Steam Video

[Leo No2]

I have been given a video of the steam dredger Perseverance at work on the Basingstoke canal which I think is from the early 1990s (based on the fact that the video was shot between Reading Road South and Pondtail bridges). It's in a format my Apple Mac doesn't seem to understand. There are .BUP, .IFO and .VOP files. I am trying to convert and stitch them together with VisualHub but I am not sure quite what I am doing with them I am afraid. I can make the files available should anyone be able to make a sensible video and one file of them.

 

ETA - Have managed to make an MP4 file from it but it's around 50 mins long and near enough to 1GB in size. I'll post a link to it tomorrow but if someone can make a better job of it (I am sure that's possible) please shout.

Edited January 4, 2013 by Leo No2

[Leo No2]

I have managed to upload the file about Perseverance dredging between Reading Road South and Pondtail bridges on the top pound of the Basingstoke. It must be about 1992/3 as that area was the limit of the dredging Perseverance undertook. Very shortly after that she went to the boat museum in Ellesmere Port where, regrettably, she still lies unloved. There is a move afoot to bring her back to the K&A I think.

 

A link to the file is here. It's in MP4 format - I think the default application is Quicktime - not my most favourite application but it works well within Powerpoint (for me). If anyone can convert it to a more usable format I'd be grateful or if you can let me now what the most appropriate format is (I don't want to put it on YouTube I am afraid) I'll do my best to convert it. VisualHub will allow me to covert to iTunes, PSP, DV, DVD, AVI, MP4, WMV, MPEG and Flash formats; assume Flash not an option for those with iPads but it needs to work easily with Windows and Apple Macs!

 

Apologies for the health and safety issue taking the muck off the prop of the Bantam tug (the canal society still owns at least one of these tugs and both the mud barges) but I expect the full force of 'Elf and Safety hadn't hit us by then. The tugs were Pledge and Sparkle - sponsored by Johnsons Wax - a local firm in Frimley. The cab was taken off to get under Reading Road South bridge.

 

I believe Perseverance was originally a GU dredger - in the video she has her detachable sponsons on but still rolls quite nicely. Talking to friends last night I understand that each full grab weighed about 1 ton.

Edited January 5, 2013 by Leo No2

[Tim Lewis]

I have managed to upload the file about Perseverance dredging between Reading Road South and Pondtail bridges on the top pound of the Basingstoke. It must be about 1992/3 as that area was the limit of the dredging Perseverance undertook. Very shortly after that she went to the boat museum in Ellesmere Port where, regrettably, she still lies unloved. There is a move afoot to bring her back to the K&A I think.

 

A link to the file is here. It's in MP4 format - I think the default application is Quicktime - not my most favourite application but it works well within Powerpoint (for me). If anyone can convert it to a more usable format I'd be grateful or if you can let me now what the most appropriate format is (I don't want to put it on YouTube I am afraid) I'll do my best to convert it. VisualHub will allow me to covert to iTunes, PSP, DV, DVD, AVI, MP4, WMV, MPEG and Flash formats; assume Flash not an option for those with iPads but it needs to work easily with Windows and Apple Macs!

 

Apologies for the health and safety issue taking the muck off the prop of the Bantam tug (the canal society still owns at least one of these tugs and both the mud barges) but I expect the full force of 'Elf and Safety hadn't hit us by then. The tugs were Pledge and Sparkle - sponsored by Johnsons Wax - a local firm in Frimley. The cab was taken off to get under Reading Road South bridge.

 

I believe Perseverance was originally a GU dredger - in the video she has her detachable sponsons on but still rolls quite nicely. Talking to friends last night I understand that each full grab weighed about 1 ton.

 

Excellent video but the bit at the end looks more like the Ganges than the Basingstoke!

 

Makes you realise how much we owe to these and all other Volunteers.

 

Tim

[Derek R.]

Thank you so much for taking the trouble to upload that video. Watching PERSEVERANCE at work - as well as the Bantams, was wonderful. I do have a query: When did the steam powered grab get replaced by a chain operated one? Or was there different periods when one was fitted as an alternative? The video claims to have been taken in the nineties, yet it has an earlier feel to it. There are pictures of PERSEVERANCE taken in the seventies with a chain/cable grab, and the bulk of the boiler room was in red.

 

There is also a shot in Sonia Rolt's 'Canal People' of 'A Dredger' being towed past the unloading gantries on the Oxford reckoned to have been taken in the late forties. Looks like PERSEVERANCE to me.

 

If anyone has trouble viewing the file in MP4, download VLC media player. It's free, then copy the file address and place in the VLC window to play. At least, that's what I had to do.

[Leo No2]

Thank you so much for taking the trouble to upload that video. Watching PERSEVERANCE at work - as well as the Bantams, was wonderful. I do have a query: When did the steam powered grab get replaced by a chain operated one? Or was there different periods when one was fitted as an alternative? The video claims to have been taken in the nineties, yet it has an earlier feel to it. There are pictures of PERSEVERANCE taken in the seventies with a chain/cable grab, and the bulk of the boiler room was in red.

 

There is also a shot in Sonia Rolt's 'Canal People' of 'A Dredger' being towed past the unloading gantries on the Oxford reckoned to have been taken in the late forties. Looks like PERSEVERANCE to me.

