billh

The wheel change means you don't run the risk of knocking the Chief Engineer/ERA out with the push pull system😀. Wheel is more positive with less slack than the various linkages and levers

Noticed this in the last 2/3 weeks. I can log in to the forum ok , type a message, press the send button and that changes to "saving" then nothing, post does not appear in the topic. No problem with other forums. Browser is Firefox , same on this more modern desktop from whence this message comes. Any ideas? Due to receive a slightly less ancient iMac soon, I will see how that goes😃

Yes, these are very useful and appear accurate. However, you must remember to take out the battery between uses, when you press the "off" button it doesn't actually switch off , though the screen goes blank and so,after a few days, the battery goes flat. Keep the battery in the little holder made for it in the case

WCBS at Portland Basin and Stalybridge, not GB, different outfit😀

We have kept "deepish" boats on the Ashton for nearly 50 years and passages of the canal by these boats is well into 3 figures. The only difficulties you may encounter maybe reduced level in a pound, usually solved by running water down from the next lock.At the moment,there appears to be plenty of water feeding the summit level from the Peak Forest and HNC. @bobl on this site can provide up to date information and advice

Since when? There was one near the top lock last week and I remember it being there fifty odd years ago. ? Maybe your definition of a marina differs from mine?

Electric start was fitted to Daphne's National by the RN company, perhaps 12 years ago? It involved sending the heavy flywheel away for machining and ring fitting. A special bracket fabricated for the motor which ,I believe, is different for National or RN, though the RN one might be a standard part. The set up worked ok but it was found necessary to adjust the starter motor with shims to get reliable engagement rather than that often heard "clunk" then nothing until the engine was manually turned slightly. The electric start is reliable now as long as the battery is ok.

Ignore all of the above, brain storm going on ! Signing off before I type anymore rubbish. Thank you and Goodnight.

When the river is high, there might be a headroom problem on the railway bridge at Consall and at the Cheddleton end lock tail bridge. The flooded station pictured above is Consall not Cheddleton. Amazing that the formation is flooded there considering the canal alongside is several feet lower than the railway. We have been delayed at the lock into the river for a while years ago, river was on red markers as i recall.

The stern end is very similar to the standard BW workboat design of the 1970s . Built in large numbers by Hancock & Lane (?) at great cost to the customer.The length and power unit varied from 30ft to 50ft and Lister air cooled ST1 and 2 fitted. Some of these originals are still about, some much modified ,like this one appears to be.

Is the excess fuel toggle on the injection pump set? This is usually needed for a Ruston cold start. If the engine can be turned over by hand (decompressed) the injectors should make a noise., if they don't, there is a lack of fuel or the speed control and/or excess fuel toggle are not set to max.

The paint scheme of Maria is taken from an original painting of another MS&L boat (at Bosley locks?) at the end of the 19 century. Of course that may have been subject to artistic whims so cannot be definite. Maria has been re-painted since the above photos but remains very similar in appearance. The L & NER livery of Joel was not strictly accurate, copied from photos of the "old" Joel, which was scrapped in 1948. The present Joel was rebuilt (from another scrapper!) in 1948 at Gorton dock and painted in the blue & yellow "British Waterways" scheme for maintenance boats. Joel has since (2011) reverted to this rather unattractive BW livery* but retains several features belying its railway heritage, for example , the ex GCR tank engine spectacle glass serves as a porthole on the engine room, borrowed from Gorton Railway works in 1948. A later feature is the EM1(class76,also built at Gorton) loco air horn , loud at 100psi air pressure! *Complaints and bad language are sometimes received from boaters and TPWs who think the boat is still operated by the canal authority. A year or two back: "there's a dead sheep in the canal down there, can you dispose of it?"? Bill

You can dispatch a GRP cruiser in about an hour using a 9" grinder with a steel cutting disk. The disk will last the full job. Wear PPE . If you are a council tax payer the local waste authority will take the pieces for free, as long as you say the boat came off your drive/garden. Phone them first.Just a shame that it will probably go for landfill, though it may go to an energy from waste plant , depending on where you live.

