is it mEA?

[Rich_S]

Lovely day yesterday on the Thames, lots of boats out and about! I suppose it is technically 'off season' now but as I pay a YEARLY licence is it too much to expect that the EA provides Cookham Lock with a Lock Assistant to cover the Lock Keeper's lunch hour. Hand winding ain't my idea of fun /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[byron]

Correct me if I am wrong but I thought Cookham had part power now?????

 

[apollo]

Well I would settle for them providing out of hours power there before Godstow (which they are doing this winter)

It was busier this weekend than August Bank Holiday!

 

[apollo]

If only....

The queue today after lunch when the lockeeper returned was halfway up to the Ferry, never seen that before in 32years.

 

[Rich_S]

It has buttons to select gate/sluices open /close, then you get to turn, turn, turn!

 

[byron]

[ QUOTE ]
It has buttons to select gate/sluices open /close, then you get to turn, turn, turn!

[/ QUOTE ]

Strewth! Surely Cookham should be a priority lock for putting in part power.

 

[apollo]

Well you would have thought so wouldnt you?

Apparently that busy part of the river up at Godstow with its constant queues has been made a higher priority!

Sometimes I do wonder about the EA! /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

 

[DogsBody]

Re: Assistants

Seems to me that with the river being "closed" for most of August due to the floods, they should have some savings from not having to have assistants during August that they could use to keep them on for weekends in September.

Still think they should electrify them all and give us a swipe card with our license so we can use them all out of hours.

Darren.

 

[jaws]

Re: Assistants

Yes, but you know like all Stalinist Beurocracies they wouldn't have thought about saving money and still have had fully manned locks even though the river was effectively shut.

 

[Rich_S]

Re: Assistants

Exactly! I have looked at one of the previous posts where Apollo raised the Godstow question with angelaq and understand that she said that cookham needed extra work to the hydraulics (not sure I understand this as it seems to work ok for the Lockie) anyway, unpowered locks at lunchtime should have relief cover during the normal cruising day. Apollo's experience on Sunday tends to suggest that in all but name this stretch of the river was essentially closed to navigation! /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

Rich

 

[DogsBody]

Re: Assistants

Don't think they could have got to some of the locks to man them from some of the pictures I saw!

 

[DogsBody]

Re: Conversion to out of hours power

Always amazes me this one as from my non technical point of view, surely they just have to change the control mechanisms, what has it got to do with the hydrolics? I think they are having us on.

 

[angelaquayle]

Re: Conversion to out of hours power

Ok - I said it was 'something to do with the hydraulics' because I knew it was but Paul Power wasn't around to remind me of the detail. He now has and this is the situation - honest!

At Cookham Lock, we have 3 sets of lock gates and 3 pedestals/control cabinets. The head and tail electronic and hydraulic systems were upgraded about 4 years ago with a Davies Control System, the middle set of electronics and hydraulics are the older Solby System type and very problematical.

Both systems are unique when compared to the systems we are installing the retro-fit out of hours power system on.

What we need to do is (1) Upgrade the centre gate system to a Davies control system. (2) Discuss with Davies Controls the possibility of incorporating an out of hours system in the head and tail control system. (3) If Davies Controls cannot adjust their system then we will get our out of hours system designer to work with Davies Controls to come up with a solution.

This makes Cookham a more complicated project and when we are trying to install 4 a year to improve the situation for customers, I think we're choosing to deliver as much as possible this year.

We would hope to have the middle gates electronic/hydraulic system upgraded by February 2008 and then use next years 08/09 closure period to install out of hours power at Cookham.

 

[DogsBody]

Re: angelaq

Thanks for the information. I was lead to believe by another forumite hereabouts that the middle set of gates at Cookham didn't work as the control cabinet was now in fact empty.

Out of curiosity, do you know why Cookham lock has an extra set of gates? Historical reason somewhere I guess but I've only seen them used twice in six years. If money is tight at present, would it not be sensible to leave the middle gates out of commission and just concentrate on the head and tail gates?

Regards,

Darren.

 

[No Regrets]

Re: angelaq

The middle gates allow faster operation of an effectively smaller lock!

 

[Rich_S]

Re: Conversion to out of hours power

Thanks for the update re the hydraulics Angela. Would you care to comment on the 'Assitant Lock Keeper when the Lock Keeper is at Lunch' issue please?

Regards.............Rich

 

[TrueBlue]

Hey -

I've got to defend the EA here, if you look at this publication:-

http://www.visitthames.co.uk/uploads/a_users_guide_to_the_River_thames.pdf

you'll see a slightly oblique note (p.27) a hint maybe that the Lock may not be manned all day.

"Most" river users are only active during the "summer" months when EA hires a load of students to assist the lockkeeper - and you don't suffer any delays. Further upstream sometimes it is difficult to get an assistant and/or there is just not sufficient money to pay an assistant. So the lock gets unmanned (!).

This year boaters have been about beyond the end of the usual season and that's why you're complaining???

Roll on electrocution (my malapropism)

 

[apollo]

Re: Conversion to out of hours power

Begs the question, "Why didnt you upgrade the system properly 4 years ago to one that include Out of Hours power??"

Other locks have out of hours for longer than that.

As I have seen from attempting to wind the middle gates myself on the countless occasions this year I have gone through at the crack of dawn, there appears to be nothing in the middle pods and the winding-wheels freewheel as if not connected to anything.

Still think it would be better to dump the upgrade of Godstow and spend the money here where far more paying customers would benefit!!

 

[DogsBody]

Re: Summer months

Leaving aside the fact that we pay our license for the whole year, not just the "summer" months, I'd consider September part of summer - we are still on BST and September has had some of the "summeriest" weather so far this year.

 

[angelaquayle]

Re: Conversion to out of hours power

Summer assistants are recruited each year for a fixed period from mid May to the first week in September. It can be difficult to find people who want this kind of work but we try to recruit one person per member of staff (resident and relief lockkeepers) to provide extra cover. In Middle Thames, we recruited 18 assistants this year. We haven't got the budget to extend their employment (which would also depend on whether they wanted to carry on) and obviously can't predict the weather! We are reviewing how we deploy staff to be more flexible and try to make sure that we have staff at sites when they are likely to be busiest. Summer Assistants are part of this review too.