RK by the old canal

[Tony Griffiths]

Next week, Jim Hall tells us how finding the four blade export cooling fan on a derelict RN saloon in a scappy in California gave him the idea for the 2J Chaparral.

Hands up if you don't know the Chaparral story. Right - stay in at break and learn all about it. A test follows, after school.

[Robin Oldfield]

OK Here's the true story.  The bits about mining, railway and ropeway are true.  Those about the French lady (Madame Fool of April), the marmite and the whole canal story are false, though the Bog Mine did have something called the boat level and ore was floated out on small boats.  I had a couple of old canal gate bits and had always wanted to build a garden feature having seen examples at Chelsea Flower Show and elsewhere.  The opportunity came when we hosted a picnic for a local old car club which had been started by the late Peter Relph.  I had owned for some time the RK barn-find VF 8653 so managed to drag it through the undergrowth to complete the feature.  Quite a few people were convinced.  The car was too far gone for me to restore it so I sold it back to someone who had owned it in the 1980s.  I believe it is now being restored.  The spoof lock gate is still there and when we open our garden under the RHS National Gardens Scheme each year it continues to fool many visitors.

       

[Bob Culver]

The short rack and pinion had me baffled. What was it off?

[Robin Oldfield]

It's off an old lock gate paddle gear but it has been cut when being removed.  It raises a paddle to let water out of the lock.


  lock2.jpg (Size: 14.11 KB / Downloads: 314)

[Tony Griffiths]

A super story. It reminds me of "modifying" narratives at school for comprehension lessons. The class had to work out what had been altered; did it fit the context - and could it possibly be true? Naturally, some points were easy to work out (the red herrings) other rather more subtle. I was always amazed when of the more perceptive students managed to get most of them right. "We're used to it, sir," said one cheeky little devil. "We know how your mind works." Yours would have fooled even the best.

[John Mason]

Robin appears to have a rather nice model railway.

John Mason.

[Robin Oldfield]

Really?  First I knew about it!!!!

[Robin Oldfield]

Actually it was a photo taken at the outdoor model railway at Hampton Loade on the Severn Valley Railway.

[Bob Culver]

Thanks Robin
Canals were not part of the local scene so not familiar with how the flows controlled. I guess it much more simple than a big valve.