Monday, 11 July 2016

Leeds

Today I drove Leeds 345.



It was meant to rain but didn't so it was like being in a greenhouse all day.

331 was in service. Hopefully one day I will get trained for this one.



Thursday, 2 June 2016

Birmingham Metro Opens to Grand Central

It actually opened on Monday but we rode it for the first time today. These pictures show a tram reversing at the terminus.







Tuesday, 31 May 2016

And it goes cold again.

After a night of being knocked and buffeted by the hire boat from yesterday, as you can imagine we didn't get much sleep.
Hey ho.
We started off the day with a McDonald's breakfast for KM and a Wetherspoons for the grown ups.



We were only going half way back today until the weather turned and we decided a night with mains power would be nicer.



The help was useful again.





All locks take 30 minutes each don't they?

Who gets hirer's a bad name.

Our first trip of the season last night and what a reminder it was of other people's selfishness.

You will hopefully read more about this when I send it to one of the canal magazines.

Bank holiday Monday. You're the company rep and it's five I clock so you want to go home. You have two boats to moor so why not put one in the clearly marked lock moorings way past the vistor moorings as shown on the photo, and the other in a half boat space pushed up against another boat. Well either that or do your job properly.









Another Boating Cowboy!



We made our feelings known but checking further along did not appear to be an option though we were told we could change our mooring!

The rest of the day had gone well as we came down the Droitwich canals and I to Worcester.





We saw baby Moor hens.




Iconic views.



And initially a nice mooring.

Saturday, 21 May 2016

More trams.

I haven't blogged for a while. Not sure I have a decent excuse so I will try to do better in future.

Today I was passed out on a new tram. Oporto 273.



It went OK apart from one problem mixing up the hand brake and air brake.



Today was horse tram day.



And a chance to see 2 Sheffield cars together.



Alison rode with me all day.



And finally back to shed with no problems.



On May 1st I drove 236 again but forgot to blog.





Sunday, 10 April 2016

Something went right for a change

Today I went down to see the boat to do some maintenance jobs. It's about time I did some and the weather was lovely.
The first thing I realised is that there is now a high security gate at the marina. We always thought a wooden 5 bar gate with the high security fence was an obvious weak link as you could just climb it. We are very pleased with this new gate.



My first job was to fit a new plug socket. I have bought some that have integral USB chargers as loads of things these days seem to need one of these. It was an easy fit and will make life a lot easier.



Then it was time to replace the tunnel light. We have done a lot of research and have decided to try and get one which has a magnetic mount so we can move it. After lots of research we found a nice magnetic mount and it was reasonably cheap at about £10. I have also fitted a couple of extension wires both with plugs and sockets on the end so that we can position at the light at other points on the boat to use as a work light. Very pleasingly it has worked out perfectly.







It is easy to move to other locations as required.





The magnet is strong enough to put the light on the side of the boat too so it will be very helpful in rural moorings to aid safe movements.



We are worried it may be too bright but only time will tell.

Thursday, 31 March 2016

First Trams of the Year

Yesterday saw me on duty for the first time this year.

No surprise that I chose a Blackpool Tram.



There were 2 others on duty and Kevin Boyd was my conductor.