Curious hump bridge over old railway near Stoke Bruerne

On the road between Stoke Bruerne and Blisworth - that's the road for wheeled traffic I mean - there is a hump bridge.

Not that surprising, you might say. After all, there is a canal in the vicinity. But the canal here is in Blisworth Tunnel. I stopped to investigate.

Underneath the bridge, quite a long way down, is the bed of a dismantled railway.

I was surprised to see a flat underside to the bridge; I had been expecting a canal-style arch. On the OS map - image below from streetmap.co.uk - you can see the line of the former railway where the road crosses it, just above Stoke Plain.

The tunnel is a very short distance to the east. The railway is in a cutting here; its builders must have had to be careful not to break through into the roof of the tunnel.

The building marked on the map immediately to the west of the bridge is now a private house, but there is what looks like an old platform alongside. Was it Stoke Bruerne Station? I didn't take a photo, sorry.

Update: Consulting Wikipedia reveals that this was indeed a station, although it was misspelt "Stoke Bruern", without the final "e". The line was the Stratford-upon-Avon, Towcester and Midland Junction Railway; the station opened on 1st December 1892. It closed for passengers just four months later, 20 passengers per week not being enough to justify the cost.

Our last meeting with the Waiourus? And a good Sunday lunch in Stoke Bruerne

On Sunday we arranged to meet up with Tom and Jan of Waiouru at the Navigation pub in Stoke Bruerne for lunch. We left Jubilee at Gayton Junction and drove to the pub. There was no space in the car park so we parked on the road.

The place was heaving but our orders for lunch were placed reasonably quickly. Tom, I'm very grateful to you for helping me transfer - wirelessly - photos from my camera to Jan's mobile phone so that I could e-mail them to the BBC.

Our chatting while we waited for food helped to pass the time; when the roast meals arrived they were very good. My ordered chicken had mysteriously turned into beef, but I was so hungry I would have eaten anything. And the beef was very tasty, with plenty of nice vegetables - including RED CABBAGE! (one of my favourites).

Two Jans, Tom and Halfie

Tom told us a little about their plans for when they return to the other side of the world, so it wasn't a huge surprise when we read his post about Waiouru being for sale. Still, it will be a sad day when the deed is done and our waterways lose a lovely couple of people. I will especially miss your posts about technical matters, Tom.

We wish you both all the very best for your future travels.

Replacing Jabsco Par-Max 2.9 water pump

On Sunday I looked at the water pump under the bed and found a small flood. I don't know if the water was coming from the connections or the body of the water pump itself, so I replaced the pump and used the new O-ring connectors which came with it. This was an easy job as it was replacing like for like, a Jabsco Par-Max 2.9. Also, gate valves were handily there to isolate the pump.

I took this photo after sponging up the water and replacing the pump.

The computer fan is a temporary measure to help dry the surroundings.

There are two things about the pump's installation which might have led to the O-ring connections failing, if indeed they did. First, the pipes leading to the pump are fairly rigid, despite being plastic. Second, the pump is not screwed down - it merely rests on a couple of bits of foam insulation.

I think I could improve on this by using flexible hoses and screwing the pump down. For now, though, I'll see if what I've done stops the leak.

We returned home yesterday to find another minor flood. Our washing machine had been steadily filling up with cold water and leaking all over the parquet floor and into a cupboard. The solenoid valve on the cold feed must be not closing off properly. The biggest damage appears to be to the sliding cupboard door, the bottom of which has been wicking up the water causing the veneer to lift. Now the door won't slide open. Not sure what to do about it yet.

The boat, meanwhile, is at the boatyard for windows and a mushroom vent to be resealed in the hope that that will stop rain getting in. A gearbox oil leak will also be investigated, and a failed weld on a pigeon box flap will be rewelded.

Stand up paddle board world record* made on Grand Union Canal

This morning at 10.00 an exhausted stand up paddle boarder came in to the bank at Gayton Junction and was helped off her paddle board. Joanne Hamilton Vale, from Banbury, had just completed 24 hours of paddling, standing on a glorified surf board, continuously save for four breaks of no more than one and a half minutes. Her route was the section of Grand Union Canal between Blisworth and Bugbrooke, each there-and-back taking about two hours.

We became aware of a world record endurance attempt when Jo, in brightly coloured garb, kept paddling past our boat, accompanied on the towpath by someone jogging along filming her. I reckon she must have passed our boat 26 times - twice on each of the twelve "laps" and another twice to bring her up to the 24 hours required.

Two of Jo's supporters - from Cumbria - patiently answered my questions about the record attempt. It was much easier photographing them, relatively slow moving, than Jo, going about as fast as she could (commensurate with lasting 24 hours).

We now took every opportunity we could to cheer Jo on to victory.

