First volockie irritation of the year.

[Mike Todd]

3 hours ago, john6767 said:

I think there was at least on paddle out of action, it could have been an anti vandal lock that was rounded and could not be taken off, but not sure if it was that or one going on from Wigan.  Your photos show the general poor state though, they have a distinct half derelict feel, both in the structure and the lock side environment, which you could perhaps interpret as character!  At the end of the day it is possible to get through them, but it’s good there are only 2.

We certainly encountered a couple of rounded handcuff locks somewhere but I don't think it was Poolstock.

[nicknorman]

And another one! We somehow and by some miracle managed to do Field triple staircase yesterday afternoon (L&L) all on our own. Nobody died, no water was wasted etc. It took us about 20 mins to transit with Jeff on the boat and me doing a lorra lorra paddles and handcuff locks! Rewarding though.

So today we arrived a Newlay triple staircase. Volockie approached us and told us to tie up for 15 mins in case another boat came along. Not really a problem though I did notice that the bywash was running freely from the 4 mile pound above, so it wasn’t actually going to save any water. Whilst waiting we had a pleasant chat about him, us, etc etc. Seemed an OK bloke. Finally it was agreed that we could start down. Jeff drove boat in, volockies closed top gates. He seemed to be slightly faffing with micro-managing how the gates came together, standing at the V. When he stepped away and when I started to wind the intermediate ground paddle he signalled for me to stop. As he walked past me (me looking bemused) he said “We are in charge”. Talk about little Hitler micromanaging power complex!

He went off to micro-manage the level in the middle chamber, lowering it a few inches so that it wouldn’t overflow into the bottom chamber (like it is designed to do!), although why he couldn’t have done that whilst we were waiting is unclear. Feeling instantly pissed off I walked over to him and said “In fact you are not in charge, you are a volunteer”. He said “we can padlock lock the flight up if we decide to”, this being a threat that if I didn’t mind my Ps and Qs he would stop our passage. Of course we both knew he wouldn’t actually do that, he just wanted me to know he held the power.

I said “can you show me your authorisation for you to be in charge?”. He then said that the professional lock keeper was in charge. At more or less this moment the actual lock keeper arrived and was very pleasant, down to earth, sensible, chatty and a lovely guy.  We both got on with working the boat through as a team without any need to micromanage, boss or give orders. I did mention my experience with the volockie to him and he apologised for it, not that it was his fault of course. I guess they get all sorts thrust on them and have to work with them. To transit this triple took an hour due to time wasted at the start, which is ridiculous.

So yet another nasty moment caused by volunteers with tiny genitals and a power complex. When we arrive at locks with no volockies, I now give a sigh of relief. Volunteers with a need to boss really are rather spoiling things.

Edited August 2, 2019 by nicknorman

[MtB]

30 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

When we arrive at locks with no volockies, I now give a sigh of relief.

 

Join the club, this is how I feel too. 

 

But to be fair, on my last two encounters with vollies they both approached me and asked specifically if I wanted any assistance or if I wanted to work the locks myself. Very commendable. I said by all means yes help please but let me get off the boat first. They both understood and we had a chat, it was a generally pleasurable experience for all of us. 

 

 

[roland elsdon]

As i indicated my last interactions have been ok, but i feel they are imposed on us, and this needs to be constantly reinforced to crt.

2 of us went half round the system with a pair of boats without a single voluntary helper, ( lots of helpful boat owners) and we are still breathing.

i suspect nowadays they would be telling us how to get the butty through locks and demand i do it their way.

wouldnt go down well.

 

after 39 years of boating last week we damn near sank the motor in a double lock on the leicester section. The guard iron caught on the protruding metalwork the other side hooked in the gate. Bow stayed up stern sank. We realised fast but because i was on the stern i had to scramble up the lockside to lift the top paddle. By then the fenders were in the cut and i expected the boat to drop back and hit the cill. Fortunately we are a team and Mrs E dropped the bottom paddles and i lifted the rear. ( i never go through a lock with the anti vandal locks locked)

 

we didnt say much until after the next lock. Then stopped made a cup of coffee and shook a lot.

thank god there was no helpful volunteer pulling the second downhill paddle , and then arguing about putting it down on demand...

 

i can imagine the comments if we had sunk an open hold historic in a lock...

[Athy]

On 31/07/2019 at 23:26, carlt said:

Likewise the Ashby. 

Sadly, those unfamiliar with the Midlands canals may not appreciate your comment.

 

There is one at Moira now, I think, but we haven't managed to get that far yet.

