Derek R.

Looking at that set up, it would seem to me to be ripe for creating some whip between the gearbox output and the metalastic, which, because of its rotating mass, might induce an eccentric orbiting motion, in turn inducing wear in the stern tube. More support needed - the flexibility of the compound of the metalastic might be adding to the problem. However, I don't know the working rpm of the output. Even so, it doesn't look a happy bunny to me. This isn't the unit that failed though, is it? Maybe I'm over estimating it's ability to 'bend'. (Strange deja-vu moment there). It looks very much as Tycho was, and that had stern tube wear problems. Derek

. . And I might sound like the Devil's advocate, but stay away from seventy footers. Not that I doubt you might not be able to handle one - anyone can learn (though some have trouble after many years!) - but if you truly want to explore the canals in something historical, and want some practical vessel in which to do it, I would suggest looking for something 55' or less. Ex-tug or previously shortened something with accommodation - which means a bath/shower sink, and somewhere to work. Back cabins alone are for the seriously afflicted in today's fully equipped age. Though there is much value in going back to basics, after a days filthy weather a back cabin can be a soul destroying place if your used to somewhere to hang stuff, and a hot bath. Apart from Waterways World, and BW's 'heritage' fleet take a look at the HNBOC website, maybe join and get a wider feel. As you may have become aware, there is much concern over the 'converting' of former historic vessels away from their original format, though in the end, whilst it would be necessary to retain many in their original form, practicalities may determine otherwise amongst craft already converted, and still be a worthy vessel of historic note. I have no leads for you though. Can't help there. Ear to the grape-vine, and personal approaches to yards and owners. If you think you are mad - you probably are. But if you want to work on and live in a back cabin - you will just get on and do it. Derek

Damn! Found out again. . .

It is a nice looking cruiser, reminds me of 'Eagle'. But I have single handed, scratch built a garden shed from 4x2's for framing; shiplap 6"x 3/4"; and Stirling board lined, fully insulated, with damp courses, and a fitted solid fuel range, all on a custom made concrete base - all up it cost me £1k in materials. It didn't need a dry dock, steam chest, or any occasional help from anyone - but I would not take on such a wooden boat. Come to that, I'm wondering why I'm still with a boat at all - the shed is no problem! - No mooring fee, no licence, no compulsory insurance, no compliance needed. Think I'll move in . . . (Might have trouble getting it through a lock though). Derek

I'm sure you are correct about transcriptions, and her story was taken down I believe at Bournemouth. It was from Bournemouth Library that I first discovered her story, and Narrow Boat magazine has a link to the series. However, with regard to the gate mechanisms, Mrs. Peters was sure they were connected by wires. From part four of her recollections, I quote: - "The gates are exceptionally heavy and by a system of wires, two open at once." I queried this point with her over the telephone, and she seemed quite sure this was so. In truth, I believe it may well have been some action of the water flow that made this seem so, as they have never been so connected, and the reference is not to the paddles at all. 'Fourteen' is easily mistaken for 'Forty', though I find a fourteen foot shaft neither good to man nor beast! From standing on the boat and shafting off the bottom, you are left holding the end when the bottom is felt! Nothing left to push with (and it's too long for poking gates!). Eighteen to twenty one is far more use. But I doubt you'll find a forty foot shaft outside of wide boats and docks. Mrs. Peters also thought she must have been mistaken on that one. We had an interesting chat, and I sent her a revised copy of her account with small changes, such as Alperton where the transcript said Appleton and so on. The intention was to have her clear my 'audited' version for possible inclusion in the Historic Narrow Boat Club's journal. Sadly, I have not heard from her since. Derek

Excellent! Thanks very much for looking them out. I chased some links for Little Maestro, several models with that name, THIS one looks like it. Derek PS Just looked at the Perdios - I had a Popsy in the leather case back in 1960! Memories of listening to Luxembourg fading away and back!

