As some of you know where i live in Goole we have a unique use of the waterways with the transportation of coal from the mines to waiting ships , well we did but now no longer in use . I am talking about Tom Puddings and the coal hoists , or should i say hoist as the last remaining one is on the site of the Goole MBC .
So back to the title , a while back i made a set of towable pan's ( another nick name for them ) and while they looked reasonable on the water there was no resistance whilst been towed .
But last week ( sat 10th) we GMBC had an night sail which was well attended , and my little springer (bucket and scarper) got a bit of light hearted bullying from the Blane moor guys (they tried to sink me), so i decided to visit them on the sunday but without the springer , (i am not that daft) for a natter .
Whilst i was there i spotted a set of coal carriers , anyway i asked about their construction ( mr Pollit please help as i have forgotton the name of the guy who built them) which was styreen top with timber edging and an alloy sheet hull which when placed in water would sink to the styreen level and the sub merged section would serve as ballast/resistance when been towed , what looked like coal slack was pilled ontop to ad a bit more realisim to the piece(sorry no pic's but the Blane Mooreguys may have some).
This gave me ideas to build some for the Goole pond and would fit in well with the floating hoist i had built some time ago. The only thing holding me back was the aquisition of the alloy sheet (scrap prices are sky high) , but all was not lost as my neighbour had some 5 gallon plastic drums which were of no other use to him .
So one was aquired and i set to work cutting it in half and then making a top from whatever i had handy , been some 1/2" boards and some thinner stuff for the comings, staples were used for the chain eyes and toothed belting was used for buffers . As with the full sized pan apost and socked were fitted using polly pipe this was to allow the pan's to interlock, styreen was fitted under the timber once drainage slots were cut in the base and finally a coat of matt black with a red edging was applied .
Once dried a visit to the pond side and a wetting (for them not me) they once flooded sat slightly proud and a hand full of scalpings for coal trimmed them to a better level (your either bored or thinking come on where are the pic's by now or both).
So another three more drum's were cut and made into pan's ,what do you think, oh i have to make a jebus yet before towing.
daz