Steam Narrowboat

[DHutch]

Just thought i would bump this back up incase anyone can help.

- Im currently going though all of what i have trying to contact the remaining few steamnarrowboats im not in contact with.

 

Tonight i successfully got though to Alister Hodgson, who owns narrowboat PussyWillow, which he aquired in the last few years from he origanal owner as an unfinished project.

- Shes still unfinished. But has progress from the reoxide hull photo graphed and published in 2000 to a floating weatherproof hull, which now resides on the Nene between northampton and peterborough. An easy drive from loughborough.

- He has done extensive work on the engine, including replacing the fabricated crankshaft with a cast one, and having it retimed. Such that it now runs well on compressed air. And he is hopfully to get the boat in steam with the next year or so.

- We had a good chat for over an hour, and we have loosly arranged to keep in touch, and exchange vists to each others boats an ideas and thoughts as he fitts out his steamplant of the next few years. Brillient news!

 

Unfortunatly thats all i have to show for two days work.

- The David Owen i had down as owning swallow doesnt anymore, and it wasnt the correct swallow anyway. His was a 10ft6 launch!

- The number i have for 'Alan Smith' of Energy "doesnt not receave incoming calls" and ive not yet been able to contact the ams engineering tht his address is too.

- Terry Pavitt of Sidney does not give a number, and seams not to be in the uk phonebook unfornatly. So no joy there as yet. Which is a pitty.

- And i have no contact details or information for 'Paul Skehan' who is down as being bensons owner, on the thames, in 2000.

 

But still, with adamant lapander tixal presdent whistlinginthewind emilyanne, and now pussywillow, thats severn of a possable 11, so progress is good.

 

I also spoke to Maggie Ellis of inspection launch Itcus, which was also nice. Although they are landlocked on the monty!

 

 

 

Daniel

[DHutch]

Further to that, today i went to vist geoffs narrowbaot again!

- Weather was shite here so i sacked of biking, and headed for the only place in the country its actually sunny. Burnley.

 

The christmas before last geoff visted our boat, gaving just taken delivery of a shell and engine.

- This time last year i visted geoffs boat for a weekend of its first trip, boat had funtioning engine room, and the bulk of the fitting out done...

- Went again this weekend. Engine and driveshaft running smoothly, firing better, and the cabin is totally compleat and looks bloody fantastic!

 

 

 

 

The engine is another AAleak design engine. Geoff believes it was possably started by mr leak himself

although possably finished by someone else, and not to as good a standard. - Mechicaly however its very

simualur to emilyannes, although some bits are a bit less agriculural maybe, for better or worse.

But with a bit of work its come up really nicely. Even if it is a diffrent colour!

 

 

 

Goes very well, although geoffs version of 'polish steam coal' has a little more colour to it!!

 

 

 

Daniel

[DHutch]

I also then went to see tixal just up the road on the caldon the following day.

- Although we didnt steam her, it was very interesting to see the boat properly for the first time, and meet her owner properly and just talk baots for a day!

 

There engine is also a AALeak design compound, and is also build by anthoy beaver who built our engine. So although its five years older, and some of the pumps and fittings are a bit diffrent. Its as simular as there is!

 

 

 

The engine is right hard up against the back of the boat making it almost

quite an art to get into the engineroom from the back of the boat, certainly

might not be massively favourable in a rush with it running!

 

She has brand new, and very tall and slender, firetube boiler to replace her exsiting watertube boiler.

 

They also have a stuart turner 5a coupled to a second alternator.

 

 

Daniel

[mjonesbos]

Just to put the record straight about Firefly:

My Father, Keith Jones, built her in 1985. I was a teenager then and spent my holidays and weekends black jacking out the hull and helping with the fit out. The hull was built by a steel fabrication firm in Market Harborough and she was launched at Harborough basin and then towed to Foxton where my dad ran his boats from. If I remember right, she was 56 feet long, with a draft of 2 foot 6 inches and she was fitted out specifically for holiday hire, I think as a six berth. My Dad was a carpenter and joiner so he carried out all of the works himself. The engine and boiler were designed and built especially for Firefly with the help of a friend of my Dads from I think Kingston, SW London - a 'v' twin with a double chamber boiler. The boiler had an upper and lower chamber with copper pipes connecting, where the burners were located. She had two 47kg gas cannisters either side of the rear engine room cabin and a bulk tank located in the bow.

