pete harrison

TYCHO now showing as 'sale agreed'

I really ought to stop getting involved in threads that I do not know enough about, and clearly this is another one of those. I am struggling enough with the stuff I am supposed to know about at present

You are quite right in that BANSTEAD is currently fitted with an air cooled Petter PJ3, so along with the water cooled version in TADWORTH makes a total of two in Grand Union motors - and I think there is one in a Grand Union butty but I can not remember which one. I am not sure what you mean when you write "I'd ideally like to fit a raw water cooled heat exchanger to cool the coolant". In my experience when using raw water for cooling there is no heat exchanger, just a mud box and a pump. I would be inclined to repair and improve the pipe running around the outside of the swim as in a closed cooling system anti-freeze can be added to reduce the danger of frost damage whilst reducing internal corrosion, and eliminates the need to drain the engine during cold spells. This is what I have on my boat as shown in this image, along with two pipes on the other side: My engine has a heat exchanger on the exhaust manifold (Bowman ?) but I do not fully understand the purpose of this, and also a heat exchanger to cool the gearbox oil which I do understand

I do not think any 'concrete evidence' will be found regarding the terms relating to these boats. I have always known the Yarwood built L.M.S.R. boats as 'Station Boats' regardless of whether they are open or those operated as family boats by either the L.M.S.R., 'British Waterways' or Willow Wren. I associate the term 'Railway Boat' with those operated by the G.W.R. and Thomas Bantock. I do not know where these terms have come from or whether they are correct, and I am sure others will have different interpretations or memories edit = I can't help thinking that the compartmenting of boats into classes or groups is more driven by enthusiasts than their operators during working times, although there are one or two exceptions. I have little doubt that a boatman would not care what sort of day boat he was responsible for, only where it was starting from and going to. edit = Tom Foxon makes frequent references to 'Station Boats' in his book Following The Trade, and these he describes as "Yarwood built" and "none of the station boats had cabins". Tom Foxon was a working boatman at the time (1956) and was assisting with the trade that involved these boats between the midlands and Worcester.

Having had a quick look through the Byelaws I have found the following: Vessels to have fenders ready for use 6. Every vessel navigated on any canal shall have ready for immediate use proper fenders of suitable material and in good condition and the master of such vessel shall use such fenders whenever there is a risk of the vessel striking against any other vessel or against any wall, lockgate, bridge or other thing. These Byelaws make for much more interesting reading than I was expecting, though I suspect they are rarely enforced

I have found the Byelaws online and will be interested to see what they say, when I have nothing better to do as it is a 33 page PDF document

Two people have told me that now. Oh dear I am wrong again, but as you say they are in the Bye-Laws so it makes little difference - but a stem fender is still dangerous in my opinion

Nope, I have never read the requirements of the Boat Safety Certificate. The last time I was present with an inspector was about 1981 (Multi-User Hire and Reward licence) and he checked the fenders. Perhaps as somebody else has said it is in the Bye-Laws, which I also have never read as I have more interesting things to do

Fenders are a requirement of the Boat Safety Certificate, but whether that makes them a legal requirement I do not know. What is clear from other threads on this Forum is that stem fenders get caught going uphill and downhill in locks and cause hang ups and sinkings, which suggests to me that they are dangerous. Due to the height of the fore end stem fenders on empty working boats (even some converted boats) are liable to get caught under balance beams and handrails when going uphill, which is why it is not uncommon to see these boats having a stem fender but laying on the fore deck - and yes I do know all about having a split link or string link to prevent these incidents, but I have lifted a lock gate off its pintall and it happens remarkably quickly and easily

Licence and mooring charges are fairly insignificant when compared to ongoing maintenance costs of these boats, especially as less sympathetic owners have a habit of not doing things properly which a later owner has the pleasure and cost of sorting out (this includes bodges carried out by the big carrying concerns when in trade)

I can not see why the ram on TYCHO would present any more of a problem in a lock than the fore end any other narrow boat, especially when compared to those that deploy the most dangerous of attachments - a stem fender. The best boats to encourage approaching boaters to concede to a bridge hole are empty Grand Unions, especially those of the larger variety - but there is not that much between large and small

It is a lot less impractical than a full length unconverted boat where the owner pays maximum licence and mooring fees but has very little accommodation. I can't really see what difference the ram makes regarding practicality

I have known TYCHO for about 50 years. and the reason it has always stuck in my mind is because of the ram - but I love it. As has been discussed in this thread before I was keen to buy TYCHO when it was for sale in mid 2016, but we were unable to agree on a value. If TYCHO did not have its ram it would not have interested me at all as there is a choice of cut down Grand Union motors to choose from, including three other middle Northwich motors. Obviously 'the eye of the beholder' is a varied thing, but I can understand that the industrial appearance of TYCHO will not appeal to everybody

TYCHO back on Apollo Duck - now @ £33000 https://narrowboats.apolloduck.co.uk/boat/yarwoods-45-tug/473783

