April News
SEA LOCK RESTORATION REPORT BY ADRIAN WILLS - 28th April 2020
The break in the run of fine, dry weather we have recently been experiencing has brought a temporary (I hope!) halt to work at Sea lock. However there has been good progress made on several fronts over the last few weeks. Work to strengthen and widen the spillway is just about finished. It has a new concrete bridge including a manhole for underneath inspection, craned over the top and cemented into place. On the other end the culvert has been extended and its retaining wall is almost up to its finished height.
Unfortunately the water level behind the spillway has dropped dramatically
The break in the run of fine, dry weather we have recently been experiencing has brought a temporary (I hope!) halt to work at Sea lock. However there has been good progress made on several fronts over the last few weeks. Work to strengthen and widen the spillway is just about finished. It has a new concrete bridge including a manhole for underneath inspection, craned over the top and cemented into place. On the other end the culvert has been extended and its retaining wall is almost up to its finished height.
Unfortunately the water level behind the spillway has dropped dramatically
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Having discovered that a number of the grease nipples on the Priestman Cub undercarriage were blocked when I was planning to re-fill them, I unscrewed them and I ordered some new ones. When the replacements finally arrived my knee and back problems made it physically very uncomfortable trying to put the new ones in place so I found myself an apprentice Navvy – my wife! She set to with a vengeance, replacing all those I had already removed and then giving her attention to those old ones still undisturbed. In clearing around one ‘hollow’ in the undercarriage she discovered a mass of tightly packed, fresh moss. It seems some little creature, presumably a mouse, had decided this would make a suitable home. Brings a whole new perspective on mobile homes, doesn’t it?
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Have now run out of grit sand!
SEA LOCK RESTORATION REPORT BY ADRIAN WILLS - 22nd April 2020
It’s all go at Sea Lock again. Having managed to restock my supplies of cement, hydraulic lime and concrete ballast, I have been able to resume building. I am currently working on reconstructing the spill way on one end of the causeway which crosses the canal basin, two thirds of the way up from the lock chamber. This causeway shouldn’t be there at all but that’s another story!
It’s all go at Sea Lock again. Having managed to restock my supplies of cement, hydraulic lime and concrete ballast, I have been able to resume building. I am currently working on reconstructing the spill way on one end of the causeway which crosses the canal basin, two thirds of the way up from the lock chamber. This causeway shouldn’t be there at all but that’s another story!
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Whilst working here a duck appeared with 10 brand new straight, out of the box ducklings in tow! Great!
Early this morning I was looking out of my (upstairs) living room window when something moving across the river caught my eye. I only glimpsed it but it was rather an odd shape and looked almost like a shark’s dorsal fin. I don’t think so!
Whatever it was had disappeared in to the reeds when suddenly a Roe Deer jumped over the fence along the river’s edge and into my garden. It stood in there garden for a moment or two before running along the side of the garden hedge and off down the tow path towards Sea Lock. At that point a Green Woodpecker landed on the edge of my lawn right in front of me and started hunting for ants. I watched it for quite some time before my geese frightened it away.
Early this morning I was looking out of my (upstairs) living room window when something moving across the river caught my eye. I only glimpsed it but it was rather an odd shape and looked almost like a shark’s dorsal fin. I don’t think so!
Whatever it was had disappeared in to the reeds when suddenly a Roe Deer jumped over the fence along the river’s edge and into my garden. It stood in there garden for a moment or two before running along the side of the garden hedge and off down the tow path towards Sea Lock. At that point a Green Woodpecker landed on the edge of my lawn right in front of me and started hunting for ants. I watched it for quite some time before my geese frightened it away.
Still haven’t finished greasing the crane!
SEA LOCK RESTORATION REPORT BY ADRIAN WILLS - 8th April 2020
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Taking advantage of the continuing dry weather and the rapidly diminishing quantities of mortar mixing materials in my store I (still Billy No Mates!) set about some rather overdue maintenance on the Priestman Cub crawler crane today. I first scraped out a barrow full and a half of caked-on mud from its undercarriage which had set really hard. Once I had removed the bulk of the mud I then gave the whole machine the attention of my pressure washer. This is a brilliant tool for dirt removal from hard to access places but it is equally good at removing paint! Something else that now needs addressing!
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Anyway, the undercarriage is now clean and dry and the grease points are ready for refilling. When this machine was being worked commercially it would have been part of the operator’s responsibilities to oil and grease it on a weekly basis. This is some exercise since there are 48 grease nipples on the undercarriage alone, not to mention a myriad of others in less accessible places and just to ‘rub salt into the wounds’ quite a number of the nipples refused to accept the grease. Now I am faced with the task of unscrewing each and every one of them, thoroughly soaking them in diesel and then blowing them through with an air gun to ensure that they are working properly. Hopefully this will solve the problem otherwise it implies that some of the bearings are not being greased at all and stand the chance of seizing up. This would be catastrophic Why can’t things be simple occasionally?
Greetings to all our Members, Supporters and Friends.
During this difficult period you might have a bit more time to look at the website. May I point you to a new part of the Archive section where we are starting to publish back-numbers of our excellent magazines which are full of interesting articles and information.
Thanks to Mike and Gaylena for putting the magazines onto the website and to Adrian for putting them together in the first place. It is our intention to put on all the back-numbers in due course.
I hope everyone is OK. Look after yourselves.
Ian Harrison - Chairman
During this difficult period you might have a bit more time to look at the website. May I point you to a new part of the Archive section where we are starting to publish back-numbers of our excellent magazines which are full of interesting articles and information.
Thanks to Mike and Gaylena for putting the magazines onto the website and to Adrian for putting them together in the first place. It is our intention to put on all the back-numbers in due course.
I hope everyone is OK. Look after yourselves.
Ian Harrison - Chairman
SEA LOCK RESTORATION REPORT BY ADRIAN WILLS - April 2020
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Whilst the Corona virus has put a stop on work at the Rosemoor end of Lord Rolle’s Canal, it still continues at Sea Lock if only with a somewhat limited work force of volunteers, namely one – me! My usual select band of helpers, normally 2 others and occasionally 3, have sensibly taken the governments health recommendations to heart and are staying at home. In the meantime I have continued working on rebuilding sections of wall and preparing others for repair, in splendid isolation – Billy No Mates!
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The restrictions on travel away from the home however are now beginning to affect me and what I have been doing since I now have less than one full a bag of cement and the same of hydraulic lime with which to mix mortar. My local builder’s merchants are, of course, closed for business. However, all is not lost. This is an opportunity for me to catch up on a little outstanding maintenance on my heavy machinery. Both Ruston Bucyrus and Priestman Cub cranes are in need of re-greasing but before this can be undertaken the build-up of mud accumulated over the very wet winter months, now ‘caked on’, has to be removed from their undercarriages and all the grease points thoroughly cleaned before the grease gun can be applied.
Unfortunately this requires a lot of bending and stooping which does my back a lot of good!
I recently swopped the drag-line bucket for the clam-shell bucket on the Priestman Cub with a view to removing a pile of hard core to be used for infill. Having not been used for a while the clamshell bucket is not opening and closing as smoothly as it should so that is another little mechanical problem to address.
I recently swopped the drag-line bucket for the clam-shell bucket on the Priestman Cub with a view to removing a pile of hard core to be used for infill. Having not been used for a while the clamshell bucket is not opening and closing as smoothly as it should so that is another little mechanical problem to address.
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