At the time this was all pretty new stuff and my Dad had plenty of problems getting enough steam from the boiler to enable to engine to run her at a decent speed. I remember very distinctly the rush to get her finished for the Boat Show at Milton Keynes, in fact as he and I took her down there from Foxton, he was still working on some of the fit out. It was true to say that Firefly was slow in that first year or two, she could manage 2 or 3 MPH in standard depth canals but we did have one coup on the way to Milton Keynes. I was at the tiller, we were probably a day from Milton Keynes on the Grand Union. As I came through a bridge hole there in front of me was President with her butty, stuck on the bottom. The crew were trying to free her but struggling (tricky with a butty as reversing off is always best). As we squeezed past her we threw a rope over and my Dad ensured he secured it around both of Fireflies rear cleats - we pulled her off the bottom.....that always made my Dad chuckle, particularly in the face of some of the purists who had little respect for what he was trying to do with Firefly.

He managed to solve the power problems in the years ahead and she could comfortably manage 4 plus mph in decent water. He did build another boat, Dragonfly, but she was powered by a Ruston and Hornsby diesel, imported from India (he had the import license for the UK) and along with his original boat, Whimbrel had three in total operating from the bottom of Foxton Locks for a number of years until he moved to the basin at Welford, where he was for probably another 10 years.

The boats went in the early noughties, my Dad had cancer and passed away in 2007. I don't know where Firefly, Dragonfly and Whimbrel went, I haven't seen them since and seeing as I now live in Western Australia I don't suppose I ever will.

My father was a bit of a pain in the backside on occasions and not everybody got on with him, but he tried to do something that no one before and I think no one since has done - build a Steam Narrowboat for hire. One that with just an hour or so of learning any body could manage...this was the whole ethos behind using LPG, it could be made safe and it could be controlled. No it wasn't efficient and no it certainly wasn't perfect, but how much fun did we all have creeping up on fishermen, who were so used to hearing boats coming before they got anywhere near and how many lost their bat and tackle because they weren't concentrating :-)

And to top it all, pulling the cabin chain on the steam whistle and watching the reaction on peoples faces, she was a very quiet and relaxed way of cruising but she caused a stir of excitement whenever she silently slid up to unsuspecting tourists and boaters - fun days!

 

Mark

 

my username [at] aol.com

Edited November 7, 2016 by DHutch
email obfuscated as antispam measure

[Athy]

Just to put the record straight about Firefly:

My Father, Keith Jones, built her in 1985. The hull was built by a steel fabrication firm in Market Harborough and she was launched at Harborough basin

So this steam narrowboat may have been a Springer. Are there any photographs of it?

[monkeyhanger]

So this steam narrowboat may have been a Springer. Are there any photographs of it?

I'm pretty certain it wasn't a Springer. It may have been a Harborough, but I don't recall the high fore end that was typical of those boats. However, for some reason I seem to recall it having louvred windows which was typical of Harboroughs in those days. I'm pretty sure there was an article about Firefly in Waterways World. Perhaps that is the way to go for more info?

[carlt]

I'm pretty certain it wasn't a Springer. It may have been a Harborough, but I don't recall the high fore end that was typical of those boats. However, for some reason I seem to recall it having louvred windows which was typical of Harboroughs in those days. I'm pretty sure there was an article about Firefly in Waterways World. Perhaps that is the way to go for more info?

April 1994's WW to be precise.

 

More info and a picture can be found at: http://nbalbert.blogspot.co.uk/p/al.html?m=1

[Athy]

Ah, almost definitely not a Springer then, the stern is far too shapely!

[baz gimson]

April 1994's WW to be precise.

 

More info and a picture can be found at: http://nbalbert.blogspot.co.uk/p/al.html?m=1

 

Fascinating article. I now realise that it was Keith that I met at Welford in the early 90's. He was telling me about his Indian built engines that he was importing and selling And showed me the one in his boat. I think it was some sort of open day/festival at the basin .

[jake_crew]

The hull was built by a steel fabrication firm in Market Harborough and she was launched at Harborough basin ...

 

ISTR that Fernie Stell Fabrications in Mkt Harbro' made hulls for Harborough Marnie.

 

No doubt, as well as the classic HM bow shape, Fernie would make what ever their customers wanted.

[IanD]

Great hearing from you Mark, I always wondered what happened to Keith.

