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Post by JohnV on Apr 4, 2021 15:57:17 GMT
@tonyc You are missing out on one of the great joys of boating, Lift Bridge Bingo. Score points for every car, pedestrian, cyclist, held up. More points for a white van, triple for anyone who does a screeching U turn. As a single hander you can score far more points than a crew, take your time and enjoy the rush hour traffic delays. My wife (not one for being keen on helping if it was requiring brute strength) used to delight in the push button operated bridges, She even had a little dance ritual to do in time with the warning siren, something I found hilarious ........ but motorists frequently didn't
Doing theRriver Hull can be fun if the times coincide with the rush hour, the traffic chaos that can be caused when bridge after bridge is opened for you is amazing !!!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 4, 2021 16:11:35 GMT
@tonyc You are missing out on one of the great joys of boating, Lift Bridge Bingo. Score points for every car, pedestrian, cyclist, held up. More points for a white van, triple for anyone who does a screeching U turn. As a single hander you can score far more points than a crew, take your time and enjoy the rush hour traffic delays. Of course swmbo hates it, cos they are all looking and pointing at the slow woman taking her time when they have somewhere to be. Not that she can do it anymore with her condition, so in effect I'm a single hander most of the time. Of course she then feels guilty cos they all know she's in the cabin when she should be helping me! Sod em I say! I remember back in the late 80s being held up near Aintree in Liverpool on a road that crossed the L+L. It was around midday I think, which was never good at that spot. And I think maybe there was an event on, because the hold-up seemed to last a very long time, at least to my young and impatient sensibilities. I eventually got out of the car and went forwards to see what the problem was, and then saw this line of narrowboats inching past the bridge at a ludicrously slow speed. For a few moments I thought: how cute all those boats are. But my abiding emotion was annoyance. Under what byelaw or regulation could this line of ridiculous boats be permitted to close a road and stop me and my fellow motorists from proceeding? How could this activity even be legal? I largely forgot about narrowboats for the next decade, until my children discovered the TV show 'Rosie and Jim', with that grubby old bearded man who narrated and 'acted' the show aboard a narrowboat. I can remember thinking that if the people in those silly-looking boats all looked like he did, I would do well to stay out of the whole business. Fast forward about 30 years to last Thursday, and there I was with my wellies caked in four inches of mud, my shopping bags left on the towpath, and standing on the stern of an ancient icebreaker that clearly weighed more than the Bismark (and had gotten wedged across the canal), trying to rock the boat from side to side, in an attempt to free the bows of the vessel from the mud on the other side of the canal. The couple in charge were probably even older - and were certainly more dishevelled- than the man from the TV programme. Come to think it, I am generally more dishevelled myself than he ever was. Worse, all three of us had probably consumed more alchohol on the previous evening than the aforementioned TV boater would have done in a week. At the moment I am so scruffy that I think I'm only avoiding arrest by being in public places for no more than half an hour at a time.
