K&A Trip planned

[rusty69]

1 minute ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

ALL the staff are constantly changing...!

We go in there on a Thursday after tintinabulation. 

"The Bells! " thought that was Quasimodo! 

 

Or is  tintinabulation the name of the first boozer you stop at? 

[Guest]

Ooh ouch I've just been merged ......... 

[rusty69]

1 minute ago, Meanderingviking said:

Ooh ouch I've just been merged ......... 

As long as your not Sub merged

[Guest]

Just now, rusty69 said:

As long as your not Sub merged

It's a possibility with all this rain, oh I live on a boat, lucky me 

[mrsmelly]

4 minutes ago, Meanderingviking said:

It's a possibility with all this rain, oh I live on a boat, lucky me 

Which reminds me of the conversations years ago when we first moved aboard and mum and rellies cos we were weird and had moved onto a boat would ring when there was heavy rain and floods in the country and the conversation went something like this

Mum..Are you alright?

Me..Yes mum why do you ask?

Mum..Its terrible rain and theres floods everywhere so are you allright?

Me.. Yes mum, we live on a boat

Mum.. Yes I know that's why I am checking is the boat allright?

Me.. Err yes mum its a boat, it floats...is your house ok its stuck to the floor?

End of conversation usualy

[Guest]

1 minute ago, mrsmelly said:

Which reminds me of the conversations years ago when we first moved aboard and mum and rellies cos we were weird and had moved onto a boat would ring when there was heavy rain and floods in the country and the conversation went something like this

Mum..Are you alright?

Me..Yes mum why do you ask?

Mum..Its terrible rain and theres floods everywhere so are you allright?

Me.. Yes mum, we live on a boat

Mum.. Yes I know that's why I am checking is the boat allright?

Me.. Err yes mum its a boat, it floats...is your house ok its stuck to the floor?

End of conversation usualy

Excellent, that made me chuckle 

[cereal tiller]

42 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

"The Bells! " thought that was Quasimodo! 

 

Or is  tintinabulation the name of the first boozer you stop at? 

It is the Vehicular mode of Transport that Snowy pushed his Dawg around in?

[rusty69]

5 minutes ago, cereal tiller said:

It is the Vehicular mode of Transport that Snowy pushed his Dawg around in?

Bit cryptic that one CT. Had to look it up in the Thomson directory twice! 

[cereal tiller]

3 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

Bit cryptic that one CT. Had to look it up in the Thomson directory twice! 

Well done.

[Nightwatch]

2 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

There's taps all around you!

Newbury
Kintbury
Hungerford
Bedwyn
Crofton
Wootton Rivers
Pewsey x 2

 

Yep! That's wot I wrote.

[Dharl]

On ‎02‎/‎08‎/‎2017 at 17:12, nicknorman said:

Then there was the motorist who drove onto the electric swing bridge despite the alarm, flashing lights, red light and barrier coming down. He accelerated then braked rapidly as he realised he wasn't going to get under the second barrier. So there he (and his wife) were, parked on the swing bridge with barriers front and rear. I was on the boat, Jeff was operating. Which was a shame because if it had been me, I'd just have continued holding the button down and swung the bridge. But being much nicer than me, Jeff reversed the operation and let them off. I would have sworn at them but there was a family with young children gongoozling!

 

I would have paid good money to watch a car full of people in a hurry being swung round a canal....  

 

We are leaving Hilperton on the 18th Aug and heading East for a bit 'up the hill' will keep an eye out for you and wave as we go past!

 

 

On ‎30‎/‎05‎/‎2017 at 21:04, haggis said:

1. The little hanging metal brackets for putting your foot in to get up onto a balance beam to cross the lock. Ok going up but when trying to step down, you can't see where the metal things are and I often put my foot on the top by mistake and slipped off when I put my weight on it. Got several skinned knees as they hit off the balance beam as I slipped down. 

 

its not so much the dismount I have issues with (happy to jump that bit) however I find that the stirrup is not quite bigger enough for a walking boot, which is what I normally wear when working locks, which can be  a pain getting up as my legs are not as long as I think they should be!

[nicknorman]

There's now a stoppage - the summit pound closed UFN due to low water levels. Any KandA regulars know if this is fairly routine, or unusual? We are still at Hungerford but if it is reopened fairly soon, what are the chances of it closing again later when we are stuck the wrong side of it?

[magpie patrick]

1 hour ago, nicknorman said:

There's now a stoppage - the summit pound closed UFN due to low water levels. Any KandA regulars know if this is fairly routine, or unusual? We are still at Hungerford but if it is reopened fairly soon, what are the chances of it closing again later when we are stuck the wrong side of it?

Ah, that could bugger up my plans to be home by the end of the month!

[MtB]

1 hour ago, nicknorman said:

There's now a stoppage - the summit pound closed UFN due to low water levels. Any KandA regulars know if this is fairly routine, or unusual? We are still at Hungerford but if it is reopened fairly soon, what are the chances of it closing again later when we are stuck the wrong side of it?

No not normal. The summit is fed from a well at crofton during steaming weekends but I dunno if the same well is the water source for the electric pumps. 

You can't get stuck the wrong side. Just go out at Bristol, up the Severn and back via the G&S. 

[billS]

47 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

No not normal. The summit is fed from a well at crofton during steaming weekends but I dunno if the same well is the water source for the electric pumps. 

You can't get stuck the wrong side. Just go out at Bristol, up the Severn and back via the G&S. 