[Keeping Up]

On 31/07/2019 at 23:26, carlt said:

Likewise the Ashby. 

When we came past Marston Junction last month, there was a vollie at the stop lock!

[WotEver]

50 minutes ago, Athy said:

There is one at Moira now, I think, but we haven't managed to get that far yet.

Nor will you. It’s not connected

[ditchcrawler]

2 hours ago, roland elsdon said:

As i indicated my last interactions have been ok, but i feel they are imposed on us, and this needs to be constantly reinforced to crt.

2 of us went half round the system with a pair of boats without a single voluntary helper, ( lots of helpful boat owners) and we are still breathing.

i suspect nowadays they would be telling us how to get the butty through locks and demand i do it their way.

wouldnt go down well.

 

after 39 years of boating last week we damn near sank the motor in a double lock on the leicester section. The guard iron caught on the protruding metalwork the other side hooked in the gate. Bow stayed up stern sank. We realised fast but because i was on the stern i had to scramble up the lockside to lift the top paddle. By then the fenders were in the cut and i expected the boat to drop back and hit the cill. Fortunately we are a team and Mrs E dropped the bottom paddles and i lifted the rear. ( i never go through a lock with the anti vandal locks locked)

 

we didnt say much until after the next lock. Then stopped made a cup of coffee and shook a lot.

thank god there was no helpful volunteer pulling the second downhill paddle , and then arguing about putting it down on demand...

 

i can imagine the comments if we had sunk an open hold historic in a lock...

We always take all anti vandal locks off and only put them back when we have finished

[roland elsdon]

11 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

We always take all anti vandal locks off and only put them back when we have finished

Yes you are absolutely right in this. On this occasion the lock was full when we got there, so Mrs S unlocked one. ( thank god for foresight as the key was clipped to her bike) we also generally go down initially on one paddle until the boats guards are below the lock wall.

if she had not  unlocked the paddle that would have been it.

 

You cannot envisage hanging up on a wide lock but it happened.

 

[doratheexplorer]

There I was feeling all left out with no volocky experiences to report (I usually do my boat moves from about 3pm onwards so they've all gone home by the time I start).  But I few days ago I was faced with the Tardebigge flight so decided I ought to set off first thing.  About 7 locks in, two friendly looking old men appeared, wearing their volocky uniforms.  Took me all the way up the rest of the flight. I was so grateful!  They were really helpful and no patronising comments, just good chat and even told me some interesting things about the flight.  Trouble is I'm now not sure if any of the things were true, since when we got to the top lock, I commented on how deep it is.  "Yes he said, deepest on the network". "Deepest on the the flight?" I enquired.  "No, deepest on the network" he insisted.  I tried to point out the various locks which are deeper  - Tuel Lane, Bath, Etruria, all those huge ones near Manchester.  But he just wouldn't have it.  I still liked them both though and went up the flight in record time (for me).

 

Edited to add:  when they first arrived, the first thing they said was "would you like any help?"

Edited August 3, 2019 by doratheexplorer

[nicknorman]

13 minutes ago, doratheexplorer said:

There I was feeling all left out with no volocky experiences to report (I usually do my boat moves from about 3pm onwards so they've all gone home by the time I start).  But I few days ago I was faced with the Tardebigge flight so decided I ought to set off first thing.  About 7 locks in, two friendly looking old men appeared, wearing their volocky uniforms.  Took me all the way up the rest of the flight. I was so grateful!  They were really helpful and no patronising comments, just good chat and even told me some interesting things about the flight.  Trouble is I'm now not sure if any of the things were true, since when we got to the top lock, I commented on how deep it is.  "Yes he said, deepest on the network". "Deepest on the the flight?" I enquired.  "No, deepest on the network" he insisted.  I tried to point out the various locks which are deeper  - Tuel Lane, Bath, Etruria, all those huge ones near Manchester.  But he just wouldn't have it.  I still liked them both though and went up the flight in record time (for me).

 

Edited to add:  when they first arrived, the first thing they said was "would you like any help?"

That is how it should be! Unfortunately it isn’t always.

[ditchcrawler]

Well I have just had a great experience no lifejacket, no blue jumper. We were just pushing off from the glass factory on the Stourbridge flight when tis chap came hurrying up the towpath with a windlass in hand, went straight by without a word and set the next lock, after that very set of bottom gates were open all the way to the top. From then on the boat didn't stop moving, ether going forward or upward, He shut the off side bottom gate behind me and was away. If only CRT volocies could work like this in a flight. It was John from the Dudley Tunnel and Canal trust.

