
Autumn's coming, here's a nice warming pic:
Derek
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Like my epping and cook on it quite happily,wish it had secondary air though to get more complete combustion,clean funnel and all that. Have a plan to fit a squirrel spinner air control to the front to give secondary air but have other more urgent jobs first.Will report when I do it,might even have learned to add photos to my posts.Would love an Esse at home in the house.
With secondary air the extra combustion will produce more heat. This has to be done with the sure knowledge that the castings taking this heat are up to the job of taking the higher temperatures without failing. Do make sure they are up to it before committing.
I think the Esse might need an extension built on the side.
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The food cupboard would be next to the firebox with an Epping and like I say the hottest part of the range should be heating the air by the entrance much like entering Boots the Chemist at Christmas time with those fan heater suffocating you as you walk in but far more benign and an entirely more welcome effect on the legs when you are steering!
I believe that Brighton and Nuneation's cabins were fitted out using the original cabin plans and I find it an interesting exercise to observe the clever layout and eventually to come up with no better design. A clever mind was at work combined with many refinements since. Brighton's new stove has the latest refinement which is a sheet of luxboard behind it to protect the hull behind.
Guidwi(ve's?) were fitted to Northwich's as standard from new, and I wonder on which side your Guidwife's firebox is? The technical drawing I have for the fitments to a Northwich cabin shows a range with the firebox on the right. Logically, it may seem most appropriate for the firebox to be nearest the doors where it would heat the incoming air, but in reality, a firebox on the right ensures the highest concentration of heat emanates from nearer the centre of the cabin. Most perishable foodstuffs I would have thought would have been kept under the back deck rather than in the table cupboard, which is also known as the crockery cupboard by some. Furthermore, a paraffin Primus when available, was usually kept down beside the range and near the back, which with a left hand firebox puts it nearest the source of fire. One might also say, that with the firebox nearest the doors, the heat has got a shorter distance to travel before escaping altogether. I never found any lack of warmth while standing on the step when our 'Classic' was lit - toasty warm. In truth, I believe whichever end the firebox is, there should be sufficient heat from a stove in the small space that a back cabin is, not to make the position of the firebox an issue - other than personal convenience or preference, both of which may well be determined by availability. Whether a right hand oven is easier to use than a left hand, will surely depend on whether one is left handed or right? With the oven on the left, the open door does not impede the space near the knees - perhaps less chance of receiving a burn?
It's certainly my personal preference to go for a firebox on the right hand side, it just feels more 'right'.
The Larbert's is on the right, the Classic's on the right, the Premier? The Belle 'Portable' is a little large, but should fit a G.U. Butty, - also on the right - though there may have been options available when in production. With regard to the positioning of stoves and ranges in Romany Vardo's, or Vans, the layout was always the same. The stove was on the left as you entered, with the stove pipe exiting through that side on the van which was furthest away from overhanging trees (remembering that the 'entrance' is at the forward facing end of the van). Some examples HERE. Their living wagons were only developed from the mid nineteenth century, prior to that, they lived mostly under canvas. Did someone copy the boat layout I wonder?
Derek
Building at the foot of Hurleston Junction?
in History & Heritage
Posted
I haven't been 'on the ground' thereabouts, but from the satellite pictures there looks to be what might have been foundations of a stable block close by the first lock and near the turnover bridge on the south side of the first lock. Also being a junction between two canals, some control over tolls to be collected might have needed a small building at least.
Only a calculated guess I'm afraid.
Derek