The electric pumps take the water from Wilton Water. As far as I am aware, the steam pumps take it from the same source.

[Nightwatch]

Heavy rain forecast over the next couple of days,it may help.

 

[MtB]

3 hours ago, billS said:

The electric pumps take the water from Wilton Water. As far as I am aware, the steam pumps take it from the same source.

 

I've just watched the video on their website and you're effectively right, but not precisely. The beam engines actually take their water from the canal pound right outside according to the video, which is in turn fed by Whilton Water.

I suspect the electric pumps take their water straight from the pound too as it won't be contaminated so much with weed and general plant debris. Although I don't actually know. I've not noticed where the electric pumps are, always distracted by other stuff when I'm there!

http://www.croftonbeamengines.org/crofton-an-introductory-video/

[Guest]

6 hours ago, nicknorman said:

There's now a stoppage - the summit pound closed UFN due to low water levels. Any KandA regulars know if this is fairly routine, or unusual? We are still at Hungerford but if it is reopened fairly soon, what are the chances of it closing again later when we are stuck the wrong side of it?

This does happen from time to time in the summer. The email stats 'vandalism', more likely the paddles have been left up on the locks by an inattentive or inexperienced boater causing the pound to drain. The water levels usually recover quickly with the stoppage, so I would be inclined to say don't worry.

[dmr]

12 minutes ago, Meanderingviking said:

This does happen from time to time in the summer. The email stats 'vandalism', more likely the paddles have been left up on the locks by an inattentive or inexperienced boater causing the pound to drain. The water levels usually recover quickly with the stoppage, so I would be inclined to say don't worry.

Dunno, I thought that there had been previous instances of paddles getting left open at both ends of the summit? I know CaRT like to shout "vandalism" to detract attention from real problems, but I do suspect there might be stuff going on here. Was there not also a couple of significant anti-boater incidents in that area over the last couple of years ? How is Wilton Water looking?????   I know that in previous years the summit was fed from the Avon by using the backpumps when Wilton was low, but dunno if CaRT are still allowed to do this, think there is a limit on how much they can extract from the Avon.

Dunno what its like on the K&A at the moment but up here in Shropshire its raining every day.

.................Dave

[MtB]

2 hours ago, dmr said:

Dunno, I thought that there had been previous instances of paddles getting left open at both ends of the summit? I know CaRT like to shout "vandalism" to detract attention from real problems, but I do suspect there might be stuff going on here. Was there not also a couple of significant anti-boater incidents in that area over the last couple of years ?

 

You are probably right in your suspicions. Here is the text of the CRT notice:

 

Locks 51 to 56 are closed to boat traffic with immediate effect. Extremely low levels on the summit of the canal, combined with recent vandalism occurring to the pounds either side of the summit, means we do not have enough water reserves to enable safe navigation.

 

Water levels will be kept under review and once sufficiently recovered, the section will re-open to boat traffic. This notice will be updated at noon on Wednesday 9^th August.

"the pounds either side of the summit" suggests active sabotage to me, rather than a boater forgetting...

[Dharl]

Am hopping this is sorted out soon.  Am planning to leave  Hilperton next weekend (18th) and head towards Crofton and hopefully Hungerford (we do like Hungerford).   Last two times been on Honeystreet, for various reasons, we have been contained between Bath top lock and Send Green.... (both nice places but got itchy feet!)

[nicknorman]

Summit is now open 10am to 3pm. We came through today, plenty of water. One thing we noted is that several locks on the Crofton side gave to be left empty. What a waste of water, due to poor maintenance of the lock walls.

[David Schweizer]

1 hour ago, nicknorman said:

Summit is now open 10am to 3pm. We came through today, plenty of water. One thing we noted is that several locks on the Crofton side gave to be left empty. What a waste of water, due to poor maintenance of the lock walls.

Interesting. I was told some years ago by a BW employee, who used to work at the old Devizes yard, that the top gates on some of the K&A locks tended to swing open if the lock was full, and because the bottom gates were less robust than they should be, leaving the lock empty was to protect the bottom gates against the pressue of a pound full of water.

 

[dmr]

1 hour ago, nicknorman said:

Summit is now open 10am to 3pm. We came through today, plenty of water. One thing we noted is that several locks on the Crofton side gave to be left empty. What a waste of water, due to poor maintenance of the lock walls.

Several of the K&A locks, like Crofton, have no bywash, thats why they must be left empty. Any excess water flows over a sort of weir within the top ground paddle chamber.

This can only flow out if the bottom paddles are up so its really a case of leaving the bottom paddles up rather than the lock empty.

As you came up from Hungerford you might have noticed some fairly horrible new bywashes, there are ugly "motorway style concrete" weirs above the locks and they exit right across the bottom lock landings. These were installed a couple of years ago and I believe the EA paid as they are required to improve the water quality in the Kennet, though I don't really understand how this works.

On many wet days I have arrived at the Froxfield locks to find the bottom paddles have not been left open and the whole lock area to be under a couple of inches of water.

...........Dave

 

and in very heavy rain there can be so much overflow water going into the lock that its difficult to get the bottom gates open even with the paddles up.

...........Dave

[Guest]

2 hours ago, dmr said:

Several of the K&A locks, like Crofton, have no bywash, thats why they must be left empty. Any excess water flows over a sort of weir within the top ground paddle chamber.

This can only flow out if the bottom paddles are up so its really a case of leaving the bottom paddles up rather than the lock empty.

Indeed, and when the instructions are not followed the towpath ends up underwater as you approach the engine pound.