Tonic required. Send in your photos of what is nice on the waterways now.

[PeterScott]

This afternoon 2021

 

Drayton Manor Footbridge

B+F 

 

Compare 

#5782 (1993)

#5958 (2001)

#3790 #4668 (2002) 

#4259 (2003)  

#4715 (2004) 

#4647 (2005)  

#4678 (2006)  

#4365 (2007)  

#1192 #3618 (2011)  

#4066 (2014)  

#4173 #4194 (2015) 

 

 

 

[PeterScott]

On this day in 2004

 

Saltaire L+L

 

[ditchcrawler]

23 minutes ago, PeterScott said:

This afternoon 2021

 

Drayton Manor Footbridge

B+F 

 

Compare 

#5782 (1993)

#5958 (2001)

#3790 #4668 (2002) 

#4259 (2003)  

#4715 (2004) 

#4647 (2005)  

#4678 (2006)  

#4365 (2007)  

#1192 #3618 (2011)  

#4066 (2014)  

#4173 #4194 (2015) 

 

 

 

Your a bit close by

 

[PeterScott]

This afternoon 2021

 

Curdworth Locks. The offside of most locks are to be wildflower meadows, it seems. Lots of work in wildflower meadows said an expert on R4 Gardeners' Question Time. Saves paying to mow them. This one seems to be a daisy-monoculture. Not an expert in such things ...

 

 

 

Hence or otherwise - most probably 'otherwise' - the rack in the offside paddle at lock 6 dropped down and disengaged. Didn't have enough oomph to lift it up again, so thought to tell one of the volunteer lockkeepers who often occupy the top of the flight, but none were there today. Instead phoned the normal C&RT  Customer Services number, but they don't do Saturdays (of the Bank Holiday) because of the Accursed Virus. "If it is an emergency ... " (etc). So tweeted them, so maybe someone will fix it before the towpath paddle fails and causes a stoppage ...

 

Edited May 1, 2021 by PeterScott
sp

[PeterScott]

On this day in 2006

 

 

 

end of the Basingstoke Canal

 

More from firsts-of-May in years gone by

 

[PeterScott]

This afternoon 2021

 

 

 

B+F.

 

The M42 slip road for which Curdworth Top Lock was moved. Wondered if it qualified as the BIGGEST Lock Bridge on the system

 

Compare 19Nov2003  21Dec2003

[John Liley]

Peniches prepare to pass one another on the Canal de l'Est in France. In those days. prior to the widespread use of radio, steerers would use binoculars and hand signals to decide who should give way, and where might be the best place for passing. On the more rural canals it sometimes took, and maybe still does, several attempts at squeezing by, with one vessel retreating until a suitable spot was found.

 

 

[Athy]

8 hours ago, John Liley said:

Peniches prepare to pass one another on the Canal de l'Est in France. In those days. prior to the widespread use of radio, steerers would use binoculars and hand signals to decide who should give way, and where might be the best place for passing. On the more rural canals it sometimes took, and maybe still does, several attempts at squeezing by, with one vessel retreating until a suitable spot was found.

 

 

Now that's peculiar: I'd have thought that one of the essentials of canal design would have been that the cut was wide enough for two craft to pass each other.

 

Renault R10 on the back deck?

[Tam & Di]

9 hours ago, John Liley said:

Peniches prepare to pass one another on the Canal de l'Est in France.

 On the other hand I've seen two loaded boats jammed solidly side by side in the narrows on the Briare side of the aqueduct for best part of an hour, simply because the one travelling north couldn't be bothered to wait a couple of minutes to allow the one coming south to clear first. I recognised the name of the Dunkerque registered north-bound boat and he certainly should have known that although the canal was theoretically wide enough it was too shallow for two chargés to pass there; the other one was a young Dutch couple and I did wonder if it was some sort of rather self-defeating bullying tactic.  ?‍♂️

 

Tam

[John Liley]

2 hours ago, Tam & Di said:

