2014 - Best plans

[Grumpy Northener]

Well my year went out of the window with the day job playing havoc with what I had planned for this year - I had hoped to complete the 'Early Javelin' restoration this year only to find that I am not that much further on with it than I was at the start of the year, main reason being that with my employer winning a huge contract that we had not banked on at the start of the year - this involved my working away from home with the imput of significant hours by everyone in the team - none the less the project was delivered on time and on budget - the project was to dredge 8km of the Rivers Parret & Tone on the Somerset Levels - I have attached a video link below that briefly demonstrates just some of the kit involved (Apologies for the appalling music) - looks easy but believe me just managing a section of these of works on a tidal waterway is a huge undertaking - now back on home turf - I can start to get a bit more involved with my classics / restorations

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-TwW8L ... fbo9AhdEzQ

[arceye]

Looks like fun, though now I have the old song Messing About On The River going round my head.

What was used for filming? looks like they may have been using a little Drone?

[Grumpy Northener]

Yep we employ an external company that run a fleet of camera mounted drones for the ariel shots - but my job is mainly dealing with management of the health & safety of the sites along with the programming & logistics - and getting some of the larger kit into the sites down single track country lanes was a proper headache

[Young Farmer]

Did you find any thing interesting ,apart from eels, in the dredged spoil?

[Mitsuru]

After seeing what a guy on the retro rides forum showing the condition of a FSO 125p Pickup he has
started to rescue would have (and probably did!) people saying that it was FFFFAAAARRRRR to gone
to even be rescued!

So please let use know what little bits of gold you panned from these exploits.

[Grumpy Northener]

So please let use know what little bits of gold you panned from these exploits

In 30 years of working in and around water and to sum it up in one word - sod all well that's not strictly true, over the years several safes - all empty and with the doors removed, lots of bikes, motorbikes, once recovered a Mk 2 Cortina out of a derelict canal lock in Glasgow (it had been there a number of years) - literally thousands of supermarket trolleys, hundreds of tons of scrap, tyres etc - I am afraid that the country's canals / rivers and waterways are used has linier rubbish tips - especially in densely populated urban areas. Some of nicer historic items are a circa 1900's brass carbide acetylene lamp that came out of a navigation lock on the Royal Ulster Canal in Ireland, I have some nice bottles that have come from various navigation restorations over the years - especially around the Stroud area where a large brewery was based on the canal wharf - on the darker front one of our operatives was working on a canal dredging site in the centre of Leeds several years ago and ended up with a body in the bucket of the excavator. I have been to sites and discovered dead dogs / cats that have been weighted / drowned and have to say its a sickening sight and responsible parties should suffer the same treatment that pets have !! But no pots of gold, no money stash and no exotic classic car that's worth hundreds of £k even though its been there for the last 50 years

[JPB]

[pedantic mode]"Sod all" would be two words..[/pedantic mode]

And yes, people who drown animals are the second lowest form of life.

[Phil P]

Sorry GN that you had to put the Javelin project on hold. I'm sorry to say that my early 1942 Ford GPW has also been on hold since mid August because I have been working on Car SOS series 3. (I think it's the best so far.)

You're doing sterling work cleaning out the great British water ways and returning them to their former glory. You may call yourself a 'Grumpy Northerner' but you certainly aren't a stick in the mud!