billh

Asda's at Portland Basin B & Q at M60 bridge 23A, includes big builders materials trolleys Tesco at Fairfield Top Assorted one's down to lock 16 Asda's again between lock 7 and 8 Note that none of the one's you will find are £1 in slot type like at Lidl ,Aldi or Morrison's- that tells you something.

The MSC isn't competing. The ship in the video is the "Coastal Deniz" and is used to move containers between Seaforth and Irlam. Peel Ports own everything used by the service, except , I think, the ship is chartered to them. I expect some kind of grant is available to "remove 1000's of lorries from the road" . By keeping it in-house, all the running costs are kept to a minimum. The ship makes a return journey every 24hours, timing is tide dependant at Eastham. Good to see proper vessels regularly using the canal. Another traffic at the moment appears to be stone or slate waste from North Wales (Llandulas?) to Cargill's, Manchester, this is shipped by one of the "Arklow" fleet. Does anyone know more about this? Bill

looks like Middlewich Branch to me , before extensive bank piling

A local boat charity started something along these lines with one of the big supermarkets. They were paid £x per trolley recovered from the canal. For a while, they did very well financially until the supermarket management decided there couldn't possibly be that many of their trolleys getting in the canal and terminated the arrangement with vague accusations about how the trolleys were going missing in the first place . Their theories were unfounded. Since then, the number of trolleys in the cut has increased- the owners still refuse to have coin slots on them.

Anyone who knows me would describe me as amiable, so , yes. I was sort of getting at modern devices like VHF radio and its relevance to old boats and even older navigations.

The last time we were down that way, the Lockies at Cromwell didn't receive our CQD from the spark transmitter in the Marconi Room. We were saved by the fag packet charts quickly dispensed from the lock control room, thank you.

Doesn't that cause misunderstanding of sound signals as to your intended course? Moving to Port/ Starboard/Out of control etc? Probably the latter as the helmsman concentrates on button pressing instead of steering. A simpler way of warning is to shout "horn" seconds before pressing the button, time for anyone who needs to know to cover their ears, though I suppose even that could be misunderstood

At least 50PSI, preferably 100, an air receiver from a lorry, 1/4 inch solenoid valves, nylon and/or copper tubing. The tyre inflator type mini compressor would be worn out after a couple of fills of the receiver. Our compressor is a very old single cylinder unit belt driven by an equally ancient Lucas wheelchair motor, it's worked for nigh on twenty years without problem. A proper pressure switch and safety valve should be fitted. We get about 10 short blasts from one compressor cycle, 100psi drops to 75 when the motor comes in, with one horn. Unfortunately, we do have 2 horns but they are the same pitch so not much point in running the pair. They are from class76 "Woodhead" electrics scrapped in the 1970's. Bill

All these chargers , inverters etc have big capacitors on the 12v side, the spark is a momentary heavy current as these charge up. I suspect that the polarity issue is a bit of a red herring, what may be happening is the capacitors are still at least partially charged from when they were last connected , hence a smaller spark . I see no danger from this except possible hydrogen explosion from gassing battery nearby ( see other threads on this!) Bill

I think it was Adamant's owner I spoke to , years ago. The boiler was an ex BR diesel loco train heating boiler, he said the boiler used 8 gallons an hour of red diesel in normal operation, that's pretty expensive boating these days, if the efficiencies of the engine etc on this boat are similar. I did look into building a steam NB at one time , having had some experience of stationary steam plant powered by scrap wood rather than expensive diesel but it would have required extensive de-forestation of the Cheshire Ring. There was a propane gas fuelled steam boat for hire(!) some years ago, is that still about? Bill

There is a Honda EX350 2 stroke generator which is incredibly quiet, doesn't smoke , is lightweight and economical. The output is 300 or 150 watt switchable( the engine runs at a lower speed for 150watt). If you are offered one of these , grab it . They fetch a good price second hand, you won't be disappointed if you only need the low power output. Bill

That looks like a useful little tug someone's chucked in. The Nine was completely dredged about 15 years ago , excavators and tracked dumpers working in the bed of the canal. All the rubbish you see now has been dumped since then. As I said before, this stuff isn't much of a problem here as the canal is normally very deep. The same does not apply on the Ashton Canal where sometimes the water depth assumes a negative value.