 On the other hand I've seen two loaded boats jammed solidly side by side in the narrows on the Briare side of the aqueduct for best part of an hour, simply because the one travelling north couldn't be bothered to wait a couple of minutes to allow the one coming south to clear first. I recognised the name of the Dunkerque registered north-bound boat and he certainly should have known that although the canal was theoretically wide enough it was too shallow for two chargés to pass there; the other one was a young Dutch couple and I did wonder if it was some sort of rather self-defeating bullying tactic.  ?‍♂️

 

Tam

It takes all sorts, I suppose though, generally, there is enough common sense for one  or other to wait at a possible passing place. Re Dutch families there is amongst the 38 metre fraternity a group of adventurous souls who take cargoes from the Netherlands deep into France for the hell of it (and running the risk of not getting a return load)

 

For an excellent 24 minute movie of such a journey I highly recommend  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGZwu0UDIhs 

 

The commentary is in Dutch, but most of it speaks for itself. The cargo appears to be asphalt, from Amsterdam to a point south of Lyon.

[Dav and Pen]

Now that everybody over 20m has to have AIS the commercials know if any other one is nearbye and wether they are loaded or empty. On the canals that still had some commercials we used to ask a lock keeper if any were about but when all the locks became automatic we had a few surprises.

[Rob-M]

Today

Great Haywood junction

 

[Athy]

52 minutes ago, John Liley said:

 

 

For an excellent 24 minute movie of such a journey I highly recommend  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGZwu0UDIhs 

 

The commentary is in Dutch, but most of it speaks for itself. The cargo appears to be asphalt, from Amsterdam to a point south of Lyon.

 

Good viewing indeed, from areas which I don't know at all to some which I do (such as the Rhone vineyards with the growers' names on white brick walls at the foot of each yard - you're greeted by those when you get off the train at Tain l'Hermitage for example.

 

I do wonder: asphalt doesn't sound like a high-value cargo; is such a journey financially viable for the couple?

[John Liley]

2 hours ago, Athy said:

Good viewing indeed, from areas which I don't know at all to some which I do (such as the Rhone vineyards with the growers' names on white brick walls at the foot of each yard - you're greeted by those when you get off the train at Tain l'Hermitage for example.

 

I do wonder: asphalt doesn't sound like a high-value cargo; is such a journey financially viable for the couple?

I would guess it is quite valuable. If you want it in Lyon and it comes from Trinidad, then ship and barge seems the best possible way. A quick look at the Internet tells me that currently, in the UK, a small bag costs £1 a kilo. Given a mark up on this of, say, 50 per cent, then the 250 tonnes the peniche was carrying is worth £125,000. I could be wildly wrong about the mark-up, of course.

 

When I travelled on my friend's much larger barge in France,I was told, in very general terms that the 1,000 tonnes of malted barley we were carrying in special containers was worth over a million euros.  ie 1 euro per kilogram, very roughly. So, by comparison, asphalt is cheap I suppose.

 

When I joined this forum I never thought i would find myself engaged in such matters, Not long now, Covid allowing, before I'm able to get out more!

[Athy]

2 minutes ago, John Liley said:

 

 

When I joined this forum I never thought i would find myself engaged in such matters, Not long now, Covid allowing, before I'm able to get out more!

Well I for one hope that you don't mind doing so - those of us (and I think there are quite a few) with an interest in French and other European waterways find such first-hand information valuable and interesting.

[George and Dragon]

18 hours ago, PeterScott said:

Lots of work in wildflower meadows said an expert on R4 Gardeners' Question Time. Saves paying to mow them.

I heard that too and wondered. Converting a lawn to a wildflower meadow will probably take a fair bit of work, converting the edge of a farmer's field is doomed to failure if the farmer carries on putting fertiliser all over the wildflower meadow... leaving a patch of grass that normally gets mown every couple of weeks to go back to a wild state??? Your guess is as good as (probably much better than) mine.

