magpie patrick

Unless one can drain them they are almost as much of a liability closed as open, and they can't just be filled in as they have a land drainage function. The major difference comes when a failure occurs, if a lock wall starts to lean put a pipe through the lock and fill it in rather than repair it, but even this isn't cheap. Even draining them isn't as straightfoward as it sounds - there are bits of the Dorset and Somerset Canal, which never opened, which hold water 228 years after the company gave up building it, and the Coal Canal summit was deliberately drained and the lining punctured after closure - bits still hold water after heavy rain. One of the factors that enabled the early restorations was that "something had to be done" with a decaying asset, and making the canals safe or eliminating them was as expensive as restoring them - the Newton Heath shallows on the Rochdale is a case in point, the canal was filled in to a few inches below water level to make it safe - this was hugely expensive and not that successful, as accidents still happened and rubbish thrown in the canal stayed at the surface. The cost of eliminating the Bentley Canal, near Walsall, was more than the cost of restoring it although the way it was done did at least largely remove future maintenance requirements. To properly eliminate a canal one needs to rip the lining out and pipe the water before filling it in - if this isn't done then the canal remains a liability. I had a phone call from a contractor recently, working on a site near Shrewsbury: they'd been excavating a trench and suddenly had lots of water to deal with - the trench had gone across the bed of the Shrewsbury Canal, which had been filled in with rubble and then had a layer of blacktop applied, under the blacktop it was still gathering water from the uphill side and redistributing to heaven knows where. One more example, when the Derby Canal at Draycott was filled in, the nearby railway started to flood, and Network Rail (or RailTrack - not sure which it was then) paid for it to be dug out again.

There was a tendency to overcomplicate these things at the turn of the millennium, two locks on the Huddersfield Canal had pedestals with hydraulic pumps to work the gates, I think these were eventually replaced with cranked balance beams. Edited to add, there was a tendency to assume these things would never be needed. I seem to recall it took quite a bit of persuasion to get Tuel Lane lock long enough for seventy-two foot narrow boats. So maybe this was just a permanent towpath that could be moved but no one really expected it to ever be used.

It looks to be maintained as part of a park, which is quite a USA thing, I've been to half a dozen sites where bits of canal are maintained in this way - and have a hit list of a few dozen more if I ever get back there.

Thank you! You're super-speedy in that response. I've taken an interest in canals of New York State but haven't got far with the Black River Canal yet. Believe me it's not a UK canal, even without the evidence that Matty has provided. I could do to work out how to use Google image search though! Thanks both of you for looking it up.

My flat is 220 yards from the Parish church and level with the top of the spire. At times like this I find this reassuring... 🌧🌧

I've lifted this pic from a Facebook post (it was on the CWDF Facebook group which I don't often bother with) - the poster was trying to make a point re lack of funding for canals but I will admit I don't know where this is save I'm pretty sure it's not in the UK or Ireland. It's an abandoned four-rise and I can only think of one such in the British Isles - Norwood on the Chesterfield and it doesn't look like that! The other two, Watford and Muirtown (Caledonian) are still in use. France? USA? Anybody know? Just curious that's all.

The imagery is wonderful, but I suspect the reality, even if I had a few million Euros to spare, would be pouring rain and either too much wind or too little, I can see me being becalmed in a downpour somewhere off Weston-Super-Mare

Those with longer memories may recall I used Easy Start to get Lutine Bell home in 2017, every start from Reading to Bath was assisted by the stuff. I always intended this as "get home" not a long term solution. I also used it to get an elderly Mercedes engine in a fishing boat started as time and tide wasn't on our side. The main thing to note is the Easy Start does not fix the problem. It gets the engine started but if it is needed once on a cold start it is probably always needed on a cold start - it addresses the symptom not the cause. This isn't the engine being addicted, it is the engine being knackered. Lutine's Lister ST2 also needed a daily oil change - it wasn't addicted to oil it was just using a lot of the stuff. There is a song out there with the line "a daily oil change and a can of Easy Start" - the song is titled Lutine Bell, and inspired by real life events! Pedant alert - Denmark is about the same latitude as Scotland, but if diesel engines were made in Inverness I'd expect them to have manifold heaters...

a 12 foot 6 beam will physically fit through the GU tunnels, it just needs managing, whereas a wide beam turning up at the narrows on the Rochdale won't get through at all, even unoficially There is probably also the matter of the 1968 Transport Act on the GU, as ISTR this specifies that cruising waterways must be maintained for craft typically navigating in 1967 (or something like that) whereas the Rochdale is a remainder waterway.

