Rose Narrowboats

I don't think it is - the RY-131 and RY135s had no lift to the counter, and were basically transom sterned with (generally) a cut out for the rudder and the corners rounded off - that looks more like the back end of a conventional narrowboat to me.

If a flight of steps is now really regarded as major investment, I genuinely fear for the future upkeep of the canal network.

There's one on the CRT archive of her at Bascote in 1967 with the rear tank removed, but the forward part of the hold still decked over, so I'd guess that's just prior to the conversion going on?

The conversion was put on by John Henderson, who was the BWB Hillmorton section carpenter. I believe he bought her direct from TCO and sold her around 1975. I have seen a picture of her with the conversion on moored below Hillmorton Bottom Lock, but I can't think where at the moment....

2) is the tricky bit and as a result my mother has the unlikely distinction of having worked a horse through a lock to a place where the nag could be got out after she'd fallen in.

46624 was originally fitted to big woolwich "Aber". Almost all the GU Nationals started in the 46xxx series (a few were 45xxx), so no idea where 71147 came from.

Yes!

Saisons was around long before they appeared at Whilton. They ran a couple out of the arm at Hillmorton around 92/93 when I worked there and I think it was just Mr Saillet then - I don't remember anyone else not maintaining them. He also had a post office at (I think) East Haddon. Saisons did have a converted ex-working boat in the fleet at one point (late 90s?) called Blue Nun. It was the back of a little woolwich butty going forwards with the conversion (motor back end, back cabin, engine room "under cloth" style steel cabin done by Keith Ball. It had a 2-pot Ruston in I think, but I can't for life of me remember the original name of the butty at the moment. Back to Brumtugs, the one that always seems to get overlooked is our trusty little dayboat Rosette. Rosette was originally fitted with a Lister LPWS2 and conventional shaft arrangement, as was Asti I believe. It certainly had that layout about a decade ago when it broke down round here. Andy Rothen also has one converted to a work boat, but I don't which one it was originally.

As were the railmotors. https://didcotrailwaycentre.org.uk/article.php/84/93-steam-railmotor

We've done a boat called Lion in GWR lined green several times for a customer(a driver on a preserved line). Another one we repaint for a retired professional railwayman is in GWR crimson (but otherwise conventionally decorated as a boat) and there used to be a boat round here in an approximation of BR blue with yellow ends and BR 1980s style nameplates on the side called Merlin.

Some of the hedges round here are full of them - but as soon as they get to a size where the bark is thick enough for the beetle, game over.

To answer the OPS original question re. MC vs EXL, EXL are a "heavy duty" version. The MC version will be fine for your application and as others have said, Gates belts are worth the money. We avoid using anything else.

I copied all mine using Handbrake, and watch them via a Windows computer with either VLC media player or Windows Media Player.

As written by the late Peter White - someone else within BWB to whom we have a great deal to be thankful for. I've put my (grandfather's) copy of that book in such a safe place I can't currently find it..... It is not however the font used for "British Waterways Board" when accompanying the half moustache!

Wobbly anchor? I have a scan of the 1970/80s "half a moustache" from a letter head which should enlarge, I've also got an original sticker on the cabinside of a workboat which is in very poor nick, but will at least give the dimensions. It's on my "to-do" list to measure up. The colour is BS381C 175 Light French Blue, I just I wish I knew what the font was.

Possibly the pump timing is wrong? Does it start easily? Does it sound like it used to, or is it harsher/quieter than it was before?

Same difference as a Range Rover

I think that is/was ETRR's business model. Much cheaper to operate hire boats without having to pay for the extra cost hire licences, or provide the facilities, paperwork and procedures required to obtain an operator's license to get said hire licences.

There are some epoxy fillers in the commercial shipping world that are regarded as an acceptable (or even preferable) alternative to filling pits with welds. I suspect that a 1970's Piper built ex-hire boat which has been neglected is probably a bit beyond their intended scope though!

It's on BFI player. I own what's left of Deimos, better known these days as push tug "Slough" and still working for her living.

The idea of deliberately making a boat list to black it isn't remotely new - the proponents used to argue that all you really need to worry about is the water line. As for the method....well, let's wait and see what happens when the pound drops. Downflooding anyone?

There are plenty of plastic tanks around. I've got a couple we've just removed from one of our boats we are refitting. They're 48" long, 22" wide and 10" high from memory, with a mounting flange for the Mansfield toilet at one end.

I have seen successful pressurised installations on boats, but I can see no advantage and lot more complication/disaster potential compared to a conventional open to atmosphere system. One towel rail is unlikely to be enough to absorb the heat output from a Squirrel boiler which is approximately 2kw. Once the calorifier is up to temperature then it is absorbing no heat, so you need to be able to absorb the entire boiler through the towel rail, pipework and radiators. Where did the hot water tank/calorifier come from? If it really was a domestic hot water tank it's no surprise it split. You will damage the boiler if you use it dry. I've heard it said that filling with sand will allow to use it, but I've never done it myself to a boiler I've subsequently put water back into, so try that at your own risk.

Sir Frank Price also did a lot of boating, It also seems that the amount of work done by volunteers (ie virtually none, not least because the unions would never have allowed it) on the network as a whole is vastly overstated. That's not to say that we do not have a lot to thank the likes of the WRG for but in mileage terms the vast majority of the system had never seen a volunteer until CRT days. As well as the obstructive idiots, it should be remembered that BWB had a lot of very knowledgable and very enthusiastic staff (including a lot of ex-boatmen) doing their very best with limited resources and political interference. Round these parts it was a point of principle that materials should be transported by water whenever possible until the last decade or so. Unfortunately the re-organisations of the 1990's started the practice of bringing outsiders in who little understanding or care for what they were managing, and those who spoke up were (and still are) marginalised or "encouraged" to leave altogether. Standards of maintenance now are fast slipping back to where we were in the early 80's. Yes, she was crucial - but only after a lot of lobbying and persuasion by those at the top of BW at the time. Had she said no, it would probably have been game over for almost all of the narrow canal network.

Ahhh, the well known Churchward amphibious prairie. PS I think, as everyone insists on the term small northwich/woolwich these days, I'm going to start calling 4500/4575 classes little prairies.....