[john6767]

4 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

Well I have just had a great experience no lifejacket, no blue jumper. We were just pushing off from the glass factory on the Stourbridge flight when tis chap came hurrying up the towpath with a windlass in hand, went straight by without a word and set the next lock, after that very set of bottom gates were open all the way to the top. From then on the boat didn't stop moving, ether going forward or upward, He shut the off side bottom gate behind me and was away. If only CRT volocies could work like this in a flight. It was John from the Dudley Tunnel and Canal trust.

We have had similar help on Stourbridge, by non CRT helpers.

 

However for balance with respect to CRT volunteers,  coming up the Stratford after the river festival early July,  day one we did 19 locks, then day two after about another 17 locks in we were just below the Boot and two volunteers were walking down and I assumed they were back to the mess room to knock off as it was about 3pm.  But they asked my wife if we were going all the way up and would we like help.  We accepted the offer, and they helped us all the way up the main flight, one setting ahead and one on one side of the lock with the boat.  We got up the main flight, with just 4 more locks to get to the Birmingham level, in about an hour.  As we gave our thanks one of them said he did not believe how fast we had gone up.  So in this case they were prepared to fit in with us and allow us the keep the boat moving at all times.  The think one of them in particular needed to go for a lie down after though!

[nicknorman]

8 minutes ago, john6767 said:

We have had similar help on Stourbridge, by non CRT helpers.

 

However for balance with respect to CRT volunteers,  coming up the Stratford after the river festival early July,  day one we did 19 locks, then day two after about another 17 locks in we were just below the Boot and two volunteers were walking down and I assumed they were back to the mess room to knock off as it was about 3pm.  But they asked my wife if we were going all the way up and would we like help.  We accepted the offer, and they helped us all the way up the main flight, one setting ahead and one on one side of the lock with the boat.  We got up the main flight, with just 4 more locks to get to the Birmingham level, in about an hour.  As we gave our thanks one of them said he did not believe how fast we had gone up.  So in this case they were prepared to fit in with us and allow us the keep the boat moving at all times.  The think one of them in particular needed to go for a lie down after though!

There is no doubt that the Lapworth volockies are great. But the big national problem is lack of consistency. Some are great. Some are awful. And at the root of that is a lack of post-training monitoring by CRT. And an absence of any sort of feedback channel.

Edited August 3, 2019 by nicknorman

[john6767]

17 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

There is no doubt that the Lapworth volockies are great. But the big national problem is lack of consistency. Some are great. Some are awful. And at the root of that is a lack of post-training monitoring by CRT. And an absence of any sort of feedback channel.

Agree with that.

[MtB]

2 hours ago, nicknorman said:

There is no doubt that the Lapworth volockies are great. But the big national problem is lack of consistency. Some are great. Some are awful. And at the root of that is a lack of post-training monitoring by CRT. And an absence of any sort of feedback channel.

 

I would say the reason for this is the vollies are not being recruited to help boaters, but to increase public awareness of CRT. Having CRT-branded 'staff' around at every busy lock in good weather to be seen by all the dog walkers and gongoozlers can only be a Good Thing for raising the profile.

 

Peeps WILL assume they are paid employees there to whizz all the boats through and that the boaters themselves must be totally helpless. 

 

 

[Quaffer]

On 01/08/2019 at 22:29, Keeping Up said:

Did anyone else notice that one of the bottom paddles of the top lock doesn't completely close? It has actually had a bolt inserted to stop it while it is slightly open. I discussed this with the CRT guys when we passed through there recently, they said this is deliberate and aims to supply a little extra water to that intermediate pound, both by emptying the top lock after a boat has ascended and also by causing some extra flow-through when attempting to fill it. This is basically a crude attempt to compensate for the fact that the bed of that pound leaks so badly. Unfortunately when we were there the junction pound itself was most dry too.

 

On 29/07/2019 at 14:56, Quaffer said:

There is something strange about this lock.I've been through twice to and from Liverpool recently and the offside bottom gate paddle seems to be blocked from fully closing by a piece of welded metal .Ascending you can certainly see quite a flow into the middle pound as the lock fills.Is this some kind of CRT water control method to feed water into the middle pound between Lock 1 and 2 by slowly emptying any full lock after an ascent ,topping back up the middle pound  ?That may explain why the notices on Lock 1 are all about closing all gates and paddles after use,.

 

I noticed the restraining bolt and your conversation with CRT confirms what is going on here.This also may explain why the junction pound above can suffer with low levels,although I do take the point that a lot depends on how much feed is coming from the Wigan Flight.