 

We hired her for 2 weeks in the late 80's, ended up at a rally in Windmill End where we were given pride of place as the only steamer because President had failed to get there. I thought I read that the hull was Hancock and Lane (but I could well be wrong) with very long swims, glided along a treat in deep water but slowed down a lot in shallow, and as for stopping quickly -- don't even try, just hit the boat that came through the blind bridge too fast...

 

It's a great shame there isn't anything similar around any more, we absolutely loved Firefly and I'm sure she'd be in great demand if she still existed -- though the running costs nowadays would be truly scary, I reckon she got through about 200kg of LPG a week...

Edited November 6, 2016 by IanD

[DHutch]

So this steam narrowboat may have been a Springer. Are there any photographs of it?

 

April 1994's WW to be precise.

 

More info and a picture can be found at: http://nbalbert.blogspot.co.uk/p/al.html?m=1

 

 

 

I hope those involved will not mind if I re-host a copy of the image and caption on this site for ease of access and safe keeping.

 

 

 

"Steam NB Firefly

Keith Jones sadly died a few years ago. Dragonfly has now been lengthened but still carries the same engine. It is normally moored at Godstone Wharf on the Shropshire Union. We passed her in April 2013 on our way to Llangollen but we were unable to pass to time of day with the new owner, Ray Bessant, because we were both on the move."

 

[DHutch]

Just to put the record straight about Firefly:

My Father, Keith Jones, built her in 1985. I was a teenager then and spent my holidays and weekends black jacking out the hull and helping with the fit out. The hull was built by a steel fabrication firm in Market Harborough and she was launched at Harborough basin and then towed to Foxton where my dad ran his boats from. If I remember right, she was 56 feet long, with a draft of 2 foot 6 inches and she was fitted out specifically for holiday hire, I think as a six berth. My Dad was a carpenter and joiner so he carried out all of the works himself. The engine and boiler were designed and built especially for Firefly with the help of a friend of my Dads from I think Kingston, SW London - a 'v' twin with a double chamber boiler. The boiler had an upper and lower chamber with copper pipes connecting, where the burners were located. She had two 47kg gas cannisters either side of the rear engine room cabin and a bulk tank located in the bow.

At the time this was all pretty new stuff and my Dad had plenty of problems getting enough steam from the boiler to enable to engine to run her at a decent speed. I remember very distinctly the rush to get her finished for the Boat Show at Milton Keynes, in fact as he and I took her down there from Foxton, he was still working on some of the fit out. It was true to say that Firefly was slow in that first year or two, she could manage 2 or 3 MPH in standard depth canals but we did have one coup on the way to Milton Keynes. I was at the tiller, we were probably a day from Milton Keynes on the Grand Union. As I came through a bridge hole there in front of me was President with her butty, stuck on the bottom. The crew were trying to free her but struggling (tricky with a butty as reversing off is always best). As we squeezed past her we threw a rope over and my Dad ensured he secured it around both of Fireflies rear cleats - we pulled her off the bottom.....that always made my Dad chuckle, particularly in the face of some of the purists who had little respect for what he was trying to do with Firefly.

He managed to solve the power problems in the years ahead and she could comfortably manage 4 plus mph in decent water. He did build another boat, Dragonfly, but she was powered by a Ruston and Hornsby diesel, imported from India (he had the import license for the UK) and along with his original boat, Whimbrel had three in total operating from the bottom of Foxton Locks for a number of years until he moved to the basin at Welford, where he was for probably another 10 years.

The boats went in the early noughties, my Dad had cancer and passed away in 2007. I don't know where Firefly, Dragonfly and Whimbrel went, I haven't seen them since and seeing as I now live in Western Australia I don't suppose I ever will.

My father was a bit of a pain in the backside on occasions and not everybody got on with him, but he tried to do something that no one before and I think no one since has done - build a Steam Narrowboat for hire. One that with just an hour or so of learning any body could manage...this was the whole ethos behind using LPG, it could be made safe and it could be controlled. No it wasn't efficient and no it certainly wasn't perfect, but how much fun did we all have creeping up on fishermen, who were so used to hearing boats coming before they got anywhere near and how many lost their bat and tackle because they weren't concentrating :-)

And to top it all, pulling the cabin chain on the steam whistle and watching the reaction on peoples faces, she was a very quiet and relaxed way of cruising but she caused a stir of excitement whenever she silently slid up to unsuspecting tourists and boaters - fun days!

