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g.u wideboat progress


chris collins

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23 hours ago, Tim Lewis said:

A recent donation to the London Canal Museum included these two pictures of Progress.scan1007.jpg.5938aad9ddc228e9bf874ae9ff8c2392.jpgscan1006.jpg.057d7b6a1b265051ad3d65e940370c8f.jpg Photos dated July 1936

 

Looks to be during its use as a maintenance boat - maybe carrying concrete piles from the Marsworth yard that produced them?

 

The location of the second photo ought to be easy to identify, but I'm currently struggling.  There are not many bridges on the southern GU where there is no towpath through the bridge, other than those at the tail of some locks, which clearly thi isn't.  I can't think of anywhere with a tall building like that on the right, but it is possible the bridge exists but the building no longer does.

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30 minutes ago, Tam & Di said:

Part of which was left as a rather silly feature when the repair yard became a supermarket.

 

Tam

I haven't had the misfortune to be at Bulls bridge for a number of yars (although am currently passing the area on a train!) but yes the way they retained the dry dock was just offensive. The problem is that the truck road for deliveries would need a moveable bridge. I always thought it would have been better if they had retained the dry dock as a working business rather than a rubbish bin but never mind. Planners knew better and put a road over it. ETA having said that it might be feasible to get a boat under there. I think it's a bit low. 

 

Edited by magnetman
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19 minutes ago, magnetman said:

ETA having said that it might be feasible to get a boat under there. I think it's a bit low. 

If the bridge had been built slightly higher, a foot or two, it could have been used as a dock but no one wanted the H&S  problems that would have ensued. 

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9 hours ago, Hyperion 53 said:

Bulls Bridge dock looking down the Paddington arm

 

Of course i is, now you point it out.  I was stuck on the idea of a bridge on the main line -  not one across the entrance of an arm.
 

Slightly wild idea, but could they be gauging weights in the hold?

They don't look unlike the item that there are still two of in Arcas, repurposed as ballast.

Edited by alan_fincher
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3 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:

 

Of course i is, now you pint it out.  I was stuck on the idea of a bridge on the main line -  not one at the entrance of an arm.
 

Slightly wild idea, but could they be gauging weights in the hold?

They don't look unlike the item that there are still two of in Arcas, repurposed as ballast.

They do look similar. There are some of these in the yard at Uxbridge boat centre. They are like extra big Avery weights. 2 cwt each I think they were although they look a lot heavier so I may have got the figure wrong there. Maybe 20 cwt ? Another boat which has them in the hold is Caldy which is (or at least was) owned by Ben at Rickmansworth. 

 

 

Edited by magnetman
Edit to correct weight units
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Hi Tim , many thanks for posting these images,I have never seen them before , I'll definitely have to visit the museum and take a closer look. The second image in particular is a rich source of detail of the changes that occurred after the well documented  promotional and lock opening earlier shots. I'll spend a good few hours now looking and puzzling and hopefully finnish with a more accurate "Progress" .

Many thanks, Chris.

  • Greenie 1
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  • 3 weeks later...
On 31/12/2022 at 09:30, Tim Lewis said:

A recent donation to the London Canal Museum included these two pictures of Progress.scan1006.jpg.057d7b6a1b265051ad3d65e940370c8f.jpg Photos dated July 1936

 

 Here's  postcard view from the opposite side of the canal:

2060284763_BullsBridgeCottagecopy.jpg.4164cb7ea5bab1b58c0efb0fe40bda34.jpg

 

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  • 1 month later...

Sorting through a box which remained unopened since we left the Toll House 23 years ago (😏) I came across this photo of Progress in Uxbridge Dock when John Wooley and Duncan Larg replace some side planks. I can't remember the exact date but it must have been mid-60s. Back then it was relatively easy to get 2" oak and iron spikes for the work.

 

1966reduced.thumb.jpg.23b21d2938d6aede632d7547051f87d9.jpg

 

 

  • Greenie 3
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It was a bit tight getting a 74' x 12'6" boat into the dock, but it was a good place to do the work. I don't know what happens now, with all the live-aboards moored on the towpath side.

 

I think we were all too young and stupid to know we ought to worry though - our earlier experience of living on a Thames barge on the tidal Thames at Brentford had already given us experience of waking up to find water underfoot as we stepped out of bed.  😁

 

Tam

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  • 2 weeks later...

Does anyone know if Chris Collins managed to get any boatyard drawings for Progress from what would have been at the time British Waterways? I am a keen model boater and would like to model "Progress". I can remember her when she was a tug operated by BW back in the 50s and early 60s operated by Sam Griffiths and Bill Knibbs.

troy 3 (1).jpg

  • Greenie 2
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Those navigation lights would hit the bridges if used on the cut. 

Very odd. If it was for the Thames they would need to be demountable when coming in at Brentford. Where would they be stowed? They seem very large. 

 

There seems to be an improbability about these. I originally thought the light mast forward of the cabin was odd but the red and green are even more strange given the scale of them.

 

 

 

 

ETA 

 

PROGRESS was built in 1936 so would it not have had Grand Union Canal Carrying Company on the covers rather than Grand Union Canal Company? 

 

Just a detail. Not sure on it. 

 

 

the nav light holders are correct according to this picture on the CRT archives 

 

v0_web.jpg?_m=1425863948

 

 

Which is good !! 

But no sign here (not surprising as the boat is at Hatton apparently)

 

v0_web.jpg?_m=1425862484

Edited by magnetman
typos
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