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Macc and Peak Forest


wandering snail

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16 hours ago, Chris T said:

Hopefully! 

Nice to see you briefly this morning. We had a very slow trip up the flight following a guy who was on his own and had only had the boat 3 days. He expected to stay on the boat and someone ( me) would work the locks for him. Volunteers appeared about lock 5 and one helped him and one helped us. I think that is the first time I have asked for help but having had 3 eye operations this year and not being able to see very well made things difficult for me. 

 

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No signs in place as yet, well, none on this subject anyway, plenty of others of course.

 

We arrived at the top lock around 9.45 today,  nothing waiting to go down so I had worried for nothing and we were straight in. Met the first boat coming up soon after and others at most locks so it was a good trip, and there was more mooring space above the permanent moorings than I remember. 

 

Only saw one lockie/volockie on the whole flight, although bizarrely Richard Parry was manning locks 11 and 12. Hubby had a brief chat, reported the leaky paddle at lock 7 and had a bit of a grumble about restrictions. RP didn't seem to be aware of the Harecastle restrictions. 

 

I did see Haggis at lock 12 and had a nice chat as we decended. I hope you enjoy the rest of your trip on the Macc. 

 

 

15 hours ago, wandering snail said:

Today, a reply from North West to a boater who asked about the potential problems on the Macc and PF this summer, see FB NABO page.

 

 

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3 hours ago, haggis said:

Nice to see you briefly this morning. We had a very slow trip up the flight following a guy who was on his own and had only had the boat 3 days. He expected to stay on the boat and someone ( me) would work the locks for him. Volunteers appeared about lock 5 and one helped him and one helped us. I think that is the first time I have asked for help but having had 3 eye operations this year and not being able to see very well made things difficult for me. 

 

When we went up someone had contacted CRT and requested a volunteer as they were new to boating and alone. However they failed to turn up, so he helped us up. 

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At the top as I was thanking the volunteers I said it was the first time I had asked for help and his response was "from C&RT or us. I didn't know I could ask C&RT for help ! At the bottom there was a volunteer who asked if the boat ahead if us was on his own and I said i thought so and she said she would come back down and help him. I said that I could do with help too and explained why. No volunteer appeared till the single hander was in lock 6 . When the volunteer saw that I was really struggling although Iain was doing most of the work, he summoned another volunteer to help us and I retreated into the boat  we were the last boat up but I think we started about 11. Came out the top after 2.

I might ask for help on the way back down.

 

Edited by haggis
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24 minutes ago, haggis said:

At the top as I was thanking the volunteers I said it was the first time I had asked for help and his response was "from C&RT or us. I didn't know I could ask C&RT for help ! At the bottom there was a volunteer who asked if the boat ahead if us was on his own and I said i thought so and she said she would come back down and help him. I said that I could do with help too and explained why. No volunteer appeared till the single hander was in lock 6 . When the volunteer saw that I was really struggling although Iain was doing most of the work, he summoned another volunteer to help us and I retreated into the boat  we were the last boat up but I think we started about 11. Came out the top after 2.

I might ask for help on the way back down.

 

See my post earlier

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We have to be home earlier than expected so came back up Bosley locks today. About 9 boats moored at the bottom overnight, only 2 of which seemed to be in a rush, everyone else was very polite and orderly.  We entered the flight at 9 and met the first boat coming down at lock 11 surprisingly. He said he'd been sat in the top lock since 8.15 waiting for them to open up.

 

I think around 16 boats went down, the last arriving close to 1pm, so it was busy pretty much the whole time, although definitely doable. I'm not sure how 2 days a week will be in the summer months though.

 

Signs now in place telling people where to moor overnight and not to head for the top lock until 8.30 am. There are loads more mooring places than I remember at the top. 

 

Recalling another thread, our eBay 'waterways' key wouldn't work in bridge 49 (fools nook), only a proper BW / CRT one. 

 

 

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We are going back down on Monday and after the nightmare we had coming up I am hoping to get some assistance but can't find anywhere on the C&RT website about booking assistance. Just have to speak nicely to a volunteer at the top, on Monday morning

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We saw at least half a dozen assisting there today (some more clued up than others), so hopefully Monday will be similar, being a bank holiday. Perhaps if you're at the top for opening time, you can ask for help before they head off down the flight with other boats.

 

Hope you have enjoyed this stretch. I will keep a look out for you tomorrow as we should pass again. 

