Mike C

I'm very sorry you didn't receive a call back, it is policy to contact all callers even if we are know we are unable to undertake the work. However, calls do go to voice mail if I'm with a client as I aim to keep focus on the client /task in hand but then do return all calls when I listen to the voice mail messages.

I agree it's very unfortunate that it was started, but now it has been then the argument may be used that the contributors are direct users of the waterway whereas the pro-railings contributors are expressing a detached, less well informed view. We can but try.

The pressure to have railings fitted along the Rochdale in Manchester has a lot of momentum. Somone has started a counter petition which needs a lot of support to be taken seriously. For those that think railings would be damaging and present their own risks and dangers here is the link. To a petition that aims to slow the momentum down a bit. https://chn.ge/2M4uUUn Many thanks

This is a great really great dock in a great location.

There is a new heated paint dock available for hire in cheshire for narrowboats or wide beam. DIY and/or great busines opertunity for a boat painter. Tel 07393978654

At the time that UK barges such as the river class short boats, Dukers and some Yorkshire vessels were being built the use of welding was becoming more common in larger vessels, as such its very common to see longitudinal plate joints to be riveted lap joints, usually with a joggle, and transverse seems to be welded. I cannot recall seeing a barge that has any riveted seams where the frames are not riveted (at build). – In some instances barges built for the same fleet, at the same time, by different yards have differences in the number of welded seams and degree of reliance on welding. It is also not unusual to see the more complex plate areas (bows and stern swims etc.) to be all riveted with transverse plate welds only in the slab side or hold area. – Common thinking is that the skill set needed to create these complex shapes rested in the experienced older generation of the workforce and it was the younger fabricators that were the welders…….or was it just that they didn’t trust the electric nail?

No not normally Kris. Its not unusual for the framing to be lighter gauge than on a similar UK barge. SOME are more frequently framed but by no means all. Its generally fair to consider UK commercial barges to have been built heavier and treated more roughly. Its pure speculation on my part why continental barges fair so much better, but most inland metal UK barges were part of a fleet owned by a company and crewed by employees .... usually male. Where most continental barges were either owner operated or the home of a husband and wife (and family) ….. or both.

Please have a look at www.viaductshipping.co.uk and if interested then send some info through to the jobs@viaductshipping.co.uk email. Mike C

At no time have I intended to suggest that the museum has not made any mistakes over the years, what I was doing was highlighting that not everything they have done has been bad. I think the cause of my exasperation is fairly clear, if that has landed with you as petulance then that’s unfortunate. Either way the main issue is that the Museum of today is different to the museum of the past and that information has been available to those who have looked – either directly or from afar.

I am sorry if I have mislead you into thinking that I am a part of the museum staff by my wording of ‘I’ve worked at the museum, paid and volunteer time….’ It could have been much clearer if I had written ‘I do work for the museum, paid and volunteer ……….’ more a contractor if you like. – apologies to all if this was unclear as I can see how it could easily be so. Please don’t beat up the museum because I’m disagreeing with you. ‘CHILTERN’ – agreed absolutly. I am genuinely very dyslexic and so have to type into MS/Word for the specialist spell checker that I have, then cut and paste, and this has not been picked up by it…or me. If you believe that you should be better served with information that is delivered directly to you individually so that that you don’t need to click onto the BMS website the then what have you done to make that happen? If you have raised this with BMS directly and constructively and got no response then fair enough…..but your unlikely to achieve much on that score on here! ‘actively volunteering for the museum is geographically impossible’ – I do not believe that this is so wherever you are. Surly better to look at what you can do and not at what you cant. – a great start would be by spending a little time seeking out what is actually going on and reporting it. The BMS web site was only ever a couple of clicks away. – Its not the full story but it would have been enough. Please try not to see me believing that your approach is wrong as belittling you and clearly, as this thread shows, not all ‘potential supporters’ are ‘moaners’. I don’t believe that anyone is beyond criticism – but do your homework and be accurate! (Edited to correct misspelling of dyslexic - the irony! )

No, my point is not about them is about you - The whole thread would have been very diferent if you had just looked at the info available .....even just a little bit! 'Them' - are not putting up posts based on misinformation when the information is available to those that look. Quite a few of 'Them' are there in the photos, and those that aren’t are there just getting on with doing the doing week in, week out. Future 'Thems' will only be put off with inaccurate negativity on forums such as some of the posts of yours and others.

You didnt try that hard ! http://www.boatmuseumsociety.org.uk/ http://www.boatmuseumsociety.org.uk/about-2/photo-gallery/?wppa-album=3&wppa-cover=0&wppa-occur=1

My point is clear. Very many posts in this threat are very willing to deliver vociferous criticism as if they are based on facts when they are based on misinformation. That stands. Issues to do with Chilton, and others are complex and not simple as comments in this threat suggests, as those who take the time to become better informed know. I guess that like many, I'm very glad that I am not continually judged only by the occasions where I have tried and failed or by the things that I got wrong even when my mistakes were avoidable. I am not defending every decision or action that has occurred at the museum, however when I look at what it has achieved and what it continues to do, overall its done a good to laudable job with what it has had to work with, most importantly what is there now is still there and can be taken forward. I expect my wish list is much the same as those of the moaners – difference being my attempt to see the wish list delivered is by constructive positive input on several levels, others seem to believe that voicing ill-founded negative wisdom and posts will do the same job – I disagree. Despite what is said to the contra there is a continuation within this thread of stating what should happen, but without any realistic proposals as to how. ‘Moaners moaning’ without any indication that they intend to become ‘doers doing’ to realise the potential of the improvements that are achievable at the museum.

Its saddening that there are the same old posters churning out the same old points but without even knowing what is actually happening. The box boat has been on the yard as an exhibit that has been being worked on for some what ….. 3years +. I’ve worked at the museum, paid and volunteer time, for the last 15 or more years and the critics that have posted again here have been doing it for years and their opinions do not reflect the realities of what has been happening at the museum for the last 5-6 years or more. Tiggers – I have made the same offer to arrange to show folk what is actually going on……..but no takers! I have known some of the boats now at the museum for 40 years and helped as a child to keep them afloat before they went to the museum, going back to when the museum location was proposed as being on the Runcorn arm, before E’port was considered. They are the ONLY remainders of their type, as such the museum has had an absolute 100% success in maintaining these craft in the same state as they were when they acquired them. The fact that there remains an opportunity for armchair wingers to fluff their own feathers by pontificating incorrectly about what others should do is only possible because of what the museum has achieved. – I guess the same moaners will continue to moan and the same doers will continue to do and sadly ever it shall be thus! Congratulations to all at the museum that put in their paid and unpaid time, I for one am very grateful and appreciative. As a message to those reading that haven’t posted – Don’t be put off by much of the misinformation on this (and other similar threads) – take a trip to the museum and have a look yourself, chat to those that actually know. – I don’t believe that you will be disappointed!

why moor there when you could moor at Yarwoods Basin ? ;-)