The small print does say approximate...

Done - needs a mod to do that

I can hardly blame CRT for following the trend and describing "spend on maintenance" as "investment", perhaps I should invest in a service and MOT for my car rather than spending money on it, might sound better to the bank manager....

This is possible as the first through route to connect was the Thames and Severn Canal, which was the first, and briefly the only, through route between Manchester, the Midlands and London/Oxford. This would open the upper and middle Thames to a number of craft that were unfamiliar to the regular users of the river.

There is also a device known as a sheep-foot compactor which does the same job - note it doesn't compact the sheep's foot, just mimics it

It's also stretching a point to say they're available roadside! I've been trying to get them for over a year from my local stockist. I've managed so far as the boatyard where I more Juno sold me their last 3.9kg to tide me over whilst I found an alternative.

That would be good! Would save me a messy refit of Juno's gas locker....

A lovely picture very much of it's time. Even as a houseboat I bet that thing was a beggar in any level of wind - and as it's not against the bank one must assume it moved a little, given those whites the two people clearly didn't swim aboard. And who goes on any boat dressed entirely in white? I think it was quite a fashion, but they would quickly look disheveled and the laundry bill must have been impressive.

I hear you - you may recall I've had the pleasure of steering your boat on two occasions - it was a joy to handle and (to my eye) a very attractive vessel as well as a very practical one.

I think most boat types have been rhe subject of vitriol at some point. I had a snobbish lady tell me I couldn't fit Juno in Bradford Lock - Juno is a yoghurt pot, it would fit but SL felt I shouldn't be on the canal (there were two short narrow boats in the lock already, neither of them hers) - I've also had envy on occasion as when I've find a space on "full" moorings In "Three Men on a Boat" Jerome K Jerome complains about the steam driven launches as he and his friends row up the river. When offered a ride in a steam launch he comments on the idiots in rowing boats who won't get out of the way...

Pricing in any market is used for two purposes, to raise revenue and to reduce demand - to some extent the point of the wide beam surcharge is for the purpose of reducing demand as well as raising revenue. There may have been no surcharge if there hadn't been a sudden influx of the things, especially on waterways that aren't really suitable. The constant pushing of boundaries over the last two decades was going to get a reaction somewhere down the line - large boats and more boats without a home mooring, both with some people seeking to find the absolute limit in terms of size or of minimum movement, and sometimes both - no, they can't stop you doing it, but they can use charges to discourage you from doing so.

I concur - if we want the canals to survive we're gonna have to pay for them The EA will come for their money eventually - they can't run navigation works on zero cash either.

Very interesting debate on paddle gear that is not on the original post! Does anyone know where the lock is? The steps either side does seem to be a Leicester Section feature

It's in my original list It's doubtful whether a wide boat ever went through it, but I presume the logic was to get wide boats to a particular wharf in Middlewich. I haven't a clue why the barge lock in Droitwich was built wide!

That gets messy.... Stroudwater locks were shorter and wider the T&S locks - the break of guage came at Brimscombe so the first seven T&S locks were Stroudwater size and Bournes was wide and long to allow both. Some of the T&S locks in the Golden Valley were shortened but I'm not sure the ones on the other side down to the Thames were. Overall the T&S locks were a pain as they were wide but not wide enough for two narrow boats. When built it was never imagined the narrow boat would become so ubiquitous so it was built for Thames barges

Thanks - Stourport & Diglis are I guess similar to Bancroft, get the barges off the river into a canal basin. Northampton is one of very few places where narrow locks connect directly to a wide beam river navigation. I think Oxford is the only other one (twice) and the wide beam route there is a through route. The larger navigation is a through route - unless a 70 foot boat can get through lock 21?