Odyssey on the Troy Cut*

I know nothing about the Troy Wharf, or indeed the Troy Wharf Trust, so why not write a blog post about it...

It is an easy gentle walk up the south side of the Troy Cut, from above Black Jack's lock, only being forced away from the water just before the basin. Opposite is mainly fishing lakes, we spotted rabbits bumbling around, largely unworried by the 21st century.

I had no idea what was at the end - the basin & boats were a nice surprise. The Troy Wharf Trust Ltd don't really seem to exist on the internet, which is of course fine, the have a nascent website with nowt on it... they do have boats, though, floating...

...and less floating:

Acess seems to be through a gate (locked both times we visited) or through the back of a working granite/marble yard, who we decided not to upset. ;-). Photos are therefore taken through various wire fences, although we did have a good view of a very nice looking outdoor workshop setup:

. The cut itself is listed in Nicholson's as 'unnavigable'. It is certainly narrow and possibly shallow in places, but Mimas - visible in my photo a few weeks ago was spotted at Rickmansworth Festival last weekend, so I reckon it can't be that bad. I'm not convinced, however, there's space for a full length boat to turn, difficult to see on the ground, or indeed on google maps. Also visible is an ex(?)-CRT workboat and a bantam tug - can't imagine they're stranded, either. Couldn't see a name for the wooden boat being worked on, though.

I like that this exists, quietly, away from general radar. Who wouldn't want a quiet little wharf to play with old boats?

* - well, what did you expect? Would also like the offences of being disappointed that no boats are called 'Wooden Horse' (couldn't be more appropriate, bearing in mind their charity objectives, or lack of references to MilliHelens (the SI unit of beauty required to launch one ship to be taken into consideration, m'lud.

A new cup

I kind of hoped I'd get a matching teapot or something with the forth, but alas...

Con-stern-ation*

It goes without saying that Tortoise is a strange boat, and not least in the nether regions. The prop shafts slopes downwards, river-style (there's a bloody great universal joint just to the right of the picture). To the near right there's a plate that the shaft passes through, but serves no useful purpose, as far as I can see, but...

On the left, stuffing box & lock nut. That I understand.

Then - though, the collar with the overlong grub screws (must find some shorter ones), clamps on the shaft. Either side of that, there's a pair of big washers with a ball race in between. I can clamp the collar towards the stuffing box so that the left hand trio have some function, or towards the fixed plate so the other set does - but can;t see a way that both have use. It is possible that the fixed plate it supposed to interact as a sort of bearing, but it can't necessarily support the shaft.

So I'm guessing in the past it has been assembled wrongly, or possibly has bits missing (or even extra, or at least unrequired bits). I'll leave it for now toward the stuffing box as a kind of extra grease water barrier, but all a bit of a mystery.

Blacking soon, so I've the opportunity to at least attempt to replace the stuffing, and try to make sense of the rest of it...

* well, there was no call for a gland pun, was there?

The Shipping Forecast Radio

Quite often at a car boot I'll come back with something with no idea why I bothered to buy it, and this was one of those things. I think I had a vague thought about stripping a couple of bits from it. A closer inspection the following day revealed it was a bit more complicated than that, as the saying goes...

That's a timer added to the end, with familiar time settings:

Yes, it's been modified to automatically record the daily cycle of shipping forecasts from Radio 4 long wave, and presumably was used on board ship, or at the very least a shore base in communication with sea traffic. Note, though, the very un-Radio 4 errant apostrophe. ;-)

Sofa so good...*

On Wednesday it was a sad day for saggy my old sofa, it got dismantled, yielding firewood, springs and some very nice firewood.

I spotted a date printed on the inside cheek.

Ah, 1975, it's forty years old, I thought.

Febuary, right, ok.

The 4th. What date is it today? It was the 4th.

Yep, my sofa last exactly forty years between construction and destruction. Kind of like a Logan's Run for furniture...

(* always happy to sacrifice meaning for the sake of a pun)