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Post by metanoia on Jul 3, 2022 18:03:09 GMT
Sort of like a 'stone ladder' then? Yes, indeed - that's why the Atherstone flight (for example) is such a doddle on your own....
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Post by Tony Dunkley on Jul 3, 2022 18:03:10 GMT
2013-2021 round the inland waterways of England (+ Wales!).... never cilled, never a problem, hundreds of locks gone through. Fairly expert, yes. No boat now = saving lots of money! No 'Covid' jabs = saving my immune system. I just don't understand how I haven't died of 'Covid' - after all, Johnv reckons it's wiped out half of India! Maybe it's because I have superior genes? So do you know how to work any lock single handed without using ladders? Seems it's top secret. Nothing 'secret' about it, . . just another of the many things about working narrowboats and canal locks that have been forgotten over the years since long distance carrying with narrowboats - real ones, that is - finally ended in 1970 when the last loads went to Dickinson's paper mills at Croxley and Kearley and Tonge's jam factory at Southall -- both being jobs that I worked on for B&MCCCo. and Blue Line, after Michael Streat (Blue Line Cruisers of Braunston) bought and operated the last few pairs of the Samuel Barlow CCo. fleet.
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Post by Mr Stabby on Jul 3, 2022 18:10:30 GMT
But you still haven't explained how you close both bottom gates without walking along both sides of a lock if you are not inclined to cross from a closed gate to an open gate by stepping across the void. Does the Magic Gate Fairy close it? If you're single handing you just get on with being inclined to step/jump across - waiting for a Magic Fairy would take far too very long (in my personal experience)..... I do this myself but not everybody is as lithe, lissome and athletic as I am, and it should be remembered that many on this forum (e.g. Dogless, Telemachus etc) are positively geriatric and could not possibly do such a thing if their lives depended on it.
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Post by Tony Dunkley on Jul 3, 2022 18:24:08 GMT
But you still haven't explained how you close both bottom gates without walking along both sides of a lock if you are not inclined to cross from a closed gate to an open gate by stepping across the void. Does the Magic Gate Fairy close it? If you're single handing you just get on with being inclined to step/jump across - waiting for a Magic Fairy would take far too very long (in my personal experience)..... The safer alternative - especially in wet or frosty weather - to stepping or jumping across the gap to the other side bottom gate on a single lock with two bottom gates is, or rather was, to carry what was known as a "cabin shaft" and use that to open or close the other side bottom gate. A 'cabin shaft' was a shortened version - anywhere from 8' up to about 12' overall length - of the long shafts (15' to 16' boathook) carried on every pair of working boats, and was always kept ready to hand on the side-bed side (righthand side looking ahead) of the motor's cabin top, . . which was how it got its name.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 3, 2022 18:27:29 GMT
I'd definitely prefer the 8ft one to the 12ft one When I first started doing the coffin locks in 1994 the balance beams were peppered with these little impact holes. I did "do that thang" and enjoyed it. One does wonder what would become of the beams if all the plebs and other awful people "wot av turnd up" over the years did the same. It could make for a great photo gallery on snapfaceinstafuckoff
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Post by metanoia on Jul 3, 2022 18:29:46 GMT
If you're single handing you just get on with being inclined to step/jump across - waiting for a Magic Fairy would take far too very long (in my personal experience)..... The safer alternative - especially in wet or frosty weather - to stepping or jumping across the gap to the other side bottom gate on a single lock with two bottom gates is, or rather was, to carry what was known as a "cabin shaft" and use that to open or close the other side bottom gate. A 'cabin shaft' was a shortened version - anywhere from 8' up to about 12' overall length - of the long shafts (15' to 16' boathook) carried on every pair of working boats, and was always kept ready to hand on the side-bed side of the motor's cabin top, . . which was how it got its name. I have one! Just not very confident with it...... Still jumping! However., mine doubles as a great mechanism for holding up my engine deck board each morning when I check the oil, water and stern grease levels...