 

If anyone has trouble viewing the file in MP4, download VLC media player. It's free, then copy the file address and place in the VLC window to play. At least, that's what I had to do.

 

Thanks for your thanks.

Edited January 6, 2013 by Leo No2

[Derek R.]

Thanks for your thanks. I am not sure what changes were made and when but if you contact the secretary of the Passenger Boat Association (Roger Flitter) I am sure he will know as Roger was the dredger manager for the Canal Society and knows so much about Perseverance.

 

Thanks Kathryn, Roger came back to me with the answer very quickly. The steam grab was best for taking out spoil, but the chain grab was used in tight spots such as bridge'oles and the like. Nice shot of what could be No.14 from Laurence Hogg HERE. But on looking closer - I'm now sure is not! It's shorter overall, and I cannot see separate sponsons. Much other detail is also different, though likely similar plant and manufacturer.

 

Derek

Edited January 6, 2013 by Derek R.

[PeterO]

Although I was involved with the Basingstoke restoration, I was not involved with the dredging side.

 

In answer to Derek's query, I understood that the steam powered grab was used when the material to be dredged was hard and/or compacted and that the clam-shell grab (operated with chains and relied on gravity to dig down into the silt) was used when the material was soft. There were a number of times that the grabs were changed this was not something that happened very frequently. However, I understood that dredging using the steam-powered grab was slower.

 

Originally when she started dredging on the Basingstoke in 1975, the cabin on Perserverence was painted red but the colour was changed - can't remember when.

 

The film dates from the early 1990's. The opening shots of the tug were taken near Reading Road Bridge and the first shots of Perserverence show Pondtail bridge in the background. However, the film does not seem to have been compiled chronologically as later shots of Perserverence dredging are back nearer Reading Road Bridge.

 

When the dregings are shown being boated away, the tow is shown passing under Reading Road Bridge (very low), past a hire boat from Galleon Marine to the disposal site near Crookham Village west of Poulter's Bridge.

 

According to the Surrey & Hampshire Canal Society website: "In March 1993 Perseverance reached Pondtail Bridge, east of Fleet, and in October of that year, its work on the canal finished, it was taken by road to the Canal Museum at Ellesmere Port in Cheshire."

 

Peter

[Derek R.]

Thanks Peter, Roger Flitter explained much the same as he was managing the dredging from 1987 - 1993, though he wasn't present during the film clip which was taken during the last stages of the operation. Nice to get up close and personal to something we are not likely to see again. It got me looking and wondering how many such dredgers were at work on the cut. As most would likely have gone for scrap, PERSEVERANCE formerly No.14 really ought to be re-assembled, and at the least, well greased up and on display somewhere ready for fire and water.

[PeterO]

I believe there are moves afoot to try to get Perseverence out of Ellesmere Port and back together again. She deserves a better fate than languishing unloved at EP.

[DHutch]

PERSEVERANCE formerly No.14 really ought to be re-assembled, and at the least, well greased up and on display somewhere ready for fire and water.

Even if not 'ready for fire and water' it would certainly be nice to think at a bear minimum work was carried out to prevent significant further deterioration, and to improve it to the point of being a better exhibit.

 

 

A link to the file is here. It's in MP4 format - I think the default application is Quicktime - not my most favourite application but it works well within Powerpoint (for me).

 

I can, for some reason why may be my fairly slow internet causing it to time out, only download the first 150mb of the 914mb file.

 

I can then open that, and view the first 6 minutes of what is excellent bit of footage, but would be very interested in seeing the reminder if I could somehow.

 

Does it work for anyone else?

 

 

Daniel

 

[Leo No2]

Daniel

 

It goes to my website which is hosted in Denmark I think. It does seem to be running OK from Stoke Bruerne! It may be the timeouts from India causing an issue but if you can give me somewhere to put it I can put a copy there which I have stored locally. Send me a PM if I can help at all.

[DHutch]

Ok, could well be my end as said, its running slow (downloading, not streaming) here tonight forecasts and hour, runs for 10-15mins and then 'finishes' without finishing, so to speak.

 

Will try again tomorrow, and other with another browser, and PM if im still getting no where.

 

 

Daniel

[BuckbyLocks]

It dropped out completely after about six minutes on my system, without warning. It was running slow so there was only broken sound and I was so bored by it that I wasn't paying much attention to the screen when it dropped out. Will try again in the morning.

[Leo No2]

If you search YouTube for 'Steam Dredger' there's about 24 minutes of that video there.

[Basyfart]

I worked on the dredging team from 1975, Also on the team was Ian Cripps, Rodger Thomas, Peter Caiger, Brian Bains, Paul Gasgoin and his wife to be Penny, Ian Edward and John Hulbert. Foregiv me if I have missed others out but it nearly 40 years ago. We started with the steam grab at Odiham working up to King Johns Castle befor backtracking towards Fleet. The dredger arrived at Pontails Bridge Fleet in 1994. Yes the steam grab was used for harder compacted silt. At Colt Hill narrow gauge rail track and skips were used to remove the silt from th dredger for spreading. A very hard job pushing skips weighing aprox 1ton. By Swan Cutting things were easier when a locomotive arrived

It was a happy, if hard time with many laughs along the way, but now at the age of 75 I dont think that I cold do it again and would we be allowed to in these days of "Health and Safety"

Edited September 5, 2013 by Basyfart