It's very good, though one or two points are confusing. I contacted her about them, and we chatted on the phone for some time. She mentions '40 foot shafts, but of course it is more likely to be 21 foot or thereabouts, and the opening of the gates together on the Northern GU being connected by wires. This is not so, nor have Waterways archive been able to suggest it was ever intended. So maybe someone was having her on about that one! Nonetheless, a valuable collection of a Wartime trainees experiences. I would still highly commend any of D.D. Gladwins books for not just the details of which canal, when and why, but the background to attitudes towards the cut, and the folk of the cut - as well as their own experiences, written in a very engaging way. We bumped into George Phipps and his wife back in the late eighties skimming along in a forty footer. Anyone know if they are still about? Derek

Just to endorse the fact that there is history written down that will never get into print. In '83 we were tied up at Keadby waiting for fog to lift, and spent a day in the local Library (quite near the lock). In there was a hand typed manuscript several hundred pages long, it was a biography telling the story of a Yorkshire Keelman and his life on the Keel boats and the Trent in general. I didn't get to read it all, but I'll wager there is a lot of detailed history that IS written down, and has never been in print. Derek

Nostalgia - yes I love it too: King's Cross steam 1950's; London

The latter may be well supplied by Alan Faulkner's 'Grand Junction Canal' ISBN 0-9517923-1-8, (can't help with Lesley Morton) Anything by Charles Hadfield or Edward Paget-Tomlinson. For the social side; 'The Waterways of Britain, a Social Panorama', by D.D. Gladwin ISBN 0-7134- 3159-8. Also by Gladwin, 'The Canals of Britain', ISBN 0-7134-0492-2, and 'An Illustrated History of British Waterways' (not the company) Gladwin again, ISBN 0-904978-28-1. The latter I have just picked up for £3 at a Railway Centre (not that it helps you, but they do pop up). We must not forget L.T.C. Rolt either, his 'Landscape With Canals', being part two of his Autobiography is very good (as are the other two parts, 1 and 3). Rolt especially, but Gladwin also are very readable, and keep the interest. I once read Aickman's 'The River Runs Uphill' and I doubt I will read it a second time. It comes over as a very 'guarded' piece of writing, somewhat dry and lifeless. As to where you might get them - Faulkner's is in print, about £17.50 hardback, the others I would suggest trawling the internet - try Abe books as a starting point, Amazon even, or even Ebay. Derek

They are called 'Envirofascists'. Wind is notoriously unreliable in supplying power when most needed. Hydro power is expensive, and Solar is fine for small consumption, if you don't mind giving up most of our green and pleasant to fields of cells. Winter? Don't ask, freeze and die might be one answer. I have nothing against horses, though the mountains of dung might once again be another 'problem'. With regard to Edinburgh tram project, Councillor Burns got a drubbing in the press over that, and the cost (as always) would and hopefully has, been spent on improving the existing bus fleet which is by far a more flexible form of transport, able to incorporate new housing estates with vehicle interchangeability to other depots and areas - without the need for steel rails embedded in road surfaces, and tons of overhead wiring and its infrastructure which is the tram/trolleybuses Achilles Heel. Another one from several years ago: " Flexibility is key when providing public transport to maximise on the available vehicles to suit existing or new routes for the cost effectiveness of supplying a public service. What improvements to the existing flexible network of buses could be provide with £350m? Instead, the Scottish Executive is prepared to gamble on a 'business' of installing a web of steel set in the roads and over the heads of Edinburgh's population. Beware the spider in this web - it's name is 'bankruptcy'. The attraction could be fatal." I had not noticed London Underground running 'Heritage Stock', hardly something that the average commuter or tourist is likely to see in a deep tunnel, though I have in the past myself taken an 'Enthusiasts Special' in 1938 Stock. And whilst we did go sub-surface for a while, most of the running was overground - Amersham to Baker Street, around some rarely used City sidings, and back out to Amersham. A 'strange' day out. Opposition to the Underground system was almost certainly there from the outset, just as it was for the canal builders and the railways that followed. But by and large they represented advancements in communication and services - with the Underground, once all was complete, it remained unseen and Underground! Steel rails in roadways were something to wonder at, with the seemingly effortless and smooth conveyance they provided in comparison to that which had gone before. Roads were poor, even in urban areas, and the 'New' steel road carried their swaying ships two floors high without the bone jarring jolts from cart and carriage, must have been a sight - especially at night. My Grandmother recalled the first trams along Wood Green High Road, great groaning islands of light, she watched them pass from the balcony of her flat in amazement. But as traffic increased, and the boarding and alighting became ever more risky from their central running road, their days were soon numbered. Go take a ride on the trams at Crick, and the BCM, or Trolleybuses at Sandtoft - nostalgia is a main driving force amongst many who would have us back on trams - where economics are only whispered about behind backs. Look up 'nostalgia' in a dictionary - it's been classified as a medical condition. Derek