Although not clearly visible, and only there for about 1 frame is part of the number that is before the 8. In my opinion this is neither a 1 (518 for SOUTHERN CROSS) or a 0 (508 for PHOBOS). This only leaves 488 for CEPHEUS and 558 for ARCAS. Looking at other information regarding these Small Woolwich motors with the last number of their health registration being 8 then SOUTHERN CROSS started operating as a passenger trip boat in 1958, so would have been under conversion or already in service when this film was dated. PHOBOS was an active carrying boat during the three fleet lists I quoted earlier in this thread so it is highly unlikely to have been temporarily withdrawn and subjected to abuse, CEPHEUS was a maintenance boat in 1958, and had been since its sale to the Grand Union Canal Company in November 1945, so is extremely unlikely to have retained running gear and cloths with a decent cratch. So this leaves ARCAS, and as stated earlier I am 99% certain that this is the boat in the film, especially as it was out of service as a 'spare boat' - but doing things by elimination is not best practice and is my least preferred way of identifying boats

Sorry if I did not make myself clear in the post above. ARCAS was still in the 'British Waterways' south eastern carrying fleet in 1958, but period documentation for 1958 suggests it was not in use and listed as a spare boat. This would make it an ideal candidate for filming and 'slap' painting. It would appear that ARCAS remained out of use until it was docked in 1960, following which it was recorded passing through Braunston on 19 October 1960 with Grantham (Bob Grantham ?) as steerer and he had it for the remainder of 1960

I hope you have more success with these liners than you did with the reproduction gas mask links / chimney chains you were having manufactured a while ago

I have three 'British Waterways' fleet lists for this period, 10 January 1958 - 20 May 1958 - 26 January 1959 all showing COROLLA running as a single motor, initially with R. Hambridge as steerer and then J. Allcott. Many of the captions to images published on the CRT Archive website (link shown above) are appalling, and I would not trust any of the dates unless they are substantiated in some way A number 8 is visible at 4:09, and with other records helps to identify this boat as most likely ARCAS

COROLLA was still in carrying service in 1958 (coming out of service in early 1959), its conversion to a passenger trip boat not being completed until 1960 when as you say it became WATER WAGTAIL

I am 99% certain that the small Woolwich motor in this film is ARCAS, which period fleet lists show to be out of service in 1958 and other documents show it to be a 'spare boat' (not a 'change boat') from April 1958

When you talk of paint shades are you thinking of those used by the L.M.S.R. ? If you are you might not like the following. DELHI was built as a cabinless open day boat so had no colours, apart from a black hull with the top bends in white / lettered in black. As mentioned previously (in other threads) six of these boats were fitted with cabins and were health registered at Wolverhampton as family boats, operating on the Staffs and Worcs Canal. Over the past thirty years or so it has become popular to paint the surviving Yarwood built L.M.S.R. 'Station Boats' in the colours of this company's railway rolling stock, but I have seen no evidence that their boats ever carried these colours. In fact to the contrary there is evidence that the older wooden cabin boats operated by the L.M.S.R. carried a livery heavily influenced by that of the boats former owner, predominantly black and white of the S.U.R.C.Co. - and it is my opinion that the six Yarwood 'Station Boats' with cabins would have been painted in a similar fashion. Of course it is impossible to be certain until a good colour photograph turns up, and of course it is your boat so you should paint it however you like. I appreciate my credibility is at an all time low at present so feel free to ignore my thoughts ☹️

All the junk certainly came with my boat, even though the seller had 7 months from agreeing the sale to clear it out

That is where it was when I viewed / bought it, and the removal of the 'slightly irritating conversion cabin' was one of the first jobs done under my ownership. I am very happy with this boat and it has not produced too many nasty surprises

This thread suggests that DELHI can be spelt as DEHLI, historically anyway, but as far as the boat in question is concerned it can only be DELHI

I have enjoyed following this thread and I do not think it is anywhere near running out of steam. I do have a note in my records (from Mary Matts ?) that the Perkins in BALDOCK was derived from an F3 tractor engine. I owned the large Woolwich BADSEY in the late 1980's and at that time it was powered by a Perkins P3.144. I found it a poor performer but did not have the boat long enough to work out why. Whether it was due to miss-matching of the gearbox / propeller or whether it was just completely knackered I am not sure, but I suspect the latter as it consumed a considerable amount of oil split fairly equally between between leaks and what was burnt in the exhaust. Having said that BADSEY was O.K. as a single motor, but it was not so good towing BARNES against any sort of current. Seven years after I sold BADSEY the P3.144 was replaced with a P3.152, then in 2006 BADSEY was re-united with its original National 2DM. I now have a large Northwich motor with a 1995 Perkins 3HD46 Mk2 with a PRM160 and 22'' x 22'' propeller. I have only done 4 days boating since buying this boat last year but I was very impressed, especially on the Thames running upstream from Reading to Oxford. As this engine produced no smoke when almost flat out on the Thames we have upgraded the propeller in both diameter and pitch, but apart from a static run a couple of weeks ago it remains untested. This Perkins set up as mentioned above propelled the boat during its time in the retail coal business between 2001 and 2008, which included towing a butty and working on the River Severn. As you say the Perkins does look a little lost in a traditional engine 'ole but I quite like that as there is plenty of room in there for other things. What happened to the iron B.C.N. day boat featured in the photographs above with BALDOCK