Delayed at Penton Hook

My money is on a hydraulic leak on the left hand gate ram. At least, it was leaking last month when I went through with Breakers 2 - fine mist of hydraulic fluid and hissing noise on the 'close' cycle of the ram. Told the lockie - he appeared disinterested.
 
If it was blowing last month , there is absolutely no way it would last a month. One lock cycle is the usual.

These things run at 1200psi+ and when it gets a hole , you can usually get the boats out of the lock if you are lucky before all the oil is gone.
 
Very rarely are lock phones answered now.

All the staff have blackberries and the contract we have allows free calls between them. So , to save money , staff call around on their mobiles. Landlines are connected to the fax at the lock and usually just allowed to go to fax.

That is why he lock phone numbers are not published any more.
 
So how do we ring to next lock to report speeders or boat stolen??



teddington_lock said:
Very rarely are lock phones
answered now.

All the staff have blackberries and the contract we have allows free calls between them. So , to save money , staff call around on their mobiles. Landlines are connected to the fax at the lock and usually just allowed to go to fax.

That is why he lock phone numbers are not published any more.
Click to expand...
 
Lock telephone numbers are available on the visitthames webpages - example for Penton Hook : http://www.visitthames.co.uk/about-the-river/river-thames-locks/penton-hook-lock

I despair of the lack of communications with regard to stoppages and breakdowns. I became aware of the problem with the gates at PH on Saturday morning when I arrived there around 10:30am. Having ascertained that it was not likely to be a five minute fix I posted on the Forum, the TMBA Facebook group and Twitter feed. The lock was closed for the rest of the day until around 7pm in the evening.

To the best of my knowledge no information was promulgated to boaters at all during this period by email or website. I tried to find out this morning if it was passable and it took quite a while to get confirmation.

Imagine the furore there would be if the M25 were closed for 30 minutes with no pubic notification or news bulletins !

Maybe I expect too much ...........

As an aside, nobody submitted a TMBA Incident Report either so maybe boaters don't care?
 
Does that mean I won't be able to book a mooring at Hurley Lock or any other lock without sending a fax or relying on a call center to pass on the message?
 
Try boating on the River Avon, North of Tewkesbury. We tried it for three weekends before transporting bought boat to Thames. You'll never complain ever again...
 
teddington_lock said:
That's great. Thanks.
I've told you that the numbers were taken off the gov site and why the phones aren't answered.
Hope that's ok.
Click to expand...
Thank you for telling us that as to the best of my knowledge river user groups were not formally notified that this was happening.

That you've told us is ok but the fact that we can no longer call the locks directly, if that is indeed the case, is most certainly not ok.
 
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