Western Depot - Back at work

This morning. the support structures in our 'Carnival' facilities caravan were placed under considerable strain as many of the teams, normally working out on the canal descended on Eastington to listen to Reg's state of the nation address to kick off the new year.  Some 40 volunteers were present.  

 

Getting the information quickly to the Eastern End guys also seemed to have been taken care of with this prototype rocket launcher positioned in the yard pointing roughly in the right direction!

The Ryeford to Oil Mills Pound

by: Bob H.

After a long Christmas Break, the Wet dredging team started up again to continue clearing the accumulated silt and old tip material from the Ryeford to Oil Mills pound.
Dredger Patricia is now in the process of gaining full release from her trials.

This has taken longer than we would have liked, but doesn’t everything?

Today after the Tug Team bought along a hopper for us, we carefully manoeuvred Pat to a position where we could more easily get at the mud, settled in the spud legs and began dredging.
With Bob H. the instructor in charge, Richard F underwent a long stretch at the controls.
He looked quite pleased and proud after his spell at the levers (and so he should!). 

The result of his Richard’s efforts are in the hopper alongside. Please note, most of the water was already in there, we’ll pump it out when the hopper is nearer to full. 

A lot of people think that all we do is to sit in the seat and pull or twiddle levers. Far from it! Dredging is an involved series of activities. The range from deciding where to dredge, how and where to dispose of the muck (with all it’s regulations), maintenance of the plant, learning how to operate the plant and the qualifications required. We also require knowledge of Invasive Non Native Species, fish and wildlife protection requirements and their controls.

Above all this is the fundamental requirement of safety of the Volunteers and Public.

"May all your combined leaks never exceed your bilge pump capacity.

Project 'DNF' - No.5 Refit

by: Vince H.

I had a surprise last Wednesday when Peter said "I may not be there on Monday, so you are in charge". Gulp... Err... Management... How hard can it be?

The plan was to continue the clean out of the bilges and perhaps take out the old hydraulic tank that was mounted midships.  Now it is the nature of these things that you can never remove one item without taking out several other things and pretty soon the cabin floor and its bearers had been removed to allow the tank to be turned through ninety degrees and tipped over.

The resulting space allowed us to get in and review the vast array of hydraulic plumbing lurking under the side decks. Much time was spent tracing pipes and trying to remember which ones had been disconnected from the control block and work out those that had been unused for many years with the various changes in the dredger's configuration over its life.  In the end, most of the plumbing was removed with only two feed pipes left in place, though their future is also in doubt depending on where all the components are mounted.

Meanwhile in the yard, John and Gill were reclaiming the unused fuel tanks, cleaning the insides and painting the outside in red oxide.

In the workshop, Ken produced a bush that will allow us to accurately drill out the sheared bolts in the slew ring of the dredger's boom.  A task for Wednesday.

With time left over all the remaining wiring was removed.  Most of this will be replaced with a new loom that comes with the engine.

SVCC launches a new web site

by: Peter B.

Come and visit SVCC’s new web site at www.stroudvalleyscanal.co.uk and see how the canal is being presented to the world at large.  

This will be the new site where all of the latest news and information about the canal can be found. It has details of news, stoppages, details on canal assets and is also where you will be able to find out how to apply for moorings or licences.  It has been produced by Mark Strange, a long-time volunteer on the Eastern section and Peter Best and it went live in early December.  It is now THE place where any issues or closures will be published.

SVCC introduces a new Facilities Guide to the Cotswold Canal.

by: Peter B.

A new guide to the canal covering the stretch from Pike Lock, Eastington to Brimscombe has been published on-line.  

SVCC-Guide-Web-18-11-26

It is intended for all users of the canal be they on the water or just walking.  It has been produced by David Jowett, the brilliant editor of the TROW and SVCC’s Chairman, Peter Best and will be updated quarterly, coming out on the 1^st March, 1^st June, 1^st September and finally on the 1^st December. 

It hopes to be a pretty comprehensive guide to what’s happening on the canal, how to use it, the current limits of navigation and what facilities the canal and the surrounding area can offer a visitor.

Later on in the year, we will start actively promoting the canal as being ‘open’ to trail boaters and other water bound users.

Comments and up-dates are welcome! Please send any revisions to peterbest(at)spslimited(dot)co(dot)uk   <anti spam format...ed>

A lovely surprise....

by: Leonie A.

A grey day at Ebley Wharf and your Fundraising Team were on a photo shoot for our Celebratory Bollards and the next Trow edition.  Several photos later, we were packing up when the our day was brightened by a lovely lady from one of the wharf houses, who came out to thank all the volunteers involved with the canal restoration for all their hard work and for making Ebley such a wonderful place to live.  

Her thanks came with a yellow bag containing two good bottles of wine, to be shared between volunteers via Western Depot.  What a wonderful moment you all prompted and such unexpected kindness to share with you all.

Project 'DNF' - No.5 Refit

Firstly, happy new year to you all.  At least the sun shone on our first day back, although No.5 was well coated in sparkling frost when we arrived.

Today's efforts targeted two areas.  The bilges were still deep in a mixture of oil, water and crud, so that was the primary job.  Secondly, the two fuel tanks were inspected internally.

The grunge in the bilges was attended to using a selection of methods.  The previous process of pumping the fluids into a large tank and letting the oil/water separate had worked well, so we did a bit more of that.  This method only worked to the point at which the bilge pump gave up due to low fluid level.

So, we concocted a system which could suck the grunge up using a vacuum cleaner, a large plastic bottle as a separator and a small hose at the sharp end.  This worked quite well for the water and light oil, however, when the brew approached that of heavy crude, it too gave up.

This then called for another attack using the copious supplies of wood shavings from the chippies.  Sprinkling the remaining areas worked really well and a sludge could be created that not only stayed on the shovel, but also left the treated area clean and dry.  The waste was then suitable to put in a bag.

Grade 'A' sludge

Most of the bilge was cleaned, there is a bit more to do under the cab area.

In the yard, where the two diesel tanks had bee taken for safe keeping, the task of undoing the numerous screws that secured the flat plate lids on began.  Eventually, we were able to see clearly into both tanks.  The Port side one still had a small amount of diesel in it and was generally quite clean.  The starboard tank looked like it had not been used for some considerable time and had a much thicker layer of granulated size deposits coating the bottom, together with more rust under the lid.

Where's there's muck there's volunteers!

Both are now ready for a full clean and repaint before being put back into service.  The old plastic diesel tank has now been disposed of. 

At the end of play we gathered all the hydraulic hoses together for safe keeping.  It is hoped to redeploy some of these in the up and coming rebuild phase.