Jess--

I'm unsure of exact details as it was before I was born but around the late 60s / early 70s there were a few thames lighters being used on the GU, by all accounts they only just fitted in the locks and had to have rudders turned fully to close gates, after one caused some problems by pulling bollards out when a pound drained amongst other things BW refused to license the craft making them unusable on the canal network. extremely battered picture shows My father & friends who used to live on one of the lighters holding a local paper with an article about it.

I noticed that someone who had spent a lot of time driving forklifts picked up steering a boat almost instantly

we used to get pulled and dipped about twice a year for driving a battered transit this was usually on the main road into skegness during peak holiday season, so I suspect that it was picked as a good spot to get vehicles that were not usually in the area. There were usually a few vans parked up with fed up looking owners.

Aren't they currently banned from the towpath?

we have a 10kva diesel generator that is rated to run on diesel or heating oil, however for heating oil it notes that you should derate the output to 9kva, that the exhaust will be smoky and that the time between oil and filter changes should be halved

may also be worth checking the tiny breather in the filler nut / dipstick is clean & clear (assuming they are the same type as the hydraulic boxes)

Our boat had a key hidden on the outside (well hidden and needing a screwdriver to access) in case we were ever locked out. once inside there was a spare padlock key (all padlocks on the boat were keyed alike) and ignition key. getting into a friends boat was done by removing to top hopper glass from an open window and then using the brass curtain rod to open further windows until we reached the window by the back door, once there we reached in and opened the yale lock.

one thing to check... on our boat the bathroom radiator was looped in with the feed to the calorifier from the alde boiler (all the rest were on their own isolatable loop), so if you went round turning off all the radiators you got no hot water from the alde, but if you left the bathroom radiator on you got a tank of hot water.

we have no way of knowing why they are still there, perhaps they have broken down or had some medical issues and CRT are aware that they are overstaying in exceptional circumstances or of course they could just be taking the pi**

if the 160 is a hydraulic box the first thing to check is oil level

I've always gone with "kill the engine" rather than neutral as a lot of props still turn slowly in neutral (admittedly it seems there isn't a great deal of force)

the only downside with any evaporative cooler system is that they will do next to nothing when humidity is high because the air is already carrying almost all the moisture it can

we have just sold our boat which was Stenson / MCC and have to say at 28 years old the hull was solid and it's the nicest handling narrowboat I have ever steered. they do have more gradual curves (longer bow curves & swims) than a lot of similar sized boats which I suspect goes a long way towards explaining their handling. I know when I am looking for our next boat Stenson will be high on the list of makers to look for.

Be fair... that's not a pumpout toilet more of a pump in toilet really

swiped from bbc news this morning