billh

Not wishing to cast a damper on anything , please correct if any of the following statements are inaccurate: 1. You live on a boat and haven't done any locks so you are seeking advice. 2. You own/manage/ operate another boat which is a powered day hire boat. 3. You advise your hirers of (2) about safe navigation on the Peak Forest Canal before they take the boat out ( I know they aren't allowed to use locks) 4. You have been on an appropriate boat handling course with e.g. Top Lock Training , so that you can carry out (3) I feel a dichotomy coming on, better lie down Bill

I only asked about an 'owd gearbox , I'm not interested in where your venom & 'ate is directed, keep it in the VP please. Thank you to Tim and Tony (via George) for useful information.

Some advice please. The reduction box is supposed to have heavy gear oil in if I understand right? The gearbox proper uses engine oil circulated from the engine sump. Somehow the two sections are kept separate, I suppose some shaft seal. I found that the reduction box has engine oil in and no gear oil . I suspect it has run like this for a long time in previous ownership. Can I put off dismantling and fixing seals or is disaster imminent in the reduction box? As I say , there is a lot of engine oil in there, which isn't leaking out and everything works just fine. Thanks Bill

The air pollution is not particularly old boat engines, more likely old railway engines in the connected railway tunnels! The summer months have large steam locos through there with perhaps 13 coaches going uphill.Also, there are regularly 50+ year old class 20s and 37s which do not comply with modern emission requirements (grandfather rights). A boat engine, even a Bolinder , won't have those levels of pollution -15HP against 1500 or so.

Point of order: The HNCs western end is at Ashton Old Wharf , Whitelands Road just below lock 1W. The canal from there to Portland Basin, about half a mile, is the Ashton Main Line and was completed before the Huddersfield and the Peak Forest. Ashton Old Wharf had warehousing and a colliery tramway . Ashton New Wharf was at Portland Basin, the warehouse there, with its waterwheel powered hoists was completed in 1835

You're a boilerman, used to using fire irons??? Just a natural extension of that. No doubt you own some fire irons for use in the Epping. A Manchistoh expression, no cockney in my history.

As a crumb drawer, it's perfectly functional. As a knife(cutlery) drawer it's less than useful- you just get the table laid and realise you've forgotten the steak/fish knife or dessert spoons so you have to clear the table ,lift it and open the drawer. My heretical idea would be to have a cutlery drawer under the lower shelf in the table cupboard, so accessible with the table down. Also, with the " traditional "set-up, you have to clean the drawer out and its contents after each use , otherwise unhealthy growths can occur amongst the eating irons. Anyway,crumb drawer is the term used in these parts. Bill

Heater plugs in the inlet circuitry? I've done it with a blow lamp under the manifold, takes a while, one pair of cylinders at a time. Didn't the earlier models (pre E & F) have provision for fitting a starting "lamp" under the inlet? Objectively, the HR2 is a lot less messing about , but what a din compared to the F4's dulcet tones. The F4s ability to run for long periods on 2 cylinders at a little less than half power is useful on narrow shallow canals. Bill

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/east-manchester-fire-wall-foam-8988182 Bill

For a permanent installation you could use a Jabsco type 12v pump but you must fit a rotor suitable for handling diesel ( the rotor fitted as supplied is for water). I have used one of these as a transfer pump from main tank to header day tank for 25 years with total reliability. Self priming too.

Surely any call to a pest control company would be a "nuisance"? Also, that company should be well able to deal with it.

Here is a link to the RN , training to attack "lines of barges on tow": http://www.macearchive.org/Archive/Title/atv-today-17081972-new-royal-navy-publicity-campaign/MediaEntry/17866.html

I have fuses..... Slo-blo,quick blow, in-between blow, HRC, 11/4 inch, 5/8inch, 20mm. But what caused the fuse to fail, that needs addressing first? Could be just old age of the fuse. Is it related to the turntable motor(s) or something in the amp? If the latter, it could be something like leaky coupling caps on the output valves' control grids- that would cause them to conduct too much current, then HT line fuse blows.

Not information, but experience. The two boats I was with got stuck going downhill here between the lock walls just by the bottom gate recesses. The boats lodged at quite an angle with the counters about to go under. We struggled to drop the stiff paddles and raise the ground paddles. The whole reason for this near accident was that there was NO warning sign, there had been signs at all the other "narrow" locks so we were just not expecting it. I reported the incident to the then BW foreman who seemed moderately concerned, but he had not realised that this lock was narrow. I cannot say if a sign was ever posted there, it was more than 10 years ago now and not long after the canal was re-opened throughout.

I've just confirmed what I thought one of those was. Not enough headroom through the bridges round here for the verticals and no table for the tabletop (desktop!) models.

So, our music format has to be age -related to the boat? In that case I'm going to build a Victorian Music hall in the hold with an orchestra pit behind the towing mast. These new-fangled wax cylinder thingies are just too convenient.

The expensive paraffin sold especially for lamps is, as far as I know, the same as kerosene/burning oil/28sec oil but with a de-odourizer to stop it smelling of.... errrm, paraffin.Not sure about wick type lamps, but a properly cleaned and adjusted Tilley will not smell. But even if it did, I quite like that "eau de paraffine" scent,raw or burnt . Whatever,Kerosene is far safer than petrol , as it doesn't vapourize at room temperatures.

Tilley lamps give off a useful amount of heat as well as light and will warm a small boat cabin . Paraffin( kerosene or 28sec heating oil) is the preferred fuel. I don't think I would go anywhere near a petrol powered lamp. The Tilley mantles are vulnerable to damage from rough handling of the lamp, so always have a spare or two. The old brass lamps look really well when polished up.

Deleted for talking rubbish

Some years ago I had a Shurflo, failed with a screeching noise and a lot of heating. Turns out that one of the semi-circular permanent magnet field pieces had broken away from the case and stuck to the armature which was still trying to turn. Closer inspection revealed that the magnets were only glued(!) to the metal case , there were no fixing screws. I presume the glue had aged or something and the pump had thereby reached its use-by date.

I appreciate that closing the gates first is necessary if , as I think you are, singlehanding. If you have a crew, then closing paddles while the boat is entering or exiting the lock saves time, only a few seconds but at every lock that can be a considerable saving. Putting a restriction on as here, shows that CRT are not completely up to speed with how a lock could be worked more efficiently. A similar problem exists on some Marple locks where top gate paddles cannot be lowered while the gate is open, because the rodding fouls the stonework with that particular new arrangement. (It didn't used to!) A consequence of this( at Marple) is that the paddle can be left part open , because it "feels" as though it's fully down when it isn't and water is wasted. In both locations the simple cure is an angle grinder, applied with official approval, of course!

A passing boat mounted angle grinder will sort that.

The boat in the Bridgewater is ,I think, the George. That boat and Christine were supposed to go somewhere up the Nine to make restaurant boats . There were two others already in place at Princess St, later moved to Dale St. The two in question arrived at Castlefield only with the assistance of two diesel pumps on deck to keep them afloat . Within a short time both had sunk though it was possible to re-float Christine by emptying and re-filling the pound quickly though she sank again in a few hours. George was there for a few years,i don't know it's fate. Christine was finally destroyed when the canal was dredged in the 1990's, there are still some bits left in the bed of the canal. Is that enough chapter & verse?