davidg

That's typical of the British Waterways refooting work done to the big boats at Bulls Bridge in the 50s. It will be a rare big boat that doesn't have it, mine certainly does.

Reverse polarity can be dangerous. A friend who worked for H&S at Lucas told me the tale of an electrician working in one of their labs who went to work on the electrical system, turned off the (single pole) mcb and started touching cables. It didn't end well.

Someone had to do it.... Jump to 3 minutes orr thereabouts.

Oops, so it is. I have friends who live close to the incline on the Bowes Railway and I've walked down to it a few times. The photo reminded me of the view from the incline looking down into the Team valley.

Gort has a Gardner 2L2, believed to be the original engine. It gets very little maintenance and runs a treat. And if anyone buys it and tarts up the very old paintwork, oil & diesel stained, they deserve shooting, it looks lovely as it is. (edit) See Ray's photograph.

My evening is ruined... 101357E is Diggle station 101362&3 are the Danglebahn in Wuppertal 101416 is Old Trafford in the days when Northern or their predecessors could be bothered to lay on some trains. Used it several times in the 70s. 101504 is Chinley 101507, 8 & 10 are Tunnel End, Marsden with 101509 being the Diggle end of the tunnel. Obviously 101548, 9 & 50 are on the FR, the first two at Porthmadog and the last at Dduallt with 101556 at Tan y Bwlch Given that the ORR are getting very twitchy about working at height at the moment I wonder what they would make of the ladder in 101560. 101566 is one of the inclines on the Bowes Railway. Springwell? As is 101569. 101598 is a VOR train leaving Aberystwyth 102006 is Whitehaven Bransty. The others round there are up the Cumbrian coast 102067 onwards are the Oxford canal. Around Hillmorton, leaving Marston Doles, Little Bourton, Banbury, Claydon Middle. Is 102076 reversed? Napton? Suttons and Shipton Weir

Is that you on The Earl in 101544E? And crossing Church Street in Welshpool 101546E is in the yard at Llanfair. If only we had a coaling stage like that now, coaling up ZB2 presents an athletic challenge. And I wonder which wag put the express passenger headlamps on the Beyer. 101551E is crossing Brook Street in Welshpool 101552E is the Banwy Bridge after the Royal Engineers had rebuilt it following the collapse in 1964. I think the third coach is the one that we borrowed from Sittingbourne for the gala this year. 101553E looks like the narrows in Welshpool Obviously 101554E is Sylfaen. Looks like when there wasn't a run round loop so the Sylfaen shunt had to be performed using what looks like Chattenden to release the train engine. One of our current drivers tells stories of being left to do this as a thirteen year old - different times. And can I share these onto the WLLR members & supporters facebook page please.

Part of the problem is people aren't prepared to pay what is a reasonable cost to make them. I used to make them at WFBCo and I know how long it took me to make one, Simon at Brinklow Boat Services makes them occasionally and it takes him a similar time. Add on the cost of materials ( how much is stainless now? ) and I reckon paying a reasonable labour rate to a self-employed person who has overheads (rent, insurance, tools,.......) to meet you would be looking at north of £300 for a chimney, a bit less for an exhaust pipe. If you can find someone semi-retired making them in their garden shed for cash it will be less but I've got more interesting things to do with my spare time. Thinks: must chain my chimney to the roof.

20 years is nothing Dave. I still have my Pete Thompson chimney bought in 1982, one digit of the number stamped in the hook rivets has completely disappeared, the 4 is just hanging on. Like Dave Parrott's, a proper job.

If you think about the way the water moves around the thing which separates a conventional sidepond, as found on the Grand Junction/Atherstone etc. from what happens at Foxton/Watford/Bratch is that where there is a conventional sidepond the sidepond is filled from, and empties into the same lock, you only need 1 paddle to operate it. The sidepond can save up to half a lockfull of water. The limiting case of saving half a lockfull would require a sidepond with infinite surface area. Filling such a sidepond would present a challenge but once you've got past the initial fill then happy days😀 This isn't the way the the "side ponds" at Foxton etc. work. We could call them something different to avoid confusion, how about "pounds over at the side" until someone comes up with a snappier name. For a conventional staircase a matrix can be constructed representing water usage for the four possible states of operating sequence: boat up followed by boat down, boat up followed by boat up, boat down followed by boat up and boat down followed by boat down. Following boat: up down Previous boat: up 1/1 0/5 Where the numbers represent the number of lockfulls drawn off the top pound/number of lockfulls tipped into bottom pound by down 5/0 1/1 the following boat. Let's assume a five lock staircase. What the "pounds over at the side" allow you to do is to be borrow the water from the sideponds temporarily in the down folowed by up case because you don't have to fill the top four locks and then fill the top lock again from the top pound. This water can then be replenished in the up followed by down case by only tipping the bottom lock into the bottom pound, the rest can go into the "pounds over at the side" (someone please come up with that snappier name🙂), replenishing the water stored there. What you then end up with is: Following boat: up down Previous boat: up 1/1 0/1 down 1/0 1/1 Which is the way a conventional flight of five separate locks works. This requires the level intermdiate pounds to be allowed to fluctuate, if any of the water goes over the weirs then all bets are off. Too much spare time at the moment🙂 Feel free to correct my numbers if you think they are wrong.

Boing! As I said earlier, the "side ponds" at Watford & Foxton do not save water at all. You empty the complete contents of the upper lock into the "side pond" and completey fill the lower lock from the "side pond" in exactly the same way as you would if it were a normal pound between the locks. edit: I should qualify that by saying no water saving compared to having five separate locks

Welshpool & Llanfair is less than a mile from the canal in Welshpool and you can stop for a beer in The Old Bakehouse on the way. Only problem is getting the boat there.

And the overflows in the sideponds perform the same function as a normal lock bywash. I once strode up to the sidepond paddles on one lock somewhere up the fields after one of the kids on the camping boat asked me how they worked. I still have the chrome plated windlass I used with the cracked plating around the slight bend in the handle. No way was the paddle shifting. Too much effort to maintain them.

The sideponds at Watford & Foxton fulfil the role taken by the pounds which separate normal locks. They are not water saving sideponds at all. The difference is that you can't boat up and down them. Just think fill before empty as you would for a normal pound. Edit: Just to clear up any ambiguity in "fill before empty", I meant fill the lock which draws water from the pound before you empty the lock which puts water in the pound. Same as you would for a pound you can boat along so the emtying water doesn't pour over the bywash, or overflow in this case.

That's how to do it. The reactions of anyone hanging about in the pound below holding on to their boats with bits of string were....interesting😀