Team Firefly Virtual BCN Challenge 2020 Cruise Log

[Rob-M]

3 minutes ago, RebelMike said:

Glad that you were able to fit in Churchbridge Locks!  I would've liked to go that way but didn't like the look of doing them a second time for no points or having to travel the similarly pointless S&W.

 

Which brings us to travel time - I'll leave it for the judges to do the judging - but don't you need around 9.5 hours of cruising to do everything you've described?

I had similar maths, to have a spare 4 hours to continue on to the bottom of the 21 surprised me but I didn't have the planning sheets to hand.

[Captain Pegg]

6 minutes ago, RebelMike said:

Glad that you were able to fit in Churchbridge Locks!  I would've liked to go that way but didn't like the look of doing them a second time for no points or having to travel the similarly pointless S&W.

 

Which brings us to travel time - I'll leave it for the judges to do the judging - but don't you need around 9.5 hours of cruising to do everything you've described?

Firefly goes up to 11

[TheBiscuits]

13 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:

Firefly goes up to 11

Now be nice.

 

John only uses real, measured times on his route planning spreadsheet, so these must obviously be zero for the Lichfield & Hatherton.

 

 

In fairness, he's not the only boat at Aldersley Junction tonight.

[john6767]

23 minutes ago, RebelMike said:

Glad that you were able to fit in Churchbridge Locks!  I would've liked to go that way but didn't like the look of doing them a second time for no points or having to travel the similarly pointless S&W.

 

Which brings us to travel time - I'll leave it for the judges to do the judging - but don't you need around 9.5 hours of cruising to do everything you've described?

A bit more than that I think.  Have you read the rules?

[Captain Pegg]

2 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

Now be nice.

 

John only uses real, measured times on his route planning spreadsheet, so these must obviously be zero for the Lichfield & Hatherton.

 

 

In fairness, he's not the only boat at Aldersley Junction tonight.

Is he not?

[RebelMike]

Hmm, ok - interesting rules interpretation and I see The Workers have done the same.

 

I did ask for clarification for how travelling beyond time would be penalised back on the thread but no answer was forthcoming, so I assumed an appropriately hefty penalty would be applied regardless of whether the last part of your journey was non-scoring.  We'll see what the judges view is!

[john6767]

2 minutes ago, RebelMike said:

Hmm, ok - interesting rules interpretation and I see The Workers have done the same.

 

I did ask for clarification for how travelling beyond time would be penalised back on the thread but no answer was forthcoming, so I assumed an appropriately hefty penalty would be applied regardless of whether the last part of your journey was non-scoring.  We'll see what the judges view is!

I asked, and the penalty is a factor of the points scored on the section, so for a non scoring section it is zero.

[Captain Pegg]

6 minutes ago, RebelMike said:

Hmm, ok - interesting rules interpretation and I see The Workers have done the same.

 

I did ask for clarification for how travelling beyond time would be penalised back on the thread but no answer was forthcoming, so I assumed an appropriately hefty penalty would be applied regardless of whether the last part of your journey was non-scoring.  We'll see what the judges view is!

No we didn’t. We were within time.

Edited May 5, 2020 by Captain Pegg

[TheBiscuits]

23 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:

Is he not?

No, but he was polite enough to moor Firefly out of the lock tail rather than hog the lock and go to the pub.

 

I can tell, because there's not a boat blocking the lock on his mooring spot photo.

 

 

Edited May 5, 2020 by TheBiscuits
spellink

[Captain Pegg]

And considering we arrived considerably earlier than him what is therefore your conclusion about whether or not we are hogging the lock, good Sir?
 

[john6767]

1 minute ago, Captain Pegg said:

And considering we arrived considerably earlier than him what is therefore your conclusion about whether or not we are hogging the lock, good Sir?
 

Just be out of the way by the morning ?

[Captain Pegg]

Just now, john6767 said:

Just be out of the way by the morning ?

I’m not there now. As you have seen for yourself.

[RebelMike]

24 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:

No we didn’t. We were within time.

OK fair enough - sorry still catching up on everyone's logs!

 

Edit to add: It reads like you have gone over somewhat? Though not as excessively as Firefly with the extra trip down Lord's Hayes.

Edited May 5, 2020 by RebelMike

[Captain Pegg]

14 minutes ago, RebelMike said:

OK fair enough - sorry still catching up on everyone's logs!

 

Edit to add: It reads like you have gone over somewhat? Though not as excessively as Firefly with the extra trip down Lord's Hayes.

No we didn’t. We were within time.

[RebelMike]

I can't make that work, but I think I've stared at too many spreadsheets and now numbers don't mean anything any more.

 

I think it is better when we are all in real boats and can't worry too much about exactly what shenanigans is going on elsewhere...

[Captain Pegg]

12 minutes ago, RebelMike said:

I can't make that work, but I think I've stared at too many spreadsheets and now numbers don't mean anything any more.

 

I think it is better when we are all in real boats and can't worry too much about exactly what shenanigans is going on elsewhere...

Well thanks for trying anyway. No doubt the checkers will find it if I’ve made an error.

[john6767]

We've always found Wolverhampton 21 to be beset by gates that won't stay shut, or gates that won't stay open and paddles that won't move. Maybe just our bad luck. It's down in Sally's least favourite locks, with the Rufford Branch (the wind!!!) and the Ripon Canal (wasp nests in the ground paddle!). However this morning we came up the virtual locks without incident. We started off up the locks but finding these guys ahead of us we kick-started (literally) the Automat thingy to move to another time.