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Post by brummieboy on Apr 4, 2021 17:20:36 GMT
Drawbridges and swing bridges have always been a source of amusement/anger depending on which side of the situation you are. My personal recollections of the most memorable events are: At Shirley, on the Stratford Canal, next to the Drawbridge Pub, there never used to be barriers, and after holding up about 6 cars, 2 yoofs on Honda 50's came to the front of the queue on the hinge side. As I lowered the bridge, they began to ride up it; the one rider had better control of the ratio between revs and automatic clutch than the other, who managed to go off the front of the bridge whilst still 3ft above ground. Another time on the Caldon, at an automated lift bridge, I had held up a few cars, one of which was a very impatient lady in a Rover 214. My wife passed through the bridge and i pressed the right buttons to lower it. Once lowered, I pushed up the barrier on my side and proceeded across to lift the other one. Halfway across, there was an unmistakeable 'crump' of a road barrier onto a car roof as it bounced back down. The very irate lady got out of the car through the now open door as the door pillar had collapsed, trod carefully through the broken windscreen glass to demand my name, address etc. I referred her to the emergency phone number on the signs and legged it. At the Wrenbury bridge Tony mentioned, I had opened the bridge, we passed through and another boat followed, when another boat appeared going like the clappers around the bend by the pub. I was looking the other way, but heard it and looked and realised there was no way he would stop, so I pressed the stop and tried to open it again but it had died terminally. So there were several vehicles stranded, and a narrowboat with a bent cabin corner, and me with my key stuck in the lock. The other boater gave me his key as he had to wait for BW to come and reset. (I'll be challenging Quaysider for occurrences soon)
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Post by Deleted on Apr 4, 2021 18:24:20 GMT
Drawbridges and swing bridges have always been a source of amusement/anger depending on which side of the situation you are. My personal recollections of the most memorable events are: At Shirley, on the Stratford Canal, next to the Drawbridge Pub, there never used to be barriers, and after holding up about 6 cars, 2 yoofs on Honda 50's came to the front of the queue on the hinge side. As I lowered the bridge, they began to ride up it; the one rider had better control of the ratio between revs and automatic clutch than the other, who managed to go off the front of the bridge whilst still 3ft above ground. Another time on the Caldon, at an automated lift bridge, I had held up a few cars, one of which was a very impatient lady in a Rover 214. My wife passed through the bridge and i pressed the right buttons to lower it. Once lowered, I pushed up the barrier on my side and proceeded across to lift the other one. Halfway across, there was an unmistakeable 'crump' of a road barrier onto a car roof as it bounced back down. The very irate lady got out of the car through the now open door as the door pillar had collapsed, trod carefully through the broken windscreen glass to demand my name, address etc. I referred her to the emergency phone number on the signs and legged it. At the Wrenbury bridge Tony mentioned, I had opened the bridge, we passed through and another boat followed, when another boat appeared going like the clappers around the bend by the pub. I was looking the other way, but heard it and looked and realised there was no way he would stop, so I pressed the stop and tried to open it again but it had died terminally. So there were several vehicles stranded, and a narrowboat with a bent cabin corner, and me with my key stuck in the lock. The other boater gave me his key as he had to wait for BW to come and reset. (I'll be challenging Quaysider for occurrences soon) Its hard to be overly sympathetic with the woman in the 214. In edging her car forwards right behind you as you crossed over to raise the other barrier, she was actually putting you at risk- one slip on her pedals and she might have surged forwards and hit your legs, for example. If she had waited till both barriers were up, and you were off the bridge- as I'm sure she was supposed to do- her car would have been untouched. We are all guilty of different kinds of 'sinning', for want of a better word, but I think karma punishes the sin of impatience much more quickly than other offences.
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Post by peterboat on Apr 4, 2021 18:35:20 GMT
I think I might hold the record for most chaos with a lift bridge!! Back in 2008 I was going out for 7 month cruise, we got to Barnby dun, barriers go down and bridge goes up I go through, button pressed to drop bridge nothing happens so BW called as key is stuck in the pillar! BW arrive on wrong side of canal to the control tower so has to drive around which is a long journey especially as both directions to the bridge now have traffic back the odd 10 miles. So in the end he gets there about 2 -3 hours later to discover the tower has been broken into and all the equipment wrecked apart from the up contactor, in the end he manages to release my key remotely and we sailed off. It transpires that it was a local that had wrecked the tower it was also over two weeks before the bridge was fixed according to Towpath Telegraph so I do wonder how long the traffic jams were at the longest? I painted the boat whilst I was out and changed its name for safety when we came back through 7 months later So roll on a few years we are on the Leeds Liverpool, Jayne and Bev open a swing bridge, 5 boats go through and Jayne and Bev cant close the bridge, they enlist the help of car drivers it wont move, BW called they release the key and we all cruise away. A week or so later we cruise back the bridge is still open oops dont know when it got fixed apparently something major broke dont know how that happened
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