Informative readers and a working sat-dome

I do appreciate the informative comments from readers. Geoff (nb Seyella) provided additional information about that interesting boat house at Worsley.

He commented “the stripey doors were home to the Duke's inspection barge -
Queen Victoria is supposed to have travelled on the canal from here”  More information in this link.

You might recall I mentioned the entrance to the Duke’s underground mine was in this same area.

I went to Manchester today to collect the repaired parts for the satellite dome and happened to see the mine entrance from the top deck of the double decker bus.

The bus stopped on the outskirts of Manchester to allow the ticket inspector and police to board and check all the passengers had a valid ticket or pass.

I could understand the ticket inspector boarding the bus but why was he accompanied by two policemen.  I would have thought the police had better things to do with their resources?  Then one of the locals explained ticket inspectors have been assaulted and even stabbed.  What is England coming too when someone can be stabbed over a £2 bus fare!

I’m always looking for interesting buildings.

Some gazebo!

The Christians beat Weatherspoons to the old Salford Cinema.  Interestingly the building has come full circle as it started life as a Scottish Presbyterian Church in 1846.  At that time it had a spire.  The building was converted into a cinema in 1912 before closing as a consequence of the popularity of TV.  It reopened in 1967 as a bingo hall which lasted for 18 years before reverting back to a place of worship.

The temporary fencing around the city hall had been removed giving a reasonable view of the frontage.

The package containing the repaired satellite dome controller box and the circuit board for the dome were waiting for collection at the post office.  It was then a case of retracing the journey back to Leigh and Waiouru.  I removed the dome from the cabin roof and started to refit the circuit board but immediately discovered a problem.  There were four coaxial plugs but only two sockets.  A short period of confusion followed whilst I attempted to remember how I had disassembled the board.  The memory isn’t that great these days (its an age thing!) but I’ve already recognised the weakness which is why I had remembered to take a photo of the board before I disconnected everything and removed it.

There were only two coaxial cables (see above).  That’s when I realised the technician had left his “testing” coaxial cable attached to the board.

I’ll have to post it back to him when we reach Wigan.  That problem solved, I managed to reassemble everything with the assistance of Jan who needed to hold the heavy parts whilst I did the technical stuff like tightening screws.  The dome is now working and we have a further three year guarantee on the controller box.

Some more interesting information about Leigh from Peter Berry

“Of course you might already know, but Leigh is also famous for being on the route of the first public railway in Lancashire, and one of the first in the country, also linked with canals via coal mining - The Bolton & Leigh Railway. (The section of the L&L Canal near Wigan was in fact the firs named Lancaster Canal on this side of the Ribble, and it had been intended to link it to the Manchester, Bolton & Bury Canal via the Westhoughton and Atherton coalfields, but was never connected due to financial reasons. In 1825 the railway was built to assist in filling the gap for mineral transport, later carrying passenger traffic).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolton_and_Leigh_Railway

While I was working in Leigh a new by-pass road was built around Leigh town centre, Atherleigh Way. Nowadays all the new large retail outlets have been built alongside this road which was built faithfully along the route of the old disused railway, using the railway foundations in many places. I remember signal boxes still being in place alongside the newly built road. A commemorative plaque to the early railway and its link to Atherleigh Way can be found at its junction with Twist Lane, adjacent to the canal.”