davidg

Way too small.I think (without looking it up, haven't time) it is one of the SWB88 family.

I had "bothered to read the previous posts" and know you were referring to Tucana. I was merely citing Greenock and Barnet as examples of two vastly different jobs done on the same type of boat and pointing out the costs of these are not the same.

"where on earth do you spend another £49K?" It is interesting when people quote figures for the costs of restoring a boat to working trim to consider what sort of job is being done: one could have, for example, a big Woolwich motor with a new rivetted engine room, wooden back cabin, wooden deck & cants, wooden gunwhales round the back cabin & engine room (Greenock is the example I have in mind) or you could take a big Woolwich & put a new steel cabin & engine room on with little refererence the how the boat looked through its carrying life, take Barnet as an example. Both are valid things to do, but the amount of time involved in one is very different to the time (and therefore cost) of the other. Take making a new mast: do you have the old ironwork? Is it useable as it stands with a quick wirebrush & a coat of paint? How long does it take to make the ironwork for a new topmast, do you for instance have a supply of luby pins lying about? What sort of timber is being used? You are painting everything inside and out aren't you? If you have to make the ironwork it it will be a much more expensive job and to say it should cost £x to make is pretty meaningless without considering what sort of job is being done. "Base purchase price was £1.00 off British Waterways plus five years prior lease at £5 per year." This raises another interesting question as to what weight should CART ( &BW before them) attach to securing best value when disposing of assets. These boats were public assets and when chuggers are roaming the towpath asking for donations should CART be giving them away.There is clearly a market for them among the historic boat community and as Groucho Marx said "they ain't making any more".

Brinklow Boat Services have a secondhand TP alternator for sale, taken off a boat which was burnt out when virtually new. The control box was fried in the fire (it was inside the cabin) but the alternator was untouched as it was in the engine compartment. Should add the fire had nothing to do with the TP, it was caused by drying timber next to the solid fuel fire. PM me if interested.

Around about 1h30min breasted up with a heavy arsed Josher (Gambia, or possibly not) and twelve motivated kids, only using one engine. A well known boat builder will tell of bringing Plover & France down in 1h 15min, but that was using both engines so JP5 power as opposed to JP2 power. Happy days.

"Nelson's water tower is along the hedge line by the buildings mid picture LHS. The little picture symbol is where the tower still exists" The water tower is at 52deg 16'42" N 1deg 21' 20" W, clearly visible on Google earth as the circular structure in the wood to the right of the right hand end of the water filled Long Pit. The railway bridge is at 52deg 16' 50" N 1 deg 21' 13" W and the arm runs to opposite the hedgeline on the towpath side of the canal. I've spent many a happy hour exploring the remains of Nelson's works and pits, if you know where to look the remains of the locomotive shed for the Pecketts can still be found. There were still a number of of turnouts from the narrow gauge railway system in the pits, and one outside the loco shed. Unfortunately a lot of the site was fenced off by Rugby Cement(who bought the works from Nelsons and closed it down shortly afterwards) a number of years ago so access is no longer possible. There was another narrow gauge railway from Griffin's Lime & Cement works (the chimmney on the off side by the third lock down Stockton) which ran under the A426, one end of the bridge is still visible as is the cutting the railway ran in - not to be confused with the much larger LNWR cutting. Griffin's was used as a railhead for Napton brickworks, the bricks being taken round by boat and transhipped at Stockton. There were also extensive railway systems associated with Kaye's cement works, at the top of the arm at WFBCo. and Greaves, Bull & Lakin who had the works at what is now Dowdeswells, by the bottom lock at Stockton. Most of Greaves, Bull & Lakin's pits were landfilled and have now disappeared, though one remains and Kayes is still actively quarried, the clay now being taken to Rugby by lorry.

"There's a strong possibility that Rose are in a bit of profit ''at the moment''" Having seen the damage to one of the boats involved today I seriously doubt it.

"The only other existing pairing of unconverted Big Woolwiches I can think of is the one I mentioned, namely Greenlaw & Bordesley" Close, but I think you mean Greenock Alan.

Do you have a battery charger and was it on at the time?

"But, going a bit off topic, there was a German guy called Pete who lived at Lapworth and worked for the Trust that ran the South Stratford (before BW took it over) and he was always known as The German." Hi there Andy, I always knew him as German Pete, to distinguish him from Pete Bletchley who lived in the cottage by the (new) junction at Lapworth. Pete Paschke lived in the cottage two down from where the motorway bridge now is when I was boating. Going back to 4x4 towpath access: in NT days German Pete chainsawed the ends off the balance beams at Wilmcote so he could drive his Landrover up the flight (allegedly); this proved handy when boats were stuck in 47 at Wilmcote as the Landrover was attached to help get boats out of the lock. Pete always told me he could get me down to Stratford but couldn't guarantee to get me back up again so it was always down the river to get back. Happy days, David

Yes, even their modern lorries are pretty smartly turned out too.

