Jump to content

Empty pound...


The Dreamer

Featured Posts

1 hour ago, tree monkey said:

If you don't fill your own pounds you need a handy Tawny owl to help out

FB_IMG_1579635711758.jpg

 

Some years ago on the BCN Marathon Fulbourne went aground in that pound. Edwin Fasham's Ferrous came up behind us, overtook and took us in tow. He has something like a Gardner 5LW with a largish prop despite the boat drawing several inches less than Fulbourne. What followed was a white knuckle ride as we bounced our way furiously over bricks, shopping trolleys and all the rest for the next mile. Its a wonder Fulbourne's bottom survived!

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, Tacet said:

Doesn't the CRT van carry spare water to refill empty pounds?

They have dehydrated water, it's lighter to carry about.

 

MP.

 

ETA Monkey is not in the same room as me, I swear.

Edited by MoominPapa
  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 hours ago, Ray T said:

Some times you have little choice, back in 2006 we didn't have a mobile with us.

Boat got stuck on the bottom, twice. Each time I paddled ashore and off to the next lock.

Yet, many of the other pounds were overflowing.

Rochdale BTW.

2006_1220Rochdale_Canal10160.JPG

2006_1220Rochdale_Canal10166.JPG

2006_1223Rochdale_Canal20043.JPG

Filled that one myself several times, when really bad sharing the water from the next two pounds up. That was a common occurrence in that pound. Leaky lock gates, now fixed. The waterfall can happen when a boat empties the lock above. 

Going down the Gauxholme flight meeting full locks, especially if its raining, the cumulative effect is a flooded towpath by the railway bridge. 

CRT do their best to stop Shire hirers getting to Summit, following in Tim&pru's wake, turning round by the swing Bridge and wasting water. Some obviously get through. ????

Link to comment
Share on other sites

39 minutes ago, Jim Riley said:

Filled that one myself several times, when really bad sharing the water from the next two pounds up. That was a common occurrence in that pound. Leaky lock gates, now fixed. The waterfall can happen when a boat empties the lock above. 

Going down the Gauxholme flight meeting full locks, especially if its raining, the cumulative effect is a flooded towpath by the railway bridge. 

CRT do their best to stop Shire hirers getting to Summit, following in Tim&pru's wake, turning round by the swing Bridge and wasting water. Some obviously get through. ????

The first time we negotiated the Rochdale we got onto the Summit Pound and a lady came out of the lock cottage and sold us a "Summit Pass" plaque which I still have.

2006_1223Rochdale_Canal20055.JPG

2006_1223Rochdale_Canal20056.JPG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Ray T said:

The first time we negotiated the Rochdale we got onto the Summit Pound and a lady came out of the lock cottage and sold us a "Summit Pass" plaque which I still have.

2006_1223Rochdale_Canal20055.JPG

2006_1223Rochdale_Canal20056.JPG

Ah yes, the original RCCo lockie. I bought one of those off Ray Mcdonald, now on my back doors. He still lives there but retired from the cut a few years back. In 1983 when the job creation lads were fixing it all, 2 mates and I canoed and trolley portage our way from Smithy Bridge, where I lived then, to Sowerby and back over 4 days. The lockie took great delight in selling us day passes, she hadn't seen any boats go by for years. (just realised, what year, did you mean Mrs Mcdonald?) 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 hours ago, David Mack said:

 

When running water through locks, fir5zt make sure all gates are closed, even if you found them open. Thst way you won't wash silt and debris onto the cill which could stop the gates closing properly. Also there"s then no chance of a gate slamming shut if flowing water gets behind it.

But even before this, go to the next lower lock and check all the paddles are closed (which can a be pain if it is some distance away).  Otherwise running water through won't help much!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, Jim Riley said:

Ah yes, the original RCCo lockie. I bought one of those off Ray Mcdonald, now on my back doors. He still lives there but retired from the cut a few years back. In 1983 when the job creation lads were fixing it all, 2 mates and I canoed and trolley portage our way from Smithy Bridge, where I lived then, to Sowerby and back over 4 days. The lockie took great delight in selling us day passes, she hadn't seen any boats go by for years. (just realised, what year, did you mean Mrs Mcdonald?) 

The year we bought the plaque was 1995, our first of 4 visits to the Rochdale, all in Shire Cruisers. I never knew the ladies name.

Edited by Ray T
  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Ray T said:

The year we bought the plaque was 1995, our first of 4 visits to the Rochdale, all in Shire Cruisers. I never knew the ladies name.

There's still one of the old Shire hires around, maybe 30ft? Currently moored near Pickering and Arnold, looking worse for wear. I know the chap that owns it. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

56 minutes ago, Cheese said:

But even before this, go to the next lower lock and check all the paddles are closed (which can a be pain if it is some distance away).  Otherwise running water through won't help much!

If you travelling uphill and need to run water, then you are either in the lock below the one you are letting water through, have just left the lock below (in which case you will have already shut all gates and paddles), or you will be stuck further down, in which case you want the water to flow through any intermediate locks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 hours ago, David Mack said:

If you travelling uphill and need to run water, then you are either in the lock below the one you are letting water through, have just left the lock below (in which case you will have already shut all gates and paddles), or you will be stuck further down, in which case you want the water to flow through any intermediate locks.

