David Mack

Is this for a farm track or a public road? If there is an existing uninterrupted road at present I would have thought the highway authority would want to see a properly engineered automatically operated bridge, whether lifting or swing, rather than a manually operated bridge which could be left in the open (or partly open) position. I agree that a swing bridge without jacks will leave weight on the main swivel bearing, which will get damaged under road traffic loading, and the bridge deck will 'bounce'. But then a lift bridge lightly enough balanced to be operated manually will also tend to bounce under heavy vehicles.

I seem to recall that a number of portable lifting gantries were amongst the equipment BW/CRT auctioned off a few years back when they moved from largely in-house staff to using contractors.

There is one across the entrance to the canal arm at the Black Country Living Museum, formerly at Lloyds Proving House, Netherton. https://www.geograph.org.uk/stuff/list.php?title=Lifting+Bridge+&gridref=SO9491 The three British examples quoted so far are all functionally different. Locomotive Bridge in Huddersfield is lifted by central chains, the BCLM example by chains at each corner, and the Rochdale example has hydraulic cylinders below the deck at each corner. Two of the three examples have a bulky overhead structure. Fine for a historic artefact, but would you want to build a new one? The underlifted Grimshaw Lane version looks neater (when down) but hasn't proved particularly reliable. I imagine any loss of synchronisation of the lifting cylinders could cause the whole thing to jam. Why a lifting bridge anyway? Surely a swing bridge is less intrusive, more reliable, well established technology and probably no more expensive.

And how many boats haven't made it to the Foxton rally as a result?

Back in the day some local authorities were much more sympathetic to canal restoration than others. This occasionally brought forth bonuses. Under the 1974 local government reorganisation, the Borough of Warley (very interested in its canals) was due to be merged with the Borough of West Bromwich (less so) to form the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell. Under the merger most of the new chief officer posts went to West Bromwich folk, and there was a fear the canals might lose out. But somehow, late in the day, the Warley Chief Engineer (who was due to retire anyway) found a stash of money and committed the Borough to spending it on dredging the hen very silted Dudley No. 2 from Windmill End to Gosty Hill Tunnel (the remainder to Coombswood being outside the borough), and also to supporting the BCNS-led improvement of Oldbury Locks on the Titford Canal. Similarly, in 1986, when the Greater Manchester Council was being wound up, they committed £6million (iirc) to the restoration of the western half of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, to be administered by Tameside.

Had to do this on Fulbourne. The top of the flue was very rusty just below the chimney collar, and on cleaning it up to repaint we found the flue pipe had rusted through. And in removing the flue pipe the smoke box came away from the top of the stove - the upstanding lip which @Tonkamentions had largely corroded away and there wasn't enough to bolt the smoke box back to. Dave Ross at Brinklow made up a replacement flue pipe together with a new adaptor plate for the smoke box - basically a flat plate with an oval hole in the middle and a suitable shaped oval upstand around it. The remains of the original lip were ground off, the adapter plate bolted down to the stove top and then the smoke box screwed to the new upstand. Then the flue could be fitted.

I shared a few locks last week with a couple who do pretty much that. The husband was British, wife Australian, and they spend April- September continuously cruising on their boat over here, then spend the winter months back home in Sydney. The boat was about 55 ft and each winter they leave it at a different marina. He did admit their most recent marina had not been the best experience (although there were no major disasters), but in previous winters they felt the boat had been taken good care of in their absence. I think Aquavista offer reciprocal moorings at other marinas if you have a full time mooring with them, but I don't know if that would be the case for 3 months on 3 months off. In any event it shouldn't be too difficult to find 3 month moorings at many marinas around the system, although the weekly/monthly rate may be higher than for 12 month mooring agreements. Boat length won't make much difference to mooring availability.

It operated until 21 July 1961 according to Wikipedia.

Not sure why they would need to be bigger. Surely their purpose was to deflect the boat so that it passed under the bridge, scraping the underside rather than colliding head on. A similar size bar to those used in the past should achieve that.

I think they were originally fitted to protect the boats, not the bridges. But I agree that cabin-corner damage to brick arched bridges is a bit of a problem in many places these days.

I agree it looks inelegant. But this boat has thicker framing than a conventional steel cabin, and hence with more tumblehome the internal space at head height would be even more restricted. Perhaps this boat needs curved tubular protection bars running down from the cabin top corners to the foredeck, as used to be fitted to timber and grp cabinned hire boats, especially on the Llangollen Canal where contact with the lift bridge decks was a significant risk.

Or mobile phones, since you probably already have them.

When I first came across Pensax in about 1980 it was a characterful 45ish footer with a wooden cabin and a Bolinder. It later got stretched, a new cabin and the 3LW, and in the process lost much of its appeal.

Funny how opinions vary. My take is that it has been recently refitted and repainted inside (London white) and out, but is just another bland clone craft with no particular appeal. Maybe absolutely fine. Or may be lipstick on a pig.

I'm curious how you are going to install the new cables and make sure they are routed properly if there is insufficient access to measure the existing cables.

Thermostatic mixing valve. Looks similar to this one https://www.hughes-safety.com/gb/thermostatic-mixing-valve

One of the boat's heading to Foxton has done a naughty thing: "Lock 5 of the Watford flight has been hit by a boat ascending on its way to Foxton for the IWA festival this weekend. The force of the impact has dislodged one of the lock gates out of its pot. Colleagues have been on site since the incident, attempting to reposition it and reopen the flight but attempts so far have been unsuccessful. Conscious that a number of boaters will be heading towards Foxton for the festival over the weekend, we will be back on site first thing tomorrow to drain the lock, allowing us to put the gate back in position and re-open the flight. We will update this notice as soon as we have confirmation that Lock 5 is operational again." https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/notices/019740ed-abe3-77fd-b651-ada8449fda18

Which ignores the fact that in recent years older boats have held their value (after the initial depreciation from new), and during/post covid there were significant increases in boat prices.

On some boats that will result in the end of the tiller catching the wall in narrow locks.

At one time I would have said the Black Horse at Greenford was a safe spot. But as the pub is now a burnt out shell, it has lost its appeal. Yes there are other places between Southall and Kensall Green where you can moor and you would probably be fine. But many of the boats that are there are scruffy, and don't inspire the sort of confidence that I think a first timer boater in London (which I assume the OP is) would be looking for.

Anywhere north of Cowley Lock is fine to moor and leave the boat for a few days. I wouldn't recommend Southall, although you do see some boats there. Next safe stop is probably Little Venice or Paddington Basin where you take your chance on a visitor mooring, or use the bookable moorings. If you've come all the way from Braunston then a few extra locks to get to the Lee via either the Hertford Union Canal or Limehouse Basin shouldn't be a problem. If you have time it's worth doing the Bow Back Rivers and cruising up the Lee to Hertford and Stort to Bishops Stortford.

Interesting that the motor counter has the upper band blue and the lower band white. In every other working boat livery I can recall, it is the upper band which is white, cream or yellow, and the lower band, which is much more likely to get dirty, which is painted a darker colour.

Or perhaps the waterway is no longer suitable for towing pairs, despite what the Act says about maintaining them in the condition they were before the Act was passed ...