Now that Patience is moored at Welford on the GU Leicester Arm, she has to pass through tunnels to get just about anywhere. The old headlamp was showing signs of its age, with considerable rust building up on the reflector, as can be seen in the first photo. Having evaluated various options, including marine types sold by chandlers, a pair of 'driving lamps' was purchased from Halfords at a bargain price of £19.99 a pair. We only need one, but it's useful to have a spare and at that price, although the build quality is fairly basic, there isn't much to lose. It turned out that the new one is almost a copy of the design of the lamp that was already fitted, so fitting the replacement was relatively straightforward using the existing spade connectors and bracket. It is made by Ring, has a 155 mm diameter and a 55W halogen bulb.
We tried it out going through Market Harborough tunnel on a short trip to Foxton and it works fine.
No connection with headlamps, but here's a photo of a rather elegant working boat seen at Welford Wharf on our return. Yes, there are still working boats on our canals.
A programme on BBC Four at 10-11pm on May 27th, ended with a piece on Hadar, the fuel and various carrying company that is based in Welford - and whose boat (above) we photographed last week. See http://narrowboathadar.blogspot.co.uk
ReplyDeleteTheir local trips cover the patch that Patience currently patrols.