davidg

If you do go and take a look at it try walking down the gunwhale from one end of the cabin to the other;. Then try doing it quickly.

So is there any truth in the story I was told that the steel used in the conversion came from the back door of the press shop at Longbridge? The last remnants I took off suggested this was a possibility.

GWR coaching stock was painted crimson lake for a period early in the 20th century. The preserved Great Western railmotor is painted in it.

Also keeping the air miles low tonight, featuring Napton Post Office

I'm sitting eating my breakfast in Napton and am about to drive north to work (Brinklow); there are no roads closed which prevent this, nor have there been due to HS2. There is one major road closure at the moment, the A425 the other side of Southam heading west to Leamington, which HS2 have just announced they wish to extend from 9 months to 20 months (and the original plan was to provide a temporary diversion so no closure would have taken place) which is a PITA if you are heading in that direction. Rumours of the north being cut off from Napton are greatly exaggerated.?

The green and yellow boat is the other half of Vela. I have done some work on this half for the current owners while it was at WFBCo. The boat is now on the Rochdale Canal (or possibly the Calder & Hebble - not sure of the exact location of the owners' house in relation to the junction twixt the two).

This one? There are quite a few similar photos from the Somerset levels.

Not quite Ray, we would never have built something so.........err, distinctive. The boat first appeared tied up on the offside near Nelson Lane bridge in Warwick. It was subsequently moved to WFBCo and the bulbous bits added to create more internal space so the owner could live on it.

My money would be on someone who can't spell immersion (heater)

Spoilsport ?

Cripes, I've been selling mine to people too cheaply. One box turned up on ebay several years ago, when I won the auction the seller said they had four boxes, would I like the lot. It has turned out to be a very long term investment, not sure if I'm ahead yet.? They are very sweet little switches; unlike the secondhand ones which turn up regularly the sprung contacts haven't got lazy so they have a very satisfying positve action.

Of course you could use switches which swing both ways like these. I might know someone who has a stock of brand new (in about 1950) old stock?

There's a rather fine pub in Huddersfield called The Slubbers Arms. Gets a bit crowded before and after Town games.

Lifted from the CRT archive, I was actually looking for a different photo but came across this one. Looking at it again the headlamp on the motor boat to the left of the Edgware is also offset, and dropped. To address the original question: I picked up a good condition headlamp on ebay a couple of weeks ago for £20 to replace the one which has self destructed after 37 years on the boat. I took it off to repaint it for possibly the first time to discover the difficulty of getting paint to stick to the holes which should be metal.

Obviously nobody in the Grand Union Canal Company told their counterparts in the Grand Union Canal Carrying Company that. Note also the offset headlamp on the Edgware which I don't think anyone has had the cojones to replicate yet, probably because it looks so odd.