 

 

 

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21 minutes ago, haggis said:

We are going back down on Monday and after the nightmare we had coming up I am hoping to get some assistance but can't find anywhere on the C&RT website about booking assistance. Just have to speak nicely to a volunteer at the top, on Monday morning

I met a Volockie on the Audlem flight who was on his way down to help someone up who ad booked it. I think its a case of ringing CRT and see if they can help

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2 hours ago, haggis said:

We are going back down on Monday and after the nightmare we had coming up I am hoping to get some assistance but can't find anywhere on the C&RT website about booking assistance. Just have to speak nicely to a volunteer at the top, on Monday morning

I know a few there, I'll try to get some assistance for you.

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5 hours ago, Chris T said:

Recalling another thread, our eBay 'waterways' key wouldn't work in bridge 49 (fools nook), only a proper BW / CRT one. 

 

The dodgy eBay keys cost CRT many  thousands of pounds a year in replacement padlocks or broken assets.

 

The genuine keys are £7.

 

How much of the system are you prepared to break for the sake of a couple of quid difference in cost price.

 

 

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3 hours ago, Chris T said:

We inherited the dodgy one doing a swap with another boater, I hadn't even realised that there was a difference until I read it on this forum. We do have proper ones. 

 

 

Maybe that's why mine wouldn't open the services at Llangollen. I inherited it, too. It looks kosher.

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I have a couple of dodgy ebay ones and they are cut from a different blank from my kosher Waterways keys. The cloned key blank is close and fits in the locks but it is thinner and has slightly different groove shapes even though the peaks and troughs match. 

 

I've yet to encounter a CRT lock the clones fail to operate though. 

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On 17/04/2022 at 00:57, TheBiscuits said:

 

The dodgy eBay keys cost CRT many  thousands of pounds a year in replacement padlocks or broken assets.

 

The genuine keys are £7.

 

How much of the system are you prepared to break for the sake of a couple of quid difference in cost price.

 

 

I learnt that that hard way. Left my dodgy key in the swing bridge on the Yorks/Ĺancs border on the Rochdale as I couldn't get it out of the lock barrel after closing the bridge. Reported it to CRT but didn't wait for them to extract it.

 

Likewise I nearly got stuck when single handing Factory 3, as my ebay handcuff key wouldn't unlock paddle gear where the the little square-ended pin you have to unscrew was well rounded.  Fortunately there were enough paddles left unlocked or where the paddle lock was missing that I could get through, but only by using a single paddle at most locks. Stopped at Midland Chandlers in Penkridge (now closed) to buy proper keys for not a lot more than the ebay price.

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The Upper Peak Forest lift bridges didn't like one of our keys today that came from a canalside chandlers, so wondered if that was also an 'ebay' one, sold at 'genuine' price. Our old ones say BW on them but I'm not sure how you know which is a genuine one now.

 

Haggis - I'm pleased to hear that you got back down the locks today and with assistance. We must have passed somewhere yesterday but I didn't see you.

 

 

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The dud keys I've seen are shiny silver and the proper ones are yellowy brass-ish.

Duds are thinner and rattle around in the padlocks. They use them to provide some jetty security here and I'm forever having to let people struggling with fake keys in. The more they try the worse the lock gets. I suggest buying them from CRT but they look at me as if I'm crazy!

 

Being an ex part time lock-smith I think the thinner keys get caught to one side of the pins and the more people try and force them the more damaged the pins get,

Edited by Slow and Steady
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4 minutes ago, Slow and Steady said:

The dud keys I've seen are shiny silver and the proper ones are yellowy brass-ish.

Duds are thinner and rattle around in the padlocks. They use them to provide some jetty security here and I'm forever having to let people struggling with fake keys in. The more they try the worse the lock gets. I suggest buying them from CRT but they look at me as if I'm crazy!

 

Being an ex part time lock-smith I think the thinner keys get caught to one side of the pins and the more people try and force them the more damaged the pins get,

 

We had a 'fake' and a genuine one.

 

Both were brass finish. Both worked fine wherever we tried them.

 

The difference in ours was the profiles, one had two 'valleys' the other just had one. There is a comparison pic. on here somewhere.

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3 minutes ago, Slow and Steady said:

The more they try the worse the lock gets. I suggest buying them from CRT but they look at me as if I'm crazy!

 

I've always found the opposite.

 

In a tired knackered lock the dodgy copies usually work.  It's the brand new lock barrels they don't work in.

 

They are also notorious in electrical key switches on swing bridges or guillotine locks for jamming the mechanism that keeps the key captive until the bridge/lock is closed correctly after use.

 

The official keys just work, unless they are bent which takes some doing but is possible. Don't ask how I learnt this ...

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