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Hello! I was wondering if there was some kind of "bible" on all one needs to know to renovate a narrowboat from top to bottom? Would love a cohesive text, like an encyclopedia of troubleshooting etc etc I have a feeling I'm going to need to buy these piece meal!

Whilst visiting the Keighley and Worth Valley railway at the weekend I came across a book which I hadn't seen before or seen reviewed in the waterways press on the history of the canal and railway tunnels at Harecastle. Needless to say I bought it. Its excellent with good maps and properly captioned illustrations so would be a good buy for anyone who has an interest in canal and/or railway history. Details are here http://lightmoor.co.uk/view-book.php?ref=L8627&section= Quote from the Lightmoor web site This book traces the history of the two canal and three railway tunnels once owned by the North Staffordshire Railway (NSR) that have been driven through Harecastle Hill in North Staffordshire, together with coal and ironstone mining which took place in the vicinity of the tunnels. Once vital transport arteries, only one of the tunnels remains in use today – Telford’s canal tunnel opened in 1827, through which tugs powered by electricity once operated. James Brindley’s earlier pioneering tunnel opened in 1775 was closed in 1918. This was once the longest transport tunnel in the world. The three railway tunnels were opened in 1848 after the NSR had acquired the Trent & Mersey Canal; two of them known as ‘south’ and ‘middle’ were taken out of use in 1966 following the diversion of the railway around Harecastle Hill as part of British Railways’ West Coast Main Line electrification scheme, on the route from Colwich via Stoke-on-Trent, Kidsgrove and Macclesfield to Manchester Piccadilly. The third ‘north’ tunnel was opened out as part of this scheme but a new railway tunnel had to be built just to the south of Kidsgrove; that and the railway diversion scheme are also dealt with in the book. The authors’ extensive research is presented here for the first time in this fascinating and well illustrated volume. I'm going to enjoy reading it. The trip on the railway was also worthwhile with 8 locos in steam. I managed to be hauled at some point in the day by all 7 of those rostered.