It might be prudent to consider, that if the present day canal system was still a major industrial artery for the transportation of goods, we might not be welcomed on it! In the case of Fleetwood trams, like other usurped transport systems; the atmospheric railway; the Trolleybus, they have done their best, but costs involved in maintenance, and the superior flexibility of the motor bus make the latter not only a logical alternative to adopt, but a necessary one under the prevailing circumstances. I grew up surrounded by Trolleybuses in North London, and was sad to see them replaced by Routemasters. While the tram has its attractions, so do most Follies. I wrote this six years ago to a leading newspaper, whether it got published or not, I do not know. -------------------------- April (coincidence?) 2003. Dear Sir, I like trams. They are photogenic, quiet and 'swishy', accelerate rapidly, you know exactly where they are going to go, and can shift hundreds of people in an articulated set. They remind me of branch line railways and modern transport all at the same time. Trams are like beautiful women, or expensive cars; lovely to see; lovely to watch; lovely to hear - but they'll break your heart, and your pocket. They need specialised depots, hundreds of miles of steel track set into an existing road network upon which some of the vehicles are incompatible with, two wheelers primarily. The servicing of underground cables and conduits becomes increasingly difficult with embedded trackwork, which itself wears out and needs replacing periodically. (The town of Grenoble is renewing it's tram track after just ten years of service. One of the reasons why London trams were eclipsed by the bus). Their tyres, steel variety, also wear and need replacing and not by Kwik Fit. They cannot be driven around accidents or temporary road closures for any reason. One power failure and the whole network can be affected. Overhead wirework is expensive to maintain in addition to trackwork. They are public transport in a straight jacket. In 1949 the presence of a tramcar on the streets of London was an embarrassment to the capital's post war planners, and as such was cited as an obstacle to all manner of traffic improvement schemes. In the 'County of London Plan', which promised a wholesale rejuvenation of the metropolitan area, tramways, modern or otherwise, did not enter the equation. In that same year Lord Latham, Chairman of the London Transport Executive, delivered a speech outlining plans for the tramways conversion program in which he stated: "The loss on the trams is about £1,000,000 a year." 1949 remember. In the same year it was announced that the Trolley-Bus system would also be scrapped. Sir Cyril Hurcomb, Chairman of the British Transport Commission, was quoted as saying that maintenance on vehicles and tracks was costing around one and a half million pounds a year. That was March 1949. Two months later, on 16th May, the same theme was taken up in the House of Commons by Mr Callaghan, the then Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport. He reiterated that the Government did not favour retaining systems which required keeping a fixed track in the public road. It is said that history oft repeats itself. If you want an example of the worst excesses of tram plans you have only to look at the scheme that Ken Livingstone and TfL are planning for West London. There the main roads that currently carry a large percentage of through traffic will be CLOSED at choke points in Acton and Ealing to allow the trams to run and all other traffic shuffled off into the back streets. Roads are the arteries of commerce. It needs free circulation - not choking to death. It seems some things do not change: The ignorance of history and the repetition of errors. Derek Reynolds. ---------------- Some beautiful trams - but look at the space they have to operate in. More on UK trams from Light Rail. Expensive damage, Plumstead, SE London.

Blimey! I counted 3,085 from that list give or take a finger.

Just grab yourself an urn of Tea, pick up a set of Nicholson's Ordnance Survey Guide to the Waterways, and start counting. Each canal listed has the mileage and number of locks on the first page to each canal, some are flood locks, but I believe they are still counted. Or you could choose the Shell Book of Inland Waterways, or Charles Hadfield's Canals of Great Britain. In twenty minutes I have come up with 1,080, not including Teddington, Wey & Arun, River Wey, nor the Basingstoke. All from Nicholson's three, plus their one on the Thames. If you wish to include locks into docks, there will be more. Derek

Thanks Mike, but I fancy it's a tip of the iceberg. Can you explain how the mileages are arrived at, and what canals are included in the 'restored' column? An explanation to the column headings would be welcomed, though I understand this may be more than you are willing to share if it's copyrighted. Derek

Xilence, your English is quite 'well' (good) enough. Waddington's yard is several hundred miles from me. If it were closer, I would be there with the measuring tape! Good luck - Derek

For anyone not knowing what a Smith and Rodley crane looks like, just search for Smith and Rodley on Google - lots. Some used on the railways, some drag-line. Interesting request xilence, cannot help directly, though I drove Linden tower cranes for a short while, with the occasional Stothert and Pitt, Leibherr, and Babcock, all tower. West Yorkshire have archives that may be able to help: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archon/...ails.asp?LR=205 , but I see you have been searching in many places, and that may have been one! 'Hands on' with a tape measure is what you need. Derek

The Nurser Hazel was at Boxmoor a couple of months ago. Bumped into the owner resident at Boxmoor Station whilst vintage 'bussing'. Long haired bearded chap, very enthusiastic about the boat. Think he may have a mooring on the offside above Fisheries. Derek

