The Singing Boater

There are some rather interesting boats east of Honey Street.  This is only the second indian boater we have seen.

Two boats had extensive flower and vegtable gardens on their rooves.


You are probably like us and wonder how they manage to see when moving.  Moving….. MOVING… who said anything about them moving!
We quietly passed a long line of moored boats on tick over at Pewsey Wharf.  One boater must have felt the movement of his boat when we passed as he commenced loudly singing (badly and out of tune) some self made ditty about “what speed should a boat travel when passing moored boats”.  After he had completed his first short verse I replied (badly and out of tune) “On tick over, just like us!”   All was quiet after that.

Pewsey Wharf
As usual for us, Jan and I sang as we passed through the Bruce Tunnel.  This time I managed to remember to take a photo of the plaque over the eastern portal.

Our lock partners for the last two days have been Pete & Alison on NB Maid of the Locks. Pete claims he is not a member of the Braidbar Owners Club.  We can therefore only assume the requirement to keep the boat clean and polished was written into the construction contract.  He polished all the brass yesterday evening which resulted in it raining during the early part of today’s cruise.

It’s a lovely boat and they are a very nice couple.
Collecting the ladies at the bottom of Adopters Lock proved to be a challenge.  A boat was not just moored on the lock landing.  They had used the middle bollards!  Grrrrrrr…. part of me wanted to use my pocketknife!

There were plenty of vacant moorings at Crofton Pump House.  In the evening I went for a walk up to the pump house passing the reservoir that provides the water.
The route up to the pump house takes you under a low bridge.

My assumption is the bridge isn’t an original structure.  It would have been subsequently built as part of the “new” railway.  Pedestrian use would be secondary as my guess is the bridge spans the pipeline from the reservoir to the pump house.
Crofton Pumping Station wasn’t open but it was possible to see some of the plant from the entrance to the cafe.  Coal fired boilers provide steam to power the large beam. 
 One of the boilers
The steam engine would propel one end of the beam whilst the other end is connected to a rod that extends down the well.  As the beam rises it draws up water from the well which then feeds the top of the flight of locks by gravity.  I managed to get a photo of the well.  The room was in darkness but the camera lens managed to take a passable photo.

You can see the vertical steel rod extending down into the well.  On the up stroke the water is pulled up and then flows into the trough in the middle of the photo.
The pump house has a rather tall chimney.