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DandV

By DandV
in General Boating

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John Liley Community Regular

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A mooring at Watten on the Liason Dunquerque- Valenciennes, not far from Calais. Opened in the  1960s, when we, in England, were closing waterways down, this one has several older routes incorporated. A number of artefacts remain from earlier days. Are we looking across the Channel now?

 

 

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Edited by John Liley
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Pluto Veteran

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Posted
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19 hours ago, Tam & Di said:

Di and I have a hovel at La Truchère where the little river Seille joins the Saône, and there is a current post on the DBA site about flooding there - where we are is used as a floodplain to avoid floods downstream in Lyon. Here are a couple of views from previous years about the same time, with the éclusier opening the lock gates to allow a péniche up off the main river, and of the Seille frontage. Luckily we are just behind this and even the high levels of 2002 didn't quite come into the house.

 

Re John's mention of Berrichons, the locks on the Seille are too short for a standard 38m x 5.05m péniche as after the bottom one off the Saône the rest are only 30m long.

 

Tam 

 

I think the 38m peniche was standardised by the Freycinet plan of 1879, and prior to that there were quite a few French waterways of smaller dimensions. In Belgium, the 'narrow' Canal de Charleroi began being widened to what is now Freycinet standard from 1854-1857 on that section from the coal mines around Charleroi towards France, allowing Belgian coal to supply the Paris market. Widening was extended to Seneffe in 1882-1890, while the section from Seneffe towards Brussels continued to be 'narrow' until 1914. There are several books on the canal's history, with 'Les Canaux du Centre', ISBN 2-930148-79-9, published in 2004, still being available from https://www.perron.be/?product=les-canaux-du-centre-une-histoire-un-style for 25 Euros plus postage. I paid Euros 32.19 a few weeks ago.

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Athy Veteran II

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20 minutes ago, Pluto said:

I think the 38m peniche was standardised by the Freycinet plan of 1879,

 

He was quite a boy, was Freycinet. During a long career of public service, including three stints as Prime Minister, he spent a couple of years as Minister of Public Works - during which time he not only enlarged the canals to a standard gauge, but laid the framework on which the French secondary railway system was built, enabling thousands of miles of narrow-gauge rails to snake their way economically across the country's less populous regions for the next fifty or sixty years.

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David Mack Veteran II

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1 hour ago, Athy said:

He was quite a boy, was Freycinet. During a long career of public service, including three stints as Prime Minister, he spent a couple of years as Minister of Public Works - during which time he not only enlarged the canals to a standard gauge, but laid the framework on which the French secondary railway system was built, enabling thousands of miles of narrow-gauge rails to snake their way economically across the country's less populous regions for the next fifty or sixty years.

 

But apparently unrelated to prominent French  structural engineer Eugène Freyssinet.

Edited by David Mack
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Athy Veteran II

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13 minutes ago, David Mack said:

 

But apparently unrelated to prominent French  structural engineer Eugène Freyssinet.

Well, as their names have different spellings, he would be, though I see from Wiki that one of his early triumphs was a bridge over the River Allier, so he does have a waterways connection.

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Tam & Di Influencer

Tam & Di

Posted
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3 hours ago, Pluto said:

I think the 38m peniche was standardised by the Freycinet plan of 1879, and prior to that there were quite a few French waterways of smaller dimensions. In Belgium, the 'narrow' Canal de Charleroi began being widened to what is now Freycinet standard from 1854-1857 on that section from the coal mines around Charleroi towards France, allowing Belgian coal to supply the Paris market.

 

Another 'must' for the aficionados of boat types is the superb DVD by Charles Berg "Bateaux des Rivières et Canaux de France". I'm not sure if it is still available - Pluto will probably know. It does extend to craft from Netherlands and Belgium, and there is even a page about narrow boats in the form of Jim MacDonald's well-known n/b Elizabeth. Below is a snip from the page about the Baquet de Charleroi. He gives their dimensions as 20m x 2.70m loading 70 tons::

 

Tam

 

 

Carles Berg - Baquet.rev.png

Edited by Tam & Di
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David Mack Veteran II

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Posted
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2 hours ago, Athy said:

Well, as their names have different spellings, he would be, though I see from Wiki that one of his early triumphs was a bridge over the River Allier, so he does have a waterways connection.

Indeed. I have known of the name in both contexts for years, and vaguely wondered if there was a connection, but it wasn't until this thread that I actually checked and realised that the spellings are different.

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Athy Veteran II

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1 minute ago, David Mack said:

Indeed. I have known of the name in both contexts for years, and vaguely wondered if there was a connection, but it wasn't until this thread that I actually checked and realised that the spellings are different.

....whereas I had known about Freycinet and his waterways work for years, but only recently, while reading a French book about "secondaire" railways, did I discover that he was behind the legislation to facilitate their construction, akin to the Light Railways Act over here but immensely more fruitful.

 

The more that you live is the more that you learn, as the late Desmond Dekker so eloquently put it.

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Bee Veteran

Bee

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Interesting, the Baquet seems to have bad a 'footprint' much the same as a narrowboat but could load 70 tons, must have been a deep boat. Wouldn't fancy trying to shovel coal out of the bottom of it and flinging it over the side.

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Athy Veteran II

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17 minutes ago, Bee said:

Interesting, the Baquet seems to have bad a 'footprint' much the same as a narrowboat but could load 70 tons, must have been a deep boat. Wouldn't fancy trying to shovel coal out of the bottom of it and flinging it over the side.

I guess the extra 18" or so of width would have made quite a difference to the payload.

I do like their alternative name "Sabots de Charleroi" - Charleroi clogs.

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Dav and Pen Rising Star

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Today in 2005 saw the Kempenaar barge Ibis on the Schoten Turnhout canal . These barges are 60m x 6.5m and about 5 over them were working from Antwerp to a concrete plant at Brecht carrying sand dredged from rage Scheldt estuary. It was a new traffic after many years and they could not load to full draft. There are a network of canals in Flanders and the Nederlands of this size.

433CEC9C-A78E-4CA7-9233-251BD8019B92.jpeg

Edited by Dav and Pen
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