[ditchcrawler]

1 hour ago, Athy said:

Well I for one hope that you don't mind doing so - those of us (and I think there are quite a few) with an interest in French and other European waterways find such first-hand information valuable and interesting.

well said, Greeny

 

52 minutes ago, George and Dragon said:

I heard that too and wondered. Converting a lawn to a wildflower meadow will probably take a fair bit of work, converting the edge of a farmer's field is doomed to failure if the farmer carries on putting fertiliser all over the wildflower meadow... leaving a patch of grass that normally gets mown every couple of weeks to go back to a wild state??? Your guess is as good as (probably much better than) mine.

There was a report last week that artificial grass is "greener" than growing a lawn due to the petrol used in the mower, the herbicides and fertilisers used on a growing lawn

[Tam & Di]

5 hours ago, John Liley said:

Re Dutch families there is amongst the 38 metre fraternity a group of adventurous souls who take cargoes from the Netherlands deep into France for the hell of it (and running the risk of not getting a return load)

 

A really good film - we know the middle section of their route Gent down to Chalon sur Saône extremely well, having wintered in Cambrai for several years and based our barge handling school there. I've not seen the use of guaging rods before - I'd have thought they would be more sophisticated now, but they're not greatly different to the 3 or 4 ancient ones from UK canals we've got in our shed.

I was slightly surprised to see the woman leaning over the side and guiding her husband into locks - I've never ever seen a boatman resorting to that before. I did once have a couple with a 24m barge who I was examining for their licence who did that, and I told him I would not authorise his ticket unless he showed me that he could go into a lock making his own judgement.   ?

The guy with Vite here alongside me at Condé was just 19 and on one of his first freights, for grain ex Chalons-en-Champagne for Amsterdam. The industry is so highly regarded in the Netherlands that he'd been given a bank loan to completely refurbish the ship - the accommodation was really swish. The ship also has McGregor type sliding hatches, making life much easier.

 

Tam

 

Edited May 2, 2021 by Tam & Di

[John Liley]

1 hour ago, Athy said:

Well I for one hope that you don't mind doing so - those of us (and I think there are quite a few) with an interest in French and other European waterways find such first-hand information valuable and interesting.

 

Thanks. I really enjoy this forum actually, and greatly appreciate its good nature. It teaches me a lot. Still got a few photos to contribute (I think).

[PeterScott]

On this day in 2008

 

Paddington Basin Public art.

[PeterScott]

This morning 2021

 

 

For those of use who remember the 'old' Birmingham canals, Garrison locks are close to that feeling: a little down-at-heel of course, although the locals don't seem to mind ...

 

One aspect that I haven't encountered elsewhere, and helpful to the lockwheeler not keen to step across the bottom gates, is to close the towpath gate, walk to the offsde top (ground) paddleand open it fully. The channel behind the lock wall the length of the lock coes out behind the offside bottom gate and closes it with a satisfying clumk. It was designed to do that on all th gates on the flight, but only some of them still work, and then only when not clogged with rubbish.

 

 

 

[Rob-M]

1 minute ago, PeterScott said:

This morning 2021

 

 

For those of use who remember the 'old' Birmingham canals, Garrison locks are close to that feeling: a little down-at-heel of course, although the locals don't seem to mind ...

 

One aspect that I haven't encountered elsewhere, and helpful to the lockwheeler not keen to step across the bottom gates, is to close the towpath gate, walk to the offsde top (ground) paddleand open it fully. The channel behind the lock wall the length of the lock coes out behind the offside bottom gate and closes it with a satisfying clumk. It was designed to do that on all th gates on the flight, but only some of them still work, and then only when not clogged with rubbish.

 

 

 

There aren't that many that will auto close anymore.  I like to use the Garrisons route.

[JamesWoolcock]

A few still on Perry Bar flight. Same design.

[PeterScott]

On this day in 1981

 

 

 

... and from an older image of Ironbridge

 

More from seconds of May in years gone by

[PeterScott]

This afternoon 2021

 

 

 

Some of the proposed developments on the Icknield Port Road Wharf Loop Line have been completed, some with residents already moved in. Around the other side of the loop