Ref: The Birmingham Canal Navigations Through Time by R.H. Davies

 

We considered working the locks pre-1784/5 when we'd only being doing the Wolverhampton 20. However we didn't like the look of the deep Lock 20, and climbing 132 feet is climbing 132 feet however many locks you make it so we zipped off to virtual 2019 where Firefly felt less conspicuous.

 

Locks have been important to Wolverhampton in many ways (spot the link??!!). Lock making is reported in the area from Elizabethan times, but the changes in society of the industrial revolution meant that the use and so market for locks changed. 118 lock makers were listed as working in the area in 1770, 2 years before the junction opened, this increased to 260 lock makers by 1841. Chubb set up in Wolverhampton in 1818 working out of the several premises including the Chubb building which still overlooks Wolverhampton top lock.

 

We got to the top lock in 2019 to a bit of confusion as we discovered Firefly already in the lock on the way down!!

 

To avoid awkward questions, from ourselves, we cranked up the Automat thing and zipped back a few years, but then there we were again, still stuck in Wolverhampton top lock! And you wonder why we're not keen on Wolverhampton 21!

 

 

OK, off we go again through time, at least we won't meet ourselves in the early 20th century although we got out of the top lock quite quickly after making ourselves unpopular holding all these guys up! 

 

Ref: The Birmingham Canal Navigations Through Time by R.H. Davies

Turning left at Horseley Fields junction and we're back on the Wyrley and Essington for a change!

[john6767]

We arrive at Wednesfield Junction in the present day (virtually of course), and we see Clarie, one of the Challenge competitors, moored up in the stub that marks the start of the Bentley canal.  

 

 

We pull in and then kick the machine back to the 1960's, and are met with this 

 

 

Hum, I think we need to go back a bit further as the looks a bit derelict to me.  The Bentley canal, which was opened in 1843, was abandoned in 1961 and then later sections of it were culverted to maintain the drainage that the canal provided.

 

 

So back to 1958 and the canal looks a bit better so lets give it a go

 

https://collections.canalrivertrust.org.uk/crt.ddx.misc.1

 

Going down the locks we pass the Wolverhampton Metal Works

 

 

After completing the lock flight we come to Neachells Junction with the Neachells Branch.  Onward and then past the Weldless Steel Tube works.

 

Ref: The Other 60 Miles Richard Chester-Brown

 

We continue on to the junction with the Anson Branch, where we turn right towards the Walsall Canal.  The Anson branch predates the Bentley canal having been completed in 1830, being built to serve the coal mines and a limestone quarry in Bentley.

 

The Anson branch had a new lease of life in the early 20th century when the Birchills power station was constructed, the power station being decommissioned in 1980.

 

Today not much is left of the junction between the Anson Branch and the Walsall Canal

 

Ref: Nick Atty via canalplan.uk

 

We turn left onto the Walsall canal.

[john6767]

Wednesdays Weedhatch Challenge

 

 

[john6767]

It's always a relief when the view of Walsall Junction comes into sight under Bridgeman Street Bridge ..... no more virtual trips down the virtual weed hatch on the virtual Walsall, well at least for a while. Regrettably we have insufficient time in our virtual day to do a virtual lap around virtual Walsall Basin. At least on the 2020 Virtual Challenge that doesn't mean that we are throwing away the points for the photo opportunity. Getting to the junction in 2009 we bumped into Jack Haddock coming over Bridgeman Street Turnover Bridge on his bike, on his way to Walsall History Centre. Now in his 80s, Jack compiled a photographic history of the canal and it's boats from the 1930s onward. We were fascinated to stop for a few virtual moments to chat with Jack about his memories, we thought you might be interested to hear it in his own words .....

 

Ref: The Birmingham Canal Navigations Through Time by R H Davies

 

To repeat a post already made on the Virtual BCN Challenge (© Rebellion), Walsall Locks is a BCN Challenge tradition. This was the last part of the present day Walsall Canal to be built. The gap between the BCN line then terminating in Walsall and the Wyrley & Essington Canal's Birchills Branch was a concern to businesses based north of Walsall. To start with a new, independent canal was considered but the BCN agreed, in 1839, to complete the connection and they had opened the extra 0.6 miles of canal and 8 locks by 1841.  

 

Walsall junction changing through time ...

Walsall Junction in the 1970s, with the Flour Mill above the lock on the main road

Ref: The Birmingham Canal Navigations Through Time by R H Davies  

 

Walsall Junction later in the 1970s at an early boat rally

Ref: The Birmingham Canal Navigations Through Time by R H Davies  

 

View of Walsall Bottom Lock, opposite the junction, from Firefly in 2016

 

Usually our trip up Walsall locks is notable for the lack of water, but not in this virtual world! And so with a unique lack of incidents we are up through the virtual top lock with Barry and Sally working the virtual paddles while Caroline puts the virtual kettle on and John empties the virtual toilet cassette at the virtual elsan. 

 

 

So this evening we tie our lines at the COVID safe virtual overnight mooring of Birchills Junction. 

[john6767]

We wake up this morning at Birchills Junction

 

wikipedia

 

So the big question is which way do we go today, we have 3 options available to us.  Thoughts on what would be the best plan?

[Rob-M]

You could go round in circles like someone else did...

[RebelMike]

1 hour ago, john6767 said:

We wake up this morning at Birchills Junction

 

So the big question is which way do we go today, we