Or you've just woken up to find the water level has dropped significantly overnight - when it is prudent to walk to the downhill lock first.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 21/01/2020 at 14:55, The Dreamer said:

Call, and wait for, CaRT?

 

or

 

Run water through the above locks yourself?

Many, many! years ago I was doing the Helmsman's course at Marple and when we came to go through the top lock 16, the lock and side pond were empty.  The instructor started to run water through the lock.  The side pond (bone dry and boat grounded in the next lock down) and was soundly told off by a passing lady (??local / boater / know it all??).  "You'll drain the Macclesfield!!" she quoth.  He gave her one of those knowing looks - you know the one and carried on filling everything in about ten minutes without grounding anything anywhere.

I'll always opt to sort it myself if it is straightforward.

  • Happy 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 21/01/2020 at 19:43, Captain Pegg said:

There is a lock on the lower part of the Rushall flight that had a severe leak in the lower gates last year. It was bad enough that you couldn’t open the lock up in advance when descending because the pound would drain. It might still be like that.

 

The long pound between the bottom seven and top two is known as the ‘mile pound’ because it is pretty much exactly a mile long. It also has - or at least had - a leak in the offside bank which flooded the gardens below the embankment above the lower lock and required a reduced level to be maintained. I’ve walked the pound to run water down through the top two locks and while doing that a resident of Longwood Boat Club came out to tell me I had to stop because boats were pulling on their moorings because I was emptying the pound. Reflecting that the pound in question is the entire Wolverhampton level I ignored him.

 

JP

We had the same occur when on the BCNS explorer cruise last year. We dumped a lot of water into the mile long pound and some of the boats moored at Longwood were soon on the bottom with an increasing lean. We slowed the fill rate to low the water level to recover. It may be a long pound, but the level drops significantly. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 22/01/2020 at 09:03, MoominPapa said:

We've descended that flight by putting the boat into a lock and then opening paddles both ends to fill the pound the boat is going into next from the one it's just left. This clearly only works when going down. Going up you have to find Leon and bung him some cash to go up the flight and run water down from the top.

 

We've also filled completely empty pounds on the BCN, including running water down the staircase to fill the pound at Brades. Any of the 453-473 flights have plenty of water available by definition. 

 

MP.

 

Coming down the Northampton flight in September last year I had a bit of a run in with Leon as I was letting water down to get us through the next pound. He started yelling at me to stop as he reckoned that wasn't the right way and that I was wasting water. Now the pound I was letting water out of was full and the spillway from the next lock up was running  freely so there was plenty of water available but boats ahead of us had drained the lower pound before the M1 bridge. I politely declined to follow his advice at which point he threatened to throw me in the cut. After calming him down and carrying on to the successful conclusion of reaching the next lock I left him on good terms - but with him still insisting I was doing it all wrong. To those of you who know Leon ( and most of you who use the Northampton flight will) can you shed any light on why he might have got so excited and was there perhaps something that was not correct about my procedure?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, jonesthenuke said:

We had the same occur when on the BCNS explorer cruise last year. We dumped a lot of water into the mile long pound and some of the boats moored at Longwood were soon on the bottom with an increasing lean. We slowed the fill rate to low the water level to recover. It may be a long pound, but the level drops significantly. 

Did you observe the draining of the pound? It defies logic for water with a free surface.

 

JP

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The pound has been draining for years. It was really low, but went back up again. 

 

We have met a Leon a number of times, and run aground in one of the pounds. due to low levels. Mrs Rusty was ashore, and politely refused Leon's help to resolve the problem. He was quite happy to leave us to it. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Captain Pegg said:

Did you observe the draining of the pound? It defies logic for water with a free surface.

 

JP

I observed the reduction in level above the top lock. Whilst it is a free surface, it is supplied by a long canal with some resistance to flow, thus the level drops. The long term moorers at Longwood told me this was the normal behaviour when filling the long pound below.

Edited by jonesthenuke
typo!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, jonesthenuke said:

I observed the reduction in level above the top lock. Whilst it is a free surface, it is supplied by a long canal with some resistance to flow, thus the level drops. The long term moorers at Longwood told me this was the normal behaviour when filling the long pound below.

 

9 hours ago, MoominPapa said:

Only in equilibrium. If the water is flowing, the level falls in the direction of flow, like rivers.

 

MP.

 

 

I’d expect a gradient locally but I’m surprised it can put boats to the bottom even on a shallow arm like at Longwood.

 

Next time I need to run water down from a long pound I’ll do it steadily and watch carefully.

 

JP

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...

Thanks all. We will inspect, clean, paint and do our best to get it all wholesome. Our boat had been unused for at least a year as the previous owner sadly passed away and his family held on to it in case any of them them wanted to use it. I will take care to thoroughly flush everything with the bleach solution. We do have a seagull iv filter on the kitchen tap so hopefully that will help (once I've purchased an eye-wateringly expensive replacement cassette!). M

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.