I displayed a message of encouragement on the boat. Jo later asked me for my home-made sign, visible in a later photo.

At the end of her 24 hours, during which she got too hot during the warm sunny day and too cold during the starry night, she looked shattered. As well one might. While she was being congratulated and tended to, evidence of the distance covered and time taken were being meticulously filmed.

Jo recovered enough to smile with my sign ...

... before group photo time.

So how did Jo do? Well, according to provisional data (and my memory), she paddled a total distance of 179km in the requisite 24 hours. That's 111 miles at an average speed of 4.66 mph in old money (yes, she had special permission from CRT to break the speed limit). Of course, she had no locks to do.

*Guinness World Records has to confirm the result before Jo can truly claim to have beaten the previous record, of 177.79km by an American.

I shall endeavour to update this post when I get the information.

Jo raises money for Stand Up for the Cure, a cancer charity. Jo is herself a survivor of breast cancer. (I can't link to the charity's website as it seems to be insecure.)

You will see in one of the photos the red and white tape still closing off the Northampton Arm. My photos from yesterday did make it onto BBC Look East - neighbouring boat Festina Lente saw the story and we watched it on iPlayer at Ally and Ben's house this afternoon.

Fuel theft closes Northampton arm (again)

We noticed this morning that red and white stripy tape had been stretched right across the Northampton arm by the services block at Gayton Junction (but allowing boats on the main line to use the services). On investigation we found a police and fire service operation in progress.

What appeared to be a CRT man at the junction (he was wearing a non-hi-vis lifejacket) said that overnight someone had drilled into a pipe crossing the canal to steal fuel from it, and that a lot of fuel had leaked into the water.

The bridge was closed to traffic, but I was allowed down onto the towpath.

Booms had been placed across the canal to contain the spill. A number of small absorbent pads were floating on the water, achieving little by the look of them.

Two pipes cross the canal ...

... there is a damp patch at the foot of one of them.

Notices on the pipes seem not to have deterred the thief.

There was a very strong smell of fuel, but it didn't have the familiar diesel whiff.

A news report from two years ago describes an earlier attack on the fuel pipes where an astonishing 50,000 litres of fuel escaped. The fuel was named as kerosene, a fuel used in aviation. That must have been what I smelled today.

I sent photos to a former colleague at BBC Look East, who already knew about the story. It sounded like he was going to run the item and promised me a picture credit. That will surprise a few more former colleagues - I can imagine them saying, "I thought he left four years ago!"

There has been a lot happening today; the rest will have to wait for subsequent blog posts.

Dirty diesel

I changed both fuel filters this afternoon. I wasn't expecting quite so much muck in the first filter/agglomerator.

It looks worryingly how I imagine the dreaded diesel bug to look, but the actual diesel was the usual bright pinkish colour. I'll next suck up some diesel from the bottom of the fuel tank and see what that's like. The engine has been running fine.

This is the top part of the first filter arrangement: the bolt through the top holds the filter in place with the metal bowl underneath.

Two fellow bloggers' boats passed our temporary mooring at Gayton Junction today, neither stopped. Waiouru motored past while I was in the Grand Junction Boat Company office - I saw the back end disappearing towards Blisworth. Jan (Jubilee Jan) had exchanged a few words with Tom, who said he was coming back. Well, Tom, if you do, we won't be here. GJBC will be having the boat for a couple of weeks to do a few jobs while we return home. The other non-stop boat was Briar Rose. I had, by chance, seen and spoken to Adam and Adrian as they were leaving Thrupp Wharf Marina by car to collect BR after its blacking. I had been picking up our car. As they went past in the same direction as Waiouru I was dripping with diesel.

Tomorrow we have to be up early as we have a BCF event in Banbury (not canalside) and we need to leave the boat ready for the work to be done. I'll blog about the work when we return to the boat in a couple of weeks.

Navigation pub, Stoke Bruerne

I'm posting this from my telephone while sitting in the Navigation waiting for food to arrive. I'm drinking a pint of tasteless Hobgoblin. How can the beer be so poor? Perhaps it is just too cold.

We set off from Thrupp Wharf Marina at 1445 in lovely warm sunshine. It was quite breezy but definitely T-shirt weather. I'd have worn shorts if I'd packed any. Apart from the bottom lock all the locks needed turning - most needed the top gates shutting too.

We tied up in the long pound ... and are sitting in the pub with rumbling tummies. (In case you're wondering, Jan is making use of the free wifi too.)

No photos as my camera is on the boat (and I wouldn't know how to get photos from camera to telephone).

Blacking done (of the barn wall)

I have already posted the first of these images; the set here shows the progress I have made.

Just the original bits of wall to do now, but it looks a lot better. Oh, and I'll black the window frame too.

Boating soon!