 

Given the water supply issues at Poolstock 1 & 2 this would be a useful place for volunteer lock keepers to be on duty but as there is a lack of toilet and wet weather cover,this probably rules it out as a site for volunteers.

[nicknorman]

19 minutes ago, Quaffer said:

 

 

I noticed the restraining bolt and your conversation with CRT confirms what is going on here.This also may explain why the junction pound above can suffer with low levels,although I do take the point that a lot depends on how much feed is coming from the Wigan Flight.

 

Given the water supply issues at Poolstock 1 & 2 this would be a useful place for volunteer lock keepers to be on duty but as there is a lack of toilet and wet weather cover,this probably rules it out as a site for volunteers.

 

19 minutes ago, Quaffer said:

 

 

I noticed the restraining bolt and your conversation with CRT confirms what is going on here.This also may explain why the junction pound above can suffer with low levels,although I do take the point that a lot depends on how much feed is coming from the Wigan Flight.

 

Given the water supply issues at Poolstock 1 & 2 this would be a useful place for volunteer lock keepers to be on duty but as there is a lack of toilet and wet weather cover,this probably rules it out as a site for volunteers.

Given the propensity for volockies to waste water and make up their own rules, I’d say it would be a bad place for volunteer lock keepers to be on duty.

[rgreg]

37 minutes ago, Quaffer said:

 

 

I noticed the restraining bolt and your conversation with CRT confirms what is going on here.This also may explain why the junction pound above can suffer with low levels,although I do take the point that a lot depends on how much feed is coming from the Wigan Flight.

 

Given the water supply issues at Poolstock 1 & 2 this would be a useful place for volunteer lock keepers to be on duty but as there is a lack of toilet and wet weather cover,this probably rules it out as a site for volunteers.

I have seen volunteers at Poolstock

[Athy]

On 02/08/2019 at 18:27, WotEver said:

Nor will you. It’s not connected

Precisely, yes.

[Quaffer]

26 minutes ago, rgreg said:

I have seen volunteers at Poolstock

I didn't realise,thanks for the info.

[ditchcrawler]

11 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

I would say the reason for this is the vollies are not being recruited to help boaters, but to increase public awareness of CRT. Having CRT-branded 'staff' around at every busy lock in good weather to be seen by all the dog walkers and gongoozlers can only be a Good Thing for raising the profile.

Peeps WILL assume they are paid employees there to whizz all the boats through and that the boaters themselves must be totally helpless. 

 

 

In which case they should chat to the public and put their windlasses away, not open the paddles and then ignore what is happening to the boat. 

[Chris Williams]

22 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

I would say the reason for this is the vollies are not being recruited to help boaters, but to increase public awareness of CRT.

I think you have hit the nail on the head.

[Gallyleigho]

On 28/07/2019 at 22:46, Gallyleigho said:

Lock 1, Leigh Branch of Leeds and Liverpool. If all four head paddles aren't used you will sit there for hours draining the pound above you.

Funnily enough I was cycling through Wigan his afternoon and there was a cruiser in lock 1 with men on the headgates. I asked the one on the towpath side if all four paddles were up and he nodded the affirmative. I then had a pleasant chat to the helmswoman who told me they had just bought the boat and were taking it up to Scarisbrick Marina. The guys on the gates were straining a bit on the gates so I asked the one on the offside if the ground paddle was up, there being no indicator on it. The paddle wasn't up, he lifted it and the gates opened in about another minute. 

[nicknorman]

36 minutes ago, Gallyleigho said:

Funnily enough I was cycling through Wigan his afternoon and there was a cruiser in lock 1 with men on the headgates. I asked the one on the towpath side if all four paddles were up and he nodded the affirmative. I then had a pleasant chat to the helmswoman who told me they had just bought the boat and were taking it up to Scarisbrick Marina. The guys on the gates were straining a bit on the gates so I asked the one on the offside if the ground paddle was up, there being no indicator on it. The paddle wasn't up, he lifted it and the gates opened in about another minute. 

We were waiting to enter one of the locks Leeds side of Bingley. Community fat boat in it. For ages. I went to have a look, they were struggling to make a level. I asked if all bottom paddles were open. They said yes. I suggested that a top paddle might be up. They said no. But being an interfering type, and fed up with waiting, I checked. Lo one bottom paddle wasn’t up, and one top paddle was up. You would think community type boats would know what they are doing! Only saving grace was that after all that water wastage, the bywash was still running fast.

 

But this is still no reason to force volockies onto people who do actually know what they are doing!

Edited August 6, 2019 by nicknorman