Here's a useless fact: My sister's business is on the ground floor of what was once the drawing office of the National Gas & Oil Engine Co in Ashton. Another useless bit: she uses part of an unfinished National piston as a door stop in the office? The Barlow 's boat Daphne with D2 engine is moored in Ashton Under Lyne, less than a mile from where the engine was built and as far as is known is the only National in working order in that town. i think there's a National on display in the shopping precinct. The history of the "Nash" in Ashton can be traced back to Boulton & Watt of early steam engine fame and much to be discovered in the book "Chronicles of Boulton's siding"

Is it possible that the pawls are stuck in the running position ,so disengaged? I have seen this on other makes of engines, though with the hand starting gear outside of the engine. Cleaning and re-oiling makes them work again.

The f/wheel with the starter ring looks to have separate parts where the hand start pawls would be. Also, that looks like a taper sleeve fitted in the centre, I don't know why, unless the taper has been damaged at some point and repaired by boring out and fitting the sleeve See you soon!

I made some Zundfix type starters for our Ailsa Craigs some years ago.. Blotting paper soaked in saltpetre solution, allow to dry naturally. Cut them into strips and roll up tightly. Yes they do look like cigarettes. Remove the holders from the cylinder head, insert a starter into each and light with a match. They smoulder gently, just glowing red, screw them into the head and wait a minute or so before hand starting. Don't forget to pull the de-compressor lever right over for high compression at starting. They work surprisingly well.

Is there a valid reason why these big ships don't have 2 or more engines? Cost I suppose. The benefit of having a spare power unit on line would be very great in a situation like this. I would think they would not use much power anyway going up the cut. As regards flushing the ship but can't because there's no locks- i understand that when the canal was opened it caused a permanent eastwards current at the western end of the Med and it's draining the Atlantic into the Indian Ocean, so if the ships stuck there for a while , the water level will be raised on the upstream side of the ship and it might float off?

I see the sailing club will get a new clubhouse, good for them. They got a new clubhouse less than 12 months before the reservoir debacle, there was an opening ceremony attended by a visiting senior Royal.?

I fixed a Victron unit several years ago with similar symptoms. Inside the unit are 3 mains connections (L,N& E) soldered to through holes on the printed circuit board. I think it was the neutral,blue wire had become disconnected at the board- a dry joint though it was not visible. Re-soldering all the joints fixed the problem. It may have been caused by heat build up at the joint causing the dry joint. Similar problems occur in central heating boilers where the integral electronics suffer from heat cycling near the hot parts of the boiler.

I offer the Bradford Colliery Branch of the Ashton Canal, this joined the main line of the canal between locks 6 & 7. I reckon it qualifies for inclusion in this thread as the terminal basin now lies under the Manchester CITY (aka Etihad) football stadium? The last use of the branch was to take away water from the mine, closed completely in 1969.

Gorton loco works did supply castings for the lock gear, the wooden patterns were kept in the canal depot until it closed and were thrown on a bonfire in 1962.I can remember some of the unique (?) gear on the Ashton ground paddles, there was a round guard cover over the gear at the top, sometimes with "LNER" in raised letters on the side. Last time I looked there was something similar on the side pond paddles at Bosley, I think BW restored one of them as an example, ten or so years ago? Some Ashton ground paddles had a wooden post and no reduction gear. Four paddles , two co-acting on the gate,were fitted at the head of the lock and two large paddles in the tail gates

Kelvins used to have an engine driven "wash pump" for clearing the deck of fish guts etc through the scuppers. Could also be used for putting fires out ? Some 4cylinder models have 2 uniflow cooling pumps but no bilge pump All the DM2 Nationals I've seen have bilge and cooling pumps as per picture with a dog clutch to bilge pump

The boat Maria is also wearing well and she IS that old?

There's something very, very similar to BluTak that comes with the install kit for new hobs etc , seals to the work top and holds it in place- are you sure it wasn't that? Of course, it maybe BT that is supplied anyway?