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Post by notafloat on Dec 14, 2017 7:25:05 GMT
Are there any incline plaine locks still in use on uk canals.How efficient are they compared to a standard lock.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 14, 2017 8:07:34 GMT
you are probably aware of this:- www.fipt.org.uk/A flop in carrying days, too expensive, mothballed then scrapped. All my life there has been talk of restoring it. The only thing to have happened is the cut above and the arm below it tidied up and the whole area sanitized for the hordes of visitors that come each year - expensive peak parking too.
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Post by Gone on Dec 14, 2017 13:27:38 GMT
I guess the nearest to an inclined plane lift would be the Falkirk Wheel though it does not rest on the ground. Same sort of principle.
Added - I know you asked about the UK, but for those interested here is a video of one in France -
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Post by TonyDunkley on Dec 14, 2017 18:13:03 GMT
Are there any incline plaine locks still in use on uk canals.How efficient are they compared to a standard lock. As far as I know there was only ever one inclined plane that could handle full sized canalboats (as opposed to tub-boats), and that was Foxton Lift. I used to know two ex- FMC boatmen who used it regularly when it was working in the late 1900's and the early 1910's, Tommy Walker who was a driver (engine-man) on the FMC steamers and Tom Griffiths who was on the FMC horseboats that the steamers towed on Fellows's Leicester and Nottingham traffics. They both reckoned it was a good thing when it was working because of the time it saved over getting a pair of boats through the ten single(narrow) locks at Foxton, but they did say that it spent a lot of time broken down because the concrete on the slope was too weak and was always cracking and giving way under the rails that the caissons ran on. Whenever that happened the lift was shut down while a pit was dug under the broken concrete and the bent rails, a big fire was made and lit to heat up the rails so they could be straightened out, and then the pit was filled up with fresh concrete.
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Post by notafloat on Dec 14, 2017 18:25:34 GMT
Thanks Tony nice bit of info.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 15, 2017 11:25:49 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Dec 15, 2017 11:32:04 GMT
I guess the nearest to an inclined plane lift would be the Falkirk Wheel though it does not rest on the ground. Same sort of principle. Added - I know you asked about the UK, but for those interested here is a video of one in France - Tim and Pru recently travelled that one and they mentioned in the program quite a serious accident involving a trip boat. www.french-waterways.com/2013/07/arzviller-boat-lift-malfunction/
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Post by kris on Dec 15, 2017 15:06:48 GMT
you are probably aware of this:- www.fipt.org.uk/A flop in carrying days, too expensive, mothballed then scrapped. All my life there has been talk of restoring it. The only thing to have happened is the cut above and the arm below it tidied up and the whole area sanitized for the hordes of visitors that come each year - expensive peak parking too. The last thing id want is for the incline plain at foxton to be restored. All those floating bricks, widebeam narrowboats or what ever they call them. Would be able to wander north, not a good thing me thinks. I know I'd be able to take my boat south, but I have no desire to go further south than Leicester ever again if I can help it.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 15, 2017 15:15:20 GMT
you are probably aware of this:- www.fipt.org.uk/A flop in carrying days, too expensive, mothballed then scrapped. All my life there has been talk of restoring it. The only thing to have happened is the cut above and the arm below it tidied up and the whole area sanitized for the hordes of visitors that come each year - expensive peak parking too. The last thing id want is for the incline plain at foxton to be restored. All those floating bricks, widebeam narrowboats or what ever they call them. Would be able to wander north, not a good thing me thinks. I know I'd be able to take my boat south, but I have no desire to go further south than Leicester ever again if I can help it. No fear of that, even if an improved inclined plane was built (the original only handling narrow carrying craft) as the Watford flight stops wide craft continuing up the Leicester section 👍
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Post by kris on Dec 15, 2017 15:30:39 GMT
That's okay then.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 15, 2017 15:39:35 GMT
The last thing id want is for the incline plain at foxton to be restored. All those floating bricks, widebeam narrowboats or what ever they call them. Would be able to wander north, not a good thing me thinks. I know I'd be able to take my boat south, but I have no desire to go further south than Leicester ever again if I can help it. No fear of that, even if an improved inclined plane was built (the original only handling narrow carrying craft) as the Watford flight stops wide craft continuing up the Leicester section 👍 ISTR there are some other 'pinch' points too. Quite a lot of that section would need work to get widebeams through I think.
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Post by Jim on Dec 15, 2017 16:09:04 GMT
Although not boaty ones there are inclined Planes adjacent to my Mooring, to serve the quarries on the hill above the canal. There is also a base for a simple crane by the swing bridge.
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Post by TonyDunkley on Dec 15, 2017 17:38:12 GMT
No fear of that, even if an improved inclined plane was built (the original only handling narrow carrying craft) as the Watford flight stops wide craft continuing up the Leicester section 👍 ISTR there are some other 'pinch' points too. Quite a lot of that section would need work to get widebeams through I think. Only one 'pinch point' other than Watford and Foxton, and that's the canal itself. There's been no real, serious dredging done from the top of Buckby to Leicester since the 1970's when the then Section Inspector, Matt Mortimer, let ex-boatman Reg Barnett loose with the section's dredger starting with the twenty-mile in about late 1972 or 1973 (that's the long pound from the top of Watford to Foxton).
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Post by notafloat on Dec 15, 2017 17:49:06 GMT
Thanks some great pics
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Post by tonyb on Dec 15, 2017 18:43:56 GMT
How about the incline plane at Blist Hill museum running down from the tub boat canal to the Severn? It ;looks better preserved than Foxton but is probably only a superficial recreation.
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