Having had a considerable lay-off from working at Sea Lock due to the  intervention of annual holidays and the constraints brought about by prolonged periods of appalling weather Trevor and Adrian set about fixing catwalks to the RB22.   Climbing up and down over the tracks to access the driving cab and engine compartments  has proved to be a considerable inconvenience.

Adrian has acquired two pairs of  support-brackets from a supplier in Urmston, Manchester and they have to be bolted to the sides of the crane to which running boards will be fixed.  The brackets, once attached, seem to be very widely spaced so Trevor and Adrian fabricate 2 more, one for each side,  to split the gap.  Trevor cuts sections of mild steel angle-iron to length while Adrian attempts to arc-weld them together.

Welding is not one of his greater skills and the job is made more difficult because some of the welding rods are damp and the transformer keeps over-heating and shutting down.

Eventually the new pair of supports are fully welded and holes bored for various fixings but at this point the working day is brought to a close  and the new brackets will now have to wait until the next working day in the New Year before being attached to the crane.

2012 promises to be a very exciting year for the various projects underway at Sea Lock and for Lord Rolle’s Canal in general.

Hilary,  Adrian and Trevor travel to Telford to take the tub-boat wheel pattern to the foundry at Blist’s Hill Victorian Town Museum. When they arrive at the foundry, Roger Fewtrell, the forge master and his assistant are hard at work tapping molten iron from the blast furnace flask and pouring it into a variety of molds. When eventually all the molds are filled and all the tools cleaned and equipment shut down in the appropriate manner Adrian and Roger have a long discussion about how best to cast the wheels.  This is not a straight-forward task because of the large, central boss on each wheel and the hole through which an axle has to pass. It is decided to leave the pattern with Mr Fewtrell who will give the problem more thought and probably have a go at casting a wheel the following week. Later the three meet up with Tony Mugridge, the museum’s itinerant brick-maker and they are given a very interesting tour around the derelict brick and clay processing plant on the museum site.

Hilary and Adrian met Tony several years ago when he offered to run a field-based brick-making course, using Victorian methods at Sea Lock .

 This is a wonderful idea which is still being considered although there are number of problems to overcome before it can be made a reality.