 

Mark

 

my username [at] aol.com

 

Mark,

 

I had totally forgotten about this thread, but thank you very much for the reply. I must say that while the name was known to me to the tune of 'There was a boat called Firefly that was available for hire, gas powered I think' I was not aware of the details of the boat at all, nor its owner or passed/current whereabouts. I keep in touch with most of the steam narrowboats on the system for obvious reasons, but this one has escaped me, so thank you very much for posting that.

 

Always great to hear of people doing different things, but steam narrowboats are closer to my heart than most. Emilyanne was build by my grandfather in the early 90's, launched in spring 1991 and having been born in 1987 myself most of my childhood memories of visiting my grandfather are on the boat during the build or on the canals, including the inevitable issues with trying to meet a moving target by car before mobiles phone where available! I now boat on the boat with my friends, including sneeking up on people (unintentionally) and (often) them sounding the whistle!

 

Does anyone on the forum know of the where abouts of SNB Firefly?

 

 

Daniel

[Athy]

I remember when, in 1995, Mrs. Athy and I picked up lots of brochures to choose our first U.K. narrowboat holiday, the introductory page of one of them describing the various types of boats then available and mentioning "There's even one powered by steam". I guess that must have been one of fleet under discussion. I hope it helps to date their period of service.

[Canal Cuttings]

Thank you Mark. When I first looked into hiring a narrowboat in the mid-90s I came across Firefly, but later attempts to identify the modern steam powered narrowboat called "Firefly" came to nothing. Presumably she was converted to diesel by then!

 

Another steam powered boat on the canals is "Ictus", an Edwardian style launch. Steamboat Ictus is 55ft long and 7ft beam, draught approximately 2ft 9 ins and air draft just under 5ft. Very desirable!

 

[DHutch]

Another steam powered boat on the canals is "Ictus", an Edwardian style launch. Steamboat Ictus is 55ft long and 7ft beam, draught approximately 2ft 9 ins and air draft just under 5ft. Very desirable!

 

 

Its one of the boats I have still yet to boat on, and I must say the photos look lovely. I real come together of the Thames/Windermere launch and narrowboat dimensions.

 

Since the earlier posts in this thread (nearly ten years ago) there have been a few changes to the line up.

- Tixal was bought by a new owner, before then changing hands again recently. Both great people, and a well looked after boat I have now boated on a few times.

- A new boat 'Hasty' has been built, a very nice tunnel tug replica of 'Antilope' from Brinklow boats and much work by her owner Keith. Excellent in all respects!

- There is a boat based at Ellesmere port which has undergone early trials last time I was up to speed, but is yet to be complete as far as I know.

- Pussy Willow is still not in steam, but the owner is looking to find the time to finish her and was seen at the SBA agm. We will watch this space.

- I have done a few days steam on President, and made good connections with team running her both new and old. Great fun and recommended.

 

 

Daniel

[Pluto]

Something to drool over, one of the latter productions of William Wilkinson for the L&LC. I probably have enough information, should anyone want to build a replica.

[Dave Payne]

- A new boat 'Hasty' has been built, a very nice tunnel tug replica of 'Antilope' from Brinklow boats and much work by her owner Keith. Excellent in all respects!

 

Hasty just passed me on the Coventry canal, nice looking boat, lots of rivets and very black!

[Athy]

 

 

Another steam powered boat on the canals is "Ictus", an Edwardian style launch. Steamboat Ictus is 55ft long and 7ft beam, draught approximately 2ft 9 ins and air draft just under 5ft. Very desirable!

 

Slurp!

[Pete of Ebor]

how do I delete this ?

Edited January 1, 2017 by Pete of Ebor

[Pete of Ebor]

Very nice but no bowthruster?

A steam powered bow thruster... now there's an idea !

[WotEver]

how do I delete this ?

It appears that you have

[Jrtm]

Hasty just passed me on the Coventry canal, nice looking boat, lots of rivets and very black!

This has the very much rebuild boiler in from monarch.

[Athy]

Nice to hear that Hasty is out and about. She wasn't at Alvecote (where she had previously been one of the stars of the show) last year, I thought perhaps she was out of commission.

[matty40s]

 

A few cosmetic changes !!!!

At Clifton Wharf.