I'll ask Andrew when I see him at the BBS bash at the Folly next Saturday. David

Having seen Andrew today at Napton he emailed me a photo and the loading tickets: You will notice the total of the two lorry loads is 27tons so if the weighbridge was accurate that's pretty much what was on the boat. The photograph at Hillmorton was taken before the rain, which happened after arrival at Stockton. Andrew tells me the gunwhales did leak in places and some rapid retrimming had to be done to stop the leaks. David Cracked it! (I hope)

I'm not sure if there were 27 tons on Cassiopeia when Andrew loaded but there were well over 20, and then it rained... Cassiopeia was tied outside Barrow up Kayes Arm when he arrived at Stockton and I remember waking up one morning, looking at Cassiopeia, thinking: "that looks deep in the water wonder if it is on the bottom". When I stepped on the beams at the back end I was pleased that a) I don't eat many pies and b)the joint between the gunwhale angle and wooden gunwhale was watertight. As you say, far less freeboard than I've ever seen on a boat. David

Or fit the flat bar with one of these http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/linear-plain-bearings/6671487/. Ondrives are a better source as they have ones with a thicker wall; the catalogue downloads as a pdf and is huge so I haven't linked it here, only look if you really want to. David

It's a 90deg lug union like one of these babies http://www.aquafax.co.uk/html/product_details.asp?ID=13966 - unfortunately they only go up to 3/4" -3/4"bsp in elbows and yours is 1" - 1"bsp. They do up to 3" in straight and a rather nice one with a hex nut in bronze....how much????!!!!! David

No. Not unless someone nicked it and brought it back between Friday & Tuessday.

You might...or you might not. Depends on how many beers you want to buy me really. (Incidentally, are all the seats at Old Trafford as short of legroom as the East Stand? No wonder they can pack so many in.)

Somewhere towards the beginning of this thread you say you have a Multi control box - I take it this is the Victron Multi remote control - with no lights showing. Are the rocker switches on the Multis themselves in the off position? If I remember correctly - don't have one to hand to play with or a manual at the moment - they have to be in either "on" or "charger only" for the remote to control anything. The lack of 240V could be simple operator error.

Coming back to this thread and seeing what is being done to the internals, it occurs to me I have some bits for a Parsons D-type which I had completely forgotten. It has been a while since I looked at them but I think there are clutch plates, bevel gear cage plus the gears plus some other bits. I would part with them for a consideration if you were interested. If you are Braunston over the weekend look me out, or send me a message but don't expect a quick reply as I will be somewhere between the boat and the beer tent. David

Errr...no. It ran from a junction just north of Weedon Station, originally to Daventry, opened in 1888. The extension to Marton Junction on the line Rugby-Leamington line was opened a little later in 1895. The line east of Southam closed in 1963 and traffic between Southam cement works and Rugby via Marton effectively ended with the miners strike in 1984. Some of the coal left in the bottom of 16t minerals in the sidings at Southam found its way into the ranges of boats tied up in Kayes Arm

Should imagine the odds are pretty short on Corona being there?

Admiral Chertsey - are you taking Bakewell too? Hampton Linnet Ling Owl Sickle Stanton Victoria Cyprus Already there: Dover Vulcan From the Brinklow Boat Services collective: Barrow Aquila Baltic Lamprey Star Sextans plus the faux historique Oberon on its first outing. David

[ Are you sure the rubbing wasn't a result of the thrower starting to break loose, and developing a wobble? If the whole cluster had moved forward, it can only really be a result of the reduction pinion working loose or the back bearing in the reverse box being knackered. Tim Given the amount of bad language/heat/home made pullers involved in getting the reduction pinion off I would say it was still pretty tightly clamped against the back bearing. The back bearing (given it had suffered during the heat treatment) didn't seem overly knackered either, I was replacing it anyway. This was what puzzled me, how could the whole cluster have moved forward; I did wonder about the gasket thickness between the bearing housing and the box and the front cover to the box, surely the clearance can't be that tight? Hadn't considered the wear pattern on the front cover being the result of the oil thrower breaking loose rather than the cause of it. David

How many bolts hold the top plate on? F type is 8, D type is fewer (was going to say 4 there, but it could be six). Main point is I have a battered copy of the F type manual which would stand making another equally battered copy if you want one, mainly useful for the parts list. There seems to be a rash of this happening, mine did the same thing eighteen months ago and the one on Mountbatten did it at a similar time. Caused by the oil thrower rubbing on the front cover plate. Take the cover plate off and you'll see where it has rubbed. Whatever you do don't do what I did which is think "While I've got the gearbox off I may as well do...". I ended up having the crank reground! I never really understood how everything had moved forward to rub though. David David