SDC Tuesday Team

by: Ian Moody

Tuesday saw us split into three teams.

The first team continued the edge boards at the Bowbridge ramp, a little distracted by the presence of BBC Radio Gloucester who were recording interviews for a feature on volunteering.  The wooden edge boards are now complete with only a few concrete edgings to install then we are ready for the aggregate.

The second team set off up the valley from Bowbridge to do some much needed vegetation management. After the late spring everything seems to be growing with a vengeance but that section is now looking much more loved.

The third team headed over to Saul Junction to make some progress on workboat Flea.  There was but one objective: lift the flooring planks to get to the silt and water trapped under there. There were a few challenges but eventually the planks and the retaining bolts yielded and we were able to shovel out the silt and scoop out most of the water

We knew some of the planks were rotten but it looks like we will be able to reuse most of the others. A good, if somewhat messy, day.

Pat's Progress

Well, we all felt that not much had been achieved, but on reflection at the end of play, our progress was quite satisfactory.

There are now two coats of deck paint on all the boat gunnel surfaces.  The preparation for this was woven around the assembly of the two remaining spud leg mechanisms.  The port side went together well, however, problems with the starboard side, referenced in our last blog, took a bit of dealing with.

Now, we had not imagined that the mighty mag' drill would be out again.  But investigations revealed that there was a twist in the pivot point at the bottom of one of the uprights.  There was no simple solution to this, other than re-drill to create a hole that a pin would insert in to.  The movement of the joint is very small, so should present no operational problems.  At least all the joints run free and above all, happy!

All the hoses are now in place for the hydraulic rams, so, apart from the main jib cylinder, which we will replace on Wednesday, the system is at a point where the hydraulics can be re-filled and powered up for testing.  

The rudder has made great progress.  Our cunning plan to trepan the bottom bearing with a 44mm cutter worked like a dream.  The pitted crusty surface was rejuvenated and will soon rest in the new machined bush that the workshop kindly turned up for us and fitted last thing today.

Elsewhere, some more paint was applied in the control cabin, below the front window.  Two more bilge pumps have been plumbed in and electrically connected, ready for testing soon.  We require some 28 large washers to sit between the split pins and the spud leg metalwork.  All the ones we had recovered were gathered together, carefully cleaned and then painted.  These too can be refitted on Wednesday.

So, as you see, quite a lot was achieved and we headed off content with our days effort.

SDC Thursday Team

by: Ian Moody

Thursday saw a return to the Bowbridge ramp and some great progress made. The majority of the edge boards are now in place so one more session should see them all done. 

Normally we would be laying the aggregate and topping as we go but due to the limitations of the site we have opted to do all the edge boards first and then get all the aggregates in as quickly as possible to minimise the disruption to the cul-de-sac. Sounds like another wheelbarrowfest opportunity to me!

And over at Lodgemore the trench got longer, and the trench got deeper, and the CAT scanner got buzzier, and, eventually, finally, at last, we found the cable we were seeking. Western Power Distribution told me that it might be quite deep and they were not wrong. So locating it is good news (and a great relief!) but the depth means that digging the access pit around it will be a much bigger task than we anticipated.

All Quiet at the Western Depot

by: Buffs

The summer holiday rush has had quite an effect on Western Depot this week. The passing of the summer term break has seen many of our regulars disappear off for some quiet time away from the routine.

Monday started slowly with less than half a sheet filled with names by 09:00. Jobs were allocated: one group to Skew Bridge to start the repair of the towpath fence under the bypass, another to collect a picnic bench with a broken leg and work on Patricia going on. More names appeared on the sheet and work on the old Mess resumed.

But still the yard was un-naturally quiet. The syncopated cacophony of grinders, other power tools and hammers was replaced by the silent swish of paint brushes.  Patricia’s digger parts and her leg irons were flowering into the bright yellow of JCB under gentle caress of Jill’s paint brush. The rest of the yard was garlanded with muted red checker plates from Patricia’s decks slowly turning a dusty rose pink under the first coat of grey anti-slip paint at Leonie’s hand.