Almost the same fit out as the boat I have here! Warble boats, about 1984? Very expensive at the time but with a few technical niggles with regard to wiring & gas installations, since sorted out. You are welcome to come & look at this one,situated 5mile east of Manchester and I can provide a few pointers. Very "80's" but well done. Where the washer is on Trumpeter, on this one it's a bidet!( can be used for washing I suppose......) Bill

So it was you, I did wonder. I was one of the volunteers there, though not involved with the painting. The worksite for the day was chosen by the CRT organiser, we are merely worker ants told to do whatever CRT think we might be capable of. The work we did yesterday was pretty ineffective- the painting didn't really need doing, the grappling junk out of an 8ft deep canal unnecessary. There are far more pressing needs on the Ashton Canal and the Rochdale above Dale St. Here lies the problem: It appears to me that the volunteer organiser(s) in CRT and the local CRT management are not in accord when it comes to using volunteer labour- the management ( I stress at local level) present every obstacle they can to dissuade any volunteer effort . We have had every excuse under the sun as why they can't provide a skip or a workboat or a truck for the day to remove rubbish cleared from the canal. Requests to drain pounds on lock flights so we can easily clear known bad spots ( eg some bridgeholes) have so far resulted in precisely nothing, even during the winter quiet season. CRT need to sort out their internal politics first and then listen to what volunteers are telling them- some with far more experience of canals than they will ever have. Sorry if it sounds like a rant Bill

"Kinelle" A grp boat belonging to a very feisty lady who had camped out at Greenham Common airbase for many a month- this was a long time ago when people ( in particular ladies) did not generally know or use such expressions.

You learn something every day! If this picture is of a Ruston product then the VRO/VRH engines are not the equivalent of JP3. There are many similarities though: dimensionally pretty much the same, position of transverse injection pump at opposite end to flywheel , position of holding down bolts. So this begs the question- did Lister copy the Ruston VRO to produce the JP or vice versa? Also why did Ruston need to produce another model so similar in terms of power output to the VRO? Was it to fulfil an order for the military for standard design searchlight/emergency generators?

Crane needs variable speed- high for rapid hoisting and travelling, low speed and something in between for accurate placing of the load. I think the 2 VSO was standard in the Jones KL44 mobile crane. Our Ruston Bucyrus 10RB crane has variable speed 3VRH 35HP 1000RPM , Ruston's equivalent to Lister JP3 and is very similar in appearance. Not sure about the "H", but sounds about right. Bill

I seem to remember that "R"(4th character) refers to engines made for rollers, so that ties in with the cricket pitch connection. Can't remember why a roller requires a specific mark of engine though

2VSO, the clue is on the crankcase cast in number! used in cranes, Ruston locos, compressors, roadrollers,generators etc. 16HP at 1000 rpm, I think. The 2VSH is uprated to 1500 rpm and a few more HP. Nice engines but probably smoky as they never seem to warm up properly, lovely sound with a big exhaust pipe and bombproof. Parts a bit rare now but probably won't need any. The injectors are Ruston's own , not CAV or Bryce . Bill

We had a mild steel toilet tank on the trip boat for about twenty years. It finally rusted through on the top and was condemned. The rusting was from the *outside* and caused by being permanently wet under some "lino" in the toilet compartment. I hasten to add that the wet was a result of a leaking roof and regular cleaning of the toilet area. Inspection of the removed tank showed very little wasting of the metal that contained the effluent. I suspect that the loo blue or whatever we used actually preserved the steel in some way Bill.

For pictures of Maria under Restoration, Replication, Rebuilding,Reincarnation,in 1977, whatever you want to call it: http://www.flickr.com/photos/39245032@N08/8353362289/in/photostream/ Nearby " Watson Class " photostream pics show some old boats in use a few months ago, doing what they were built for. If anyone is interested in how & what we did on Maria then and what we've done recently, ask me, I wuz there. bill

The bye wash levels are set about the same height as the top of the top gates. I understand that it's a water conservation measure. The lock gets filled first with any surplus coming down the canal and so the lock is ready for any downward boats. Not so great if you're coming up the flight though. Better if the water can be "used" before it's lost forever to the Bridgewater. Problems of water control have become worse in recent years because the size of paddles ( particularly in tail gates) has been reduced either for ( perceived) safety or cost reasons. This means everything takes longer. The bottom lock "Dukes 92" has miniscule paddles in the head gates with recently fitted baffles further reducing flow rate , it can take 20mins to fill the lock , unless water is coming over the gates. I've been using the "nine" for over 35years now, it doesn't get any easier, just different problems over the years make it hard work. Oh,and the gate opening winches are rubbish. Bill

For the non-locals on this forum this last picture shows Dove moored against Benson's mill, across the junction in the background is the location of Martin's original photo posted at the top of this thread. About 14 years separates the two pics. The mill has been demolished and replaced with "Apartments"

Replace those capacitors, about £6 each. I don't think ours has them in there,otherwise the control box is pretty much the same. I'll have a look this week-end.Also, as someone noted earlier, the voltage regulation on these is very poor, really only suitable for power tools and filament lamps. I don't think I would use it for anything with fancy electronics. Bill