davidg

According to the date on this photo it was taken on July 10th 2001. The young chap sat on the slide is taller than me nowadays.

Just the steelwork. Add to that fitting out and painting the cabin, an engine plus installation, shutts & running gear and all the rest of the titivation.

Well I’ve just had a word with my sparky chum down the other end of the yard (Dave Ross) and the thirty second, ball park figure is £60,000 for a boat like Arundel, no rivets, false or otherwise.

Stockton Dry Dock Company at WFBCo

I have no reason to doubt the veracity of the report of bicycle thrown against the cabin side, cabin shaft grabbed and used to smash the portholes, reported to the police and the police not interested. What led up to the incident would only be baseless speculation on my part.

Sadly Arthur I have to agree with you though I hope I fall into the (not always) category. Frequently people will offer to let me through locks in front of them on the grounds that I must be “working”. I will usually point out that I’m just out for a jolly the same as they are; just occasionally, out of either devilment or sensing an opportunity to get ahead of someone working really slowly I’ll take up the offer without further comment. I would certainly never claim any sort of priority over anyone else.

Yes, Aston lock below Stone. Was the dancing monkey ever identified?

I’m reporting this third hand so this is only part of the story… A group of five(?) old working boats were making their way back from the Etruria festival when one of the steerers who was towards the back of the group was accosted by a very angry man on a bicycle ranting about people on old boats. The steerer is 72 years old and not the most mobile person. The angry man then proceeded to throw his bicycle at the cabin side scratching the paintwork, then pick up the cabin shaft and smash engine room and cabin portholes. Steerer was left shocked and shaking. Reported to the police who weren’t interested. Has anyone else had similar experiences in the area which might help indentify the culprit? As said, third hand report so I don’t know what may have provoked this. The boat in question was towards the back of the group so may not have been involved in any initial provocation, merely tarred by association. Whatever happened, this is out of order.

Not quite canalside but it does have a rather magnificent view of the canal: 4 bedroom detached house for sale in Mill Road, Napton, Southam, Warwickshire, CV47 (rightmove.co.uk)

That's the gearwheel. It is removeable but leaves a nasty spiky bit sticking out instead😁

The end looks like bottom of the Factory to me. Also think I can see some OHLE (railway overhead electrification knitting) in the background of one location which also wouldn't be Yorkshire in the 70s which suggests the caption might be wrong.

During my area training I went to the main exchange in Bradford. The standby generators there were big units, 6+ cylinders (didn't pay much attention to these), which started on compressed air. If they failed to start there was a donkey engine to recharge the air in the receiver which was a Lister JP2, that did attract my interest as I wondered how many more of these well maintained, low hours engines there were dotted around the phone network.

Getting strong clues from the buildings visible in this one😁

The tool in use is a brake stick, a specialised tool for use as a lever to apply brakes. A shunter's pole is a longer round pole with a pig's tail hook on the end for lifting three link couplings over coupling hooks and deftly twisting the pole to disengage the pig's tail.

or even kJ/kg☺️