Yesterday after touching up a few more rust spots on the roof and a scratch on the cabin 
This morning I started off at 1030 hrs while Diana was walking the dog.The first job was to reverse to the junction and wind. There was no one watching so it went like clockwork. Then on towards Foxton, I picked Diana and Magic up just past the first bridge as they had decided to walk back to meet me.
Husbands Bosworth tunnel was quite dry but I didn't see any bats which I understand live in there. Not long after that we caught up with a boat that we had followed for a couple of hours yesterday, Teasel flying a New Zealand flag from the tiller. They arrived above Foxton locks a few minutes before us as we had to wait for a boat to come through the last bridge and moored in the only gap available. We winded in the entrance to the inclined plain and then moored in behind them taking up the last spot. The reason for winding was the same as last night an I was able to get a bit of blue gloss over the white under coat so the scratch is a lot less noticeable and hopefully wont rust. An early finish for us at 1330 hrs and the batteries not fully charged.
1 comment:
The Stratford canal has ¼ and ¾ posts along its route. I have never checked
that they are all still there but the majority seems to be. They are very
easily missed as they are just rusting upright pieces of rail in the hedge –
perhaps put in during Great Western Railway ownership days. When SONCS
installed mileposts as a millennium project the location markers were there
but BW still used a wheeled ground measure to confirm the distance from
Kings Norton junction to get them checked. Unfortunately the man doing it
must have nipped off to the pub one lunchtime en route so he ‘resumed’ one ¼
mile out of synch. SONACS then installed to his plan. Then a SONACS member
spotted the error so BW came along and had to relocate 10 11 and 12 as I
recall a further ¼ towards Stratford. [the midpoint 12.5 mile was known] BW
did this by wrapping chain around them and simply lifting out of the ground
by crane with concrete surround attached. Hence the fact the beautiful paint
was scratched and they now need a major repaint exercise.
There should be 26 mileposts in total over the 25 mile length to Stratford
as there is an additional 12 ½ mile marker at the midpoint by Kingswood
junction beside lock 21 outside the old BW offices (former Stratford Canal
Company carpenter’s shop and as used by David Hutchings during the
restoration). However, the 2 mile marker would be in the tunnel so it was
never installed and before you ask the wheel measure was not taken through
the tunnel along its wall to measure it so far as I am aware.
Clive H
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