Stuart, the first of our depot produced work boats, now back in the yard to be finished was being stripped of her gunwale timbers in preparation for repainting and the fitting of the dragon’s teeth. The dragon’s teeth form the lashing points for the green weather cover seen on her sister Jasper and are welded to the hull. There will be other welding to do on this boat to bring her up to the same standard as Jasper.

With sun rising ever higher the picnic table with one of its legs splintered into two and showing signs of many years of service to the user of the towpath was brought back and gently laid at rest in the wood yard. This was soon followed by the broken fence timbers from the Skew Bridge. The cunning plan to dig out the rotten timber from the concrete thwarted by the way it was fitted. A different solution is required.

Lunch was taken in just one sitting.

The dragon’s teeth were being cut on the reciprocating saw. There are 42 to be cut. The metronomic beat of the saw as it worked through the steel became the accompaniment to a slow, hot summer’s afternoon. Leonie applied the second coat of anti slip to the deck plates which matured from rose pink to a soft glowing grey.

And as the afternoon cooled the tranquillity was cut by the roar of a newly cleaned and maintained trimmer being brought back to life ready for more work on the canal.

Reflecting on the day the signing in sheet was almost full, many of Reg’s tasks had been completed, Patricia is becoming more colourful and some long outstanding little jobs had been finished. Almost a cue for Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9.

SDC - Mega Blog!

by: Ian Moody

3-in-1 today. No, not the lubricating oil, just a catch up on a busy week.

NWPG. 
Last weekend we hosted Newbury Working Party Group at Dock Lock, Eastington. NWPG are regular weekend visitors to the canal project and always deliver good results.

They continued the towpath and fencing work and made some more progress on the tricky curved steps at the tail of the lock. 

They also began the repairs to the old spill weir on the offside of the canal where the first, and not insignificant, task was to make a safe working area by blanking off the very deep outlet at the back of the weir. 

"You're gonna need a longer spade". 
On Tuesday most of the team went over to Dock Lock to do some more towpath and fencing plus a bit of digger training. 

Meanwhile a team of elite spade-wranglers went over to Lodgemore to dig for electricity.  Despite their best efforts the cable proved to be elusive so we'll be continuing the search on Thursday, having sourced that longer spade. 

SDC Squared.
On Wednesday SDC hosted SDC.  I was a bit worried that we'd disappear in a puff of logic but it seemed to work out. This time the location was the ramp at Bowbridge where the team continued the edge boards.

A good day's work which was enjoyed by all. We just about managed to squeeze in a team photo.

Dredger Wildlife - A welcome sight of life

by: Andrew Rendell

Over the last month on the Bowbridge to Griffin pound we've been kept happy with the sight of a variety of ducks and small fish. 

As we know ducklings have a hard time and many don't survive in the first weeks.

This week 3-5 week old duckling families have survived in part except for one family still have 9 ducklings.

The interesting thing is two families mums are cross bread with a male mandarin ducks

Great to see and makes our volunteer work worthwhile and an appreciative public.

Pat's Progress

With a fine day in prospect and the forecast of rain later, we pressed on with further painting.  This time, it was the hull related deck surfaces and gunnels on the boat.  These required quite a bit of chipping away at the multi-layered heritage coats of paint+rust.   Great progress was made, with almost all the surfaces red oxide and coated with non slip deck paint.

At the same time, we were working at the front cabin installing the windows.  The one new window took a bit of time as that required a different set of mounting holes.   Once they were in place, the gutters and locking eyes that support the anti vandal covers were pop riveted in place.  Now we have glass in place, the shields will need to be up when we are not about.

We had hoped to get all the remaining spud legs pinned in place.  Difficulties with the front port side assembly quashed that ambition.  We have an alignment problem, which is going to take a bit more time to sort out.   However, the two stern leg cylinders were coupled to their new hydraulic hoses.