C&RT Review of 'Facilities' provision

[MtB]

47 minutes ago, David Mack said:

I have never understood why BW/CRT ever installed them in the first place!

 

 

Nor me. Coming off The Thames I was bemused to find a boater explaining to me there was a shower block for boaters at Norbury, then going on to moan about how it was out of action, again. I just nodded and smiled. Like you do...

 

 

[Ronaldo47]

In the 1970's, the makers of the "Killaspray" garden sprayer used to make a model with a long hose and a  shower head for use by campers and the like. I bought one from a stall in a London street market that had a pile of them, presumably discontinued stock, along with a garden spray head, to use as a garden sprayer. It was much cheaper than buying the ordinary garden sprayer model. I did actually take a shower with one that had been provided at an old farmhouse that was being used as a hostel in Snowdonia that had no mains water or electricity, and it worked fine. 

Edited March 5, 2023 by Ronaldo47
typos

[ditchcrawler]

1 hour ago, David Mack said:

I have never understood why BW/CRT ever installed them in the first place!

Maybe they thought the washing machines would make money, didn't you have to pay for the showers at one time?

I have used the shows at Anderton while the boat was in drydock being blacked and we didn't want to use the onboard shower

[Alan de Enfield]

19 minutes ago, Ronaldo47 said:

In the 1970's, the makers of the "Killaspray" garden sprayer used to make a model with a long hose and a  shower head for use by campers and the like. I bought one from a stall in a London street market that had a pile of them, presumably discontinued stock, along with a garden spray head, to use as a garden sprayer. It was much cheaper than buying the ordinary garden sprayer model. I did actually take a shower with one that had been provided at an old farmhouse that was being used as a hostel in Snowdonia that had no mains water or electricity, and it worked fine. 

 

 

When hiking / wild camping I use one of these .......................

 

Fits pretty much all 'pop' bottles including the 2 litre ones. Fill with water and leave in the Sun for a while (particularly if you wrap it in a black-bin-bag) and you have a warm shower.

Allows you to 'squirt' all your 'pits and crevices'.

 

"3 for a £1" (inc delivery) on ebay.

 

 

 

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

1 hour ago, Tim Lewis said:

A a meeting yesterday Richard Parry stated that showers, and washing machines, provision are no longer core  facilities and will be removed as and when repairs become uneconomic 

I’m glad you mentioned this, I was considering taking out my bath/shower to create more room.

I’ll think over it a bit more now.

 

I can only think of, or know of two CRT washing machines over the Midlands and they ain’t free so should be paying for themselves.

 

 

6 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

 

When hiking / wild camping I use one of these .......................

 

Fits pretty much all 'pop' bottles including the 2 litre ones. Fill with water and leave in the Sun for a while (particularly if you wrap it in a black-bin-bag) and you have a warm shower.

Allows you to 'squirt' all your 'pits and crevices'.

 

"3 for a £1" (inc delivery) on ebay.

 

 

 

When I used to go motorbike rallies, I’d take one of them collapsing water bags with a tap on.

Hung it from a tree and shower from that.

Good and cold, great for clearing the head.

1 hour ago, David Mack said:

No showers back then. There weren't even elsan emptying points. Hire boats were equipped with a folding shovel so you could dig a hole in a field and bury the toilet contents. Sanitary stations were installed from the 1970s. I don't think the showers appeared until the 90s or even 2000s, by which time almost every boat had its own shower.

Most shower blocks seem to be relatively new and I’ve often wondered when they sprang up.

 I was kind of guessing in the ‘90’s? Not sure why I’ve pinned a 90’s date on them.

I imagined it must have been a time when BW had a specific grant to build them. 🤷‍♀️

[Rob-M]

I've used various shower facilities around the system when moving the Heritage Working Boats to and from events, I usually plan over night stops to be near a facility with a shower as we don't have any on the boats.

[LadyG]

17 minutes ago, Rob-M said:

I've used various shower facilities around the system when moving the Heritage Working Boats to and from events, I usually plan over night stops to be near a facility with a shower as we don't have any on the boats.

If I'm getting short of water I fill a five litre container of warm water with dilute shower or shampoo does the job, just pour it on top of head. It's what I did when I was salty water but had no shower.

Edited March 5, 2023 by LadyG

[magnetman]

3 hours ago, Ronaldo47 said:

In the 1970's, the makers of the "Killaspray" garden sprayer used to make a model with a long hose and a  shower head for use by campers and the like. I bought one from a stall in a London street market that had a pile of them, presumably discontinued stock, along with a garden spray head, to use as a garden sprayer. It was much cheaper than buying the ordinary garden sprayer model. I did actually take a shower with one that had been provided at an old farmhouse that was being used as a hostel in Snowdonia that had no mains water or electricity, and it worked fine. 

 

Empty large fire extinguisher filled with water (the top unscrews) and pumped up with a bicycle pump (schrader valve in the neck) chuck it in the campfire or hang it in the sun then discharge via a shower head. 

 

Hozelock used to do a hanging basket pressurised watering thing which had a nice little shower head fitting. Plastic but it was quite a good device. 

 

I gave up washing some yars ago so no need for this sort of complication. 

 

 

[sueb]

Bucket of warm water and a mug make a convenient wash arrangement.

[Ronaldo47]

12 hours ago, David Mack said:

No showers back then. There weren't even elsan emptying points. Hire boats were equipped with a folding shovel so you could dig a hole in a field and bury the toilet contents. Sanitary stations were installed from the 1970s. I don't think the showers appeared until the 90s or even 2000s, by which time almost every boat had its own shower.

A group of us hired Black Prince's entire original fleet of two boats at Easter 1976. One had sea-type toilets that discharged directly into the canal, while the other one that I was on, had two Elsans and a full-sized garden spade for our use if there was no sanitary station available.  Both boats were brand-new Harborough Marine 60 footers and had showers and gas-fired central heating.

 

That was a year of severe water shortages and restricted lock opening hours. A crew member who was in the T.A. used the shovel to practice trench-digging mid-week when my boat found itself with two full Elsans and confined to a sanitary station-less pound.

Edited March 5, 2023 by Ronaldo47
typos