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Francis Herne

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Everything posted by Francis Herne

  1. Farm supply shop. I go to TFM, they stock all kinds of useful stuff and their Penkridge and Bromsgrove shops are fairly handy for the canal. There'll be some other one closer to Gloucester. Or the Internet of course.
  2. Stourport is on red now (for some odd reason, listed under S&W Canal separately from the other Severn locks).
  3. Is that enough bickering now? The Anchor at High Offley is indisputably nice: I rather like the deep cuttings, although the current slew of fallen trees and small landslips poised over the canal is a bit worrying.
  4. It's not totally unheard of: on a couple of short BCN locks with single bottom gates, a 71'6" GU motor needs to be wedged in (slightly) diagonally to clear the gate. Of course those are relatively wide for narrow locks where as Marsden notoriously aren't!
  5. Depends on your definition of "pass through", I suppose. If your boat doesn't fit off the far end you can't pass through on a journey to somewhere else, only visit the canal for its own sake. It seems silly but so many people on Facebook are apparently unable to read a map without being spoon-fed, I'm sure they're seeing long boats turn up at Marsden on their way to Leeds or wherever.
  6. Yes, beside the roadway of the high-level swing bridge near the pivot. I presume the signal-style levers are to lock the span in position.
  7. We're still at Sharpness! 😉 The loco is from Castle Meads Power Station at Gloucester, and was in the waterways museum there for a while before being given to the Vale of Berkeley Railway group. https://www.steamlocomotive.info/vlocomotive.cfm?Display=4224 (for the levers I was fishing for a more precise answer, not sure if that's unfair)
  8. There are some other interesting things to see around there too. For bonus points, where are these (canal-related) levers?
  9. Barnhurst outflow onto the S&W and SU is supposed to be treated. The 2022 data, latest available, says only a few hours of untreated storm overflow over the year but having seen it I'm pretty skeptical. I don't think the normal treatment process can remove all the detergent anyway.
  10. Nope, still very much in evidence at Wheaton Aston last year. With the recent heavy rain, the colour and smell at the moment are quite interesting... CRT had to lower the level at Rotton Park quite a bit in January (IIRC) due to a problem with the spillway. I'm surprised that doesn't show up in the BCN numbers.
  11. 7 amps at, say, 14V is about 100W. That seems reasonable to me for a 150W panel in direct sunlight. There's a significant temperature coefficient for solar panels, so I actually see higher peak outputs early in the year than mid-summer, although my often-angled panels will benefit less from the sun being high in the sky than your flat one. Solar panels get very hot in direct summer sun - up to 75°C or so, losing about 1% of output for every 3° of temperature per the datasheet for mine. That's more than enough to outweigh the more favourable angle. Of course total output is still much higher in the summer thanks to longer days and generally better weather.
  12. Table of lock phone numbers is available here -- the landline numbers match those I've used, but I haven't tried the mobiles. https://www.saulboatclub.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Contact-Numbers-Table-2024-new.pdf Calling them a few minutes in advance isn't necessary (except Gloucester, not applicable to this thread) but can save a bit of hanging about. Yellow boards on the Severn weren't that bad in my limited experience - keep an eye out for floating or wedged debris, moor facing upstream and allow a lot of sideways drift when turning.
  13. Does anyone have photos of the outboard-driven River Class prototypes, Anne or Lee? Would be another candidate for this thread but I can't find one.
  14. I confess that the rate of Peter's posts in this thread does put me off posting here. They are often quite interesting, but the sheer volume tends to smother anyone else's submissions. (That may be the first [and last?] time I've agreed with @BoatinglifeupNorth!) A couple from last weekend's WRG do:
  15. I got £25 for two at F Watson, near Aston Bridge 90 on the T&M. Seems to be about the going rate. They weighed mine. To satisfy the scrapyard normally used, the BCNS truck now carries a laminated copy of the following...
  16. At least the conversions here are mostly quite sympathetic, you can't easily tell from above the waterline and the hydraulic-elum type is easily reversible. A lot of butties have had the stern chopped off entirely and replaced by an imitation motor stern, or even been cut in half to make the front ends of two motors.
  17. On a different tangent, the ex-paddle steamer Lucy Ashton was converted to be propelled by four Rolls-Royce Derwent jet engines mounted above the deck, in which form it reached a considerable speed. Photos and more details can be found at http://douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/TRANSPORT/lucyasht/lucyasht.htm I see no reason why this wouldn't work on a butty, with the engine atop the cabin, although the steerer would have to duck and wear a heatproof suit.
  18. Not a butty, but the "I, Frances" lunatics crossed the Atlantic by narrowboat mostly under sail. Quite a bit of time going the wrong way as they couldn't sail into the wind. There are some photos of the mast (but not sail) raised at sea on another trip here https://www.grannybuttons.com/granny_buttons/2010/03/narrow-frances-to-llandudno.html The slightly more detailed original account is at https://web.archive.org/web/20160413115601/https://iwn.iwai.ie/v29i2/ifrances.PDF
  19. If the outside chimney can be removed for locks etc., that will provide access for cleaning? I agree it's a bad idea for the various reasons above. I've seen something similar, but coming through the front bulkhead into the well deck at about a 45° angle and thus avoiding the clearance and draught problems of this version. 45° out of the side, with a double-skinned flue for safety, might work for a mostly static marina-bound boat as I suspect those the OP's seen were. It would still be totally impractical while cruising.
  20. I've never tried to actually cook anything inside the stove, just heat the pan up in there beforehand before putting it on top - it's quicker and gets it a bit hotter initially. A couple of layers of tinfoil over it when it's on top helps keep the heat in. You could try cooking stuff inside the stove, might need some ingenuity to avoid it tasting of coal smoke. I don't mind shop-bought bread, but there are some places it's a long way to a decent shop and my 'freezer' is a shoebox. Also baking is something to do on dark winter evenings. I might try cakes sometime.
  21. Hotchkiss Cones don't seem to have come up yet. Fitted to some (mostly wooden?) butties; apparently Chance 2 might be the last barely 'surviving' example. Thread here
  22. For stews and the like I don't think there's much difference. The thick cast iron stores a lot more heat and spreads it better than a normal pan. With preheating you can use it as an oven - I've baked bread in mine a few times, although tbh it was too much of a faff to do regularly. Mine is just about small enough that I can preheat it by wedging it into the stove above the coals, but I think most would be too big for boat-sized stoves. I don't find it's a problem. Regulating the stove for that is no different from getting the right point where your cabin's warm but not an oven.
  23. I have a Sainsbury's oval casserole dish (not the bigger round version), in mock-Le-Creuset orange. It's been very good and a fixture of my stovetop.
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