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Post by Tony Dunkley on Jul 3, 2022 18:44:20 GMT
The safer alternative - especially in wet or frosty weather - to stepping or jumping across the gap to the other side bottom gate on a single lock with two bottom gates is, or rather was, to carry what was known as a "cabin shaft" and use that to open or close the other side bottom gate. A 'cabin shaft' was a shortened version - anywhere from 8' up to about 12' overall length - of the long shafts (15' to 16' boathook) carried on every pair of working boats, and was always kept ready to hand on the side-bed side of the motor's cabin top, . . which was how it got its name. I have one! Just not very confident with it...... Still jumping! However., mine doubles as a great mechanism for holding up my engine deck board each morning when I check the oil, water and stern grease levels... Does it have the right sort of head on it -- single hook and a 3''- 4'' straight sharpish spike ? They're all long gone now, replaced with new gates, but back in the days of commercial narrowboat carrying the bottom gates of single locks were always covered with shallow holes and puncture marks on the downhill side of the balance beams and the tops of the mitre posts from being pushed open or closed with cabin shafts.
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Post by metanoia on Jul 3, 2022 18:49:27 GMT
Looks, sounds and behaves right - only about 30 years old so I can't be sure of the authenticity.
Does a good job, though x
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Post by Tony Dunkley on Jul 3, 2022 20:29:49 GMT
So do you know how to work any lock single handed without using ladders? Seems it's top secret. Most of the locks here on the SU can be ascended single-handed without using the ladders as you can cut the power as you enter the lock and then step off of the counter onto the stone steps provided in the wing wall for that very reason. Every single lock throughout the whole English canal system can be worked single handed without using the ladders that have been put in the lock chambers. They were constructed without ladders in the chamber walls, . . they were used for the best part of two centuries without ladders in the chamber walls. The necessity for lockwall ladders only came about when the canals became playgrounds for the likes of you, . . and the rest of the pleasure boating prats who think they know all there is to know about canal boating and working locks.
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Post by Mr Stabby on Jul 3, 2022 20:37:29 GMT
Most of the locks here on the SU can be ascended single-handed without using the ladders as you can cut the power as you enter the lock and then step off of the counter onto the stone steps provided in the wing wall for that very reason. Every single lock throughout the whole English canal system can be worked single handed without using the ladders that have been put in the lock chambers. Only if you have a boat.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 3, 2022 20:44:01 GMT
That's kind of the point ... nowadays the system is for pleasure boats stuffed full of worldly possessions, not full of coal or grain.
Nowadays it's families working the locks not working boaters.
In today's boating world cutting the grass around locks, swing bridges, water points etc. does make that environment safer by minimising slip and trip hazards.
Rog
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Post by Mr Stabby on Jul 3, 2022 20:50:48 GMT
That's kind of the point ... nowadays the system is for pleasure boats stuffed full of worldly possessions, not full of coal or grain. Nowadays it's families working the locks not working boaters. In today's boating world cutting the grass around locks, swing bridges, water points etc. does make that environment safer by minimising slip and trip hazards. Rog Dunkley is indeed a special type of stupid. Working boats did not travel single-handed and anyone who has a boat will have noticed that many isolated rural locks will have a former lock keeper's cottage alongside. There are two options for canals in the 21st century, to be used for leisure boating or to be filled in and have housing estates built on them.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 3, 2022 21:00:45 GMT
I have very beautiful memories of climbing up lock gates when going up in locks.
It may not have been strictly necessary but it felt right at the time.
Those horizontal structural members must have been put there for some reason.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 3, 2022 21:29:24 GMT
I have to admit it ... I'm not really that interested in the history of the canals ⚡ ⚡ no not yet struck down. Any structure over 200 years old is a curiosity of course, and in the case of the system I like to get answers to obvious questions, but the reality is I enjoy MY experience of touring the system and exploring the surrounds ... places we'd never visit if the canals didn't take us there. Today we discovered the Animal Zone at Rodbaston Agricultural College ... a 35 min walk over fields and £6 each to get in. Lots of animals and birds, friendly staff, a pleasant cafe, and very quiet. Today's boating is very different to commercial boating ... not right or wrong, just very different Rog
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Post by Telemachus on Jul 3, 2022 21:42:32 GMT
I have to say Dunkers is correct about the ladders, they are a recent invention, certainly within my time on the canals. But on the other hand, working boats were in the main not single handed so the point is a bit moot. I am currently working on a gliding telemetry project and if that is successful, the next project will be remote control of at least the gear selector, which will make single handing and climbing up lock sides unrelated.
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