Interesting comments. It will surely only be a matter of time when the early canal hire boat and private boat become as 'in demand' as some ex-working boats. Clearly with river launches and Broads cruisers this has been an active area for many years. Caravans from the fifties and sixties are sought after by period vehicle enthusiasts to add to their entourage. Their reason for being desirable will undoubtedly be that they evoke a period in time when certain generations were young, and feel a desire to recreate that era. It's just a matter of time, assuming enough survive intact. Should they be in 'History and Heritage'? Inevitably they will be. I don't find them attractive, but then neither am I (beauty in the eye and all that). They do look a little like a Broads cruiser mutant. But then the human race is a mutation of species so nothing new there. Derek Speaking of which . . .

Uxbridge Boat centre. They might have some graphite based left.

Thanks David, The oldest map of the area I have found on the web is from: http://www.old-maps.co.uk/indexmappage2.aspx Put Uxbridge in the search window, and by manipulation, the area around the pub can be seen - albeit not very clear. Oldest map visible here 1881. The canal and bridge are well established. I'll be chasing the Wuxen's now! Derek PS I'm sure that shot of below Uxbridge lock is what appears in Painted Boats where young Alfie goes off into the 'Toll' office. We used to tie above occasionally, but that was in the eighties.

Ah yes - So the site of the bridge would be just to the right, and the towpath the other side of the building and the canal beyond that. If you suggest that the slip might have been a Ford across the river, then the building, or at least the one depicted, may pre-date the canal - canal and bridge being built at the same time. Interesting all this piecing together. Derek

Agreed. Closer to "Near the Swan & Bottle" might be more accurate. I wonder if it might not have been a long gone building 'opposite' the pub. Hard to say, so much has changed. Derek

Dave, free speech is alive and well which is why you and I, and many others post here, it's just opinions that might vary. I have not suggested that the locations shown by posters should prevent an opinion being expressed - the shown location may not indicate a persons actual location. There is no canal in St Albans (though it was at one time planned), but the boat is on part of the route much of which I am familiar with. It just seemed that a trio of voices sprang up from apparently far and wide with potential criticism, and I made that observation. Read into it no more than that. Dressing up often goes with public shows - I spent a glorious Sunday at Quainton - the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre - where there was a steam and historic vehicle event along with the railway stock. Oily boiler suits, greasy waitscoats and caps were to the fore. Army vehicle restorers were there in period uniform, Victorian cyclists etc. likewise, and I'm sure the BCM had its share of red neckerchiefs and Bowler hats of those who wish to 'imagine', and present something from the past for a little more authenticity, even though they may be a bit too clean and inaccurately garbed. But dressing for a recreation of a coal run amongst a comparative few enthusiasts, and at early and late hours - surely the 'dressing up' will be in warm clothing and dry, which is just what people on the boats did when carrying. To quote myself: - "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." Yes, things move on, but a reminder of the past in more than static exhibits brings history to life and can be a source of enthusiasm for the younger generations as they see and are shown an opportunity for involvement. This is not said with specific reference to the 'jam'ole run', but ex-working boat practices in general with an emphasis on handling and working boats and locks. Some motorcycle clubs have 'gaslight' runs (carbide lamped bikes only), others midnight rambles - for their own pleasure and enlightenment. Hardly public events, but valuable nonetheless. Some of the earlier recreated runs were crewed by ex-working boatmen, I can imagine a spark of "We'll show 'em" crept in. Whether they held back when passing boats I do not know. But now it is taken up by others. There may be a question over it's relevance, especially as it is not a public spectacle. That in itself may be a reason for its demise, if indeed it does. If I were moored en route and awakened at 4am by engines and paddles, I might think it a gross inconvenience - or, that it's only once every other year, and watch them go by. Alternatively, we could forget all that, and boat when the Sun shines, when the pubs are open (though preferably closed), or just polish and tinker - activities almost as pleasurable as boating to be sure, but how more pleasurable to see things on the move. Should they be denied because of the time of day, or should they be free to boat once every two years in a way that commemorates the last long distance regular traffic - be it in a small convoy, or singly. Four a.m. boating can be a wonderful experience at times. That said, my wife remembers getting up one morning whilst moored out in the fields on the Macclesfield, stretching and yawning as she sat on the bed edge, only to see a pair of Waterways men poling their work punt slowly and silently by. Never were curtains drawn so fast. Derek I'll PM it. D.

Morning - Ta, good point. Derek