StephenA

Audlem can be a complete pain - we've flown through it at times and at others it has taken way too long (like over 4 hours). Stopping at Market Drayton seems to be a sensible overnight but if things are going well you could push on to the top of Tyrley locks and moor on the visitor moorings there - after that the next realistic stop is Goldstone Wharf.

Going via the Stourbridge and through Netherton Tunnel is a few more locks but it's an interesting route - much more interesting than all that very straight Main Line.

Canalplan won't put an overnight on tidal rivers, within certain lock flights, tunnels etc. Every location in canalplan has a "mooring rating" which once it gets enough data it can then start to use to extend the feature to allow it to do things like suggesting stopping early at a good mooring point or pushing on through a "poor" section to another good mooring.

Why use the TV transmitter link? All canalplan locations show their lat and long... Steve

I've updated Canalplan to limit turning to 50 feet there.

If no-one has told Canalplan that the winding hole there is not full length then its going to give you bad advice. Looking at it on Google its hard to say but a quick rough and ready check using fingers to measure distances would tend to suggest that its not a full sized winding hole. Steve

That's because its the bridge that Great Bridge Street runs over. Now it may be that Great Bridge Street is named after the canal bridge but its not a really great bridge so who knows....

Also if you think of road junctions they are usually marked by specific structures : an island, a roundabout, a t junction. So people will just assume that when you talk about the junction of two canals they will think of a similar structure and not just a change of name - which is basicallly what you have here.

This one has now been rebuilt.....

Paul The problem with the stoppage information coming from BW (and also now from CaRT) is that there is a lot of noise which needs filtering out (canoe events, minor works which don't afffect navigation etc). Also there are a lot of temporary stoppages (tree down etc) which never seemed to get cleared. I'm collecting a lot of closure notices in emails and intend to see if I can make the Canalplan scraping process a lot more robust and reliable. Steve

Its not really that bad - if you stage it with a lay over at Torksey then it makes it easier. The lock keepers at Cromwell should be able to give you some good advice and just remember to approach Keadby lock pushing against the tide to make it easier... the river is pretty wide so turning so you can do that is pretty easy.

One of the locks on the middle level is only 68 feet if I recall, and there is a very sharp bend somewhere down there which can make things awkward too.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-22391706

Its re-open.... news item on the BBC this morning.

And if you go through the tunnel you can wind at the junction of the old route at the end of the tunnel cutting... or you could when we used to keep Mintball at Braunston.

The Junction and Bridge number 1 are separate places (from a navigational point of view - the junction is shared between the Rufford Branch and the Main Line) but the text certainly is confusing... I'll mention it to Nick in the pub tonight.

Only 9MB per PHP process... I think the software recommends a lot more than that...

Canalplan isn't showing stoppages at the moment - CART (and BW before them) have a very annoying habit of sending out tons of closures for things like high water levels, fallen trees etc and never clear them, or send emails that don't tie up to the original stoppage clearing it. So canalplan basically ended up with a map full of fallen trees and flooded rivers. So its turned off until we can re-visit the mess of emails CART send and work out if there is more parsing/filtering we can do to get rid of the "noise" Steve

As I said - it depends on what route you take... the default it comes up with is : Total distance is 83 miles, 6½ furlongs and 32 locks. There are at least 2 moveable bridges of which 1 is usually left open; 17 small aqueducts or underbridges and 2 tunnels (Heath Crescent Tunnel and Cowley Tunnel (81 yards long)). This is made up of 83 miles, 6½ furlongs of narrow canals; 32 narrow locks. This will take 39 hours, 48 minutes which is 5 days, 4 hours and 48 minutes at 7 hours per day. For calculation purposes this is taken as 6 days. First day of trip On the Coventry Canal (Main Line - Hawkesbury to Fazeley), at Atherstone Top Lock No 1 (to avoid stopping in a flight of locks) (just past Atherstone Top Lock No 1). This is 16 miles, 2¾ furlongs and 0 locks and will take 6 hours 32 minutes. Second day of trip On the Birmingham Canal Navigations (Birmingham and Fazeley Canal - along route of Coventry Canal), at Peel's Wharf (just past Fazeley Junction). This is 10 miles, 6½ furlongs and 13 locks and will take 6 hours 44 minutes. Third day of trip On the Trent and Mersey Canal (Main Line - Fradley to Great Haywood), at Handsacre Crown Bridge No 58 (half way between Tuppenhurst Aqueduct and Spode House). This is 14 miles, 6½ furlongs and 3 locks and will take 6 hours 38 minutes. Fourth day of trip On the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal (Main Line: Autherley to Great Haywood), at Acton Trussel Bridge No 93. This is 14 miles, 6¾ furlongs and 4 locks and will take 6 hours 38 minutes. Fifth day of trip On the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal (Main Line: Autherley to Great Haywood), at Three Hammers Farm Winding Hole. This is 11 miles, 3 furlongs and 10 locks and will take 6 hours 38 minutes. Sixth day of trip On the Shropshire Union Canal (Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal - Main Line), at Gnosall Bridge No 35. This is 15 miles, 4¾ furlongs and 2 locks and will take 6 hours 38 minutes. And yes it might be wrong : 3 of us did Worcester basin to Alvechurch in one day. Alvechurch to Fazely the next and Fazely to Radford Bridge the next..

Depends which way you go....

2012?? Bit late for that......

The problem is that CART (and BW previously) throw out so many closure notices which never get followed up by opening notices that our automated closure handing process got overwhelmed and ended up with most of the network apparently permanently closed. We're working on a better way of managing closures and trying to identify navigation closure notices (like fallen trees) that can safely be ignored and also improving how we manage closures in the system.... I think that we're hoping we can get it sorted out for the next cruising season. So right now its not going to show much apart from very long term closures.

Canalplan AC is still up and running, is still totally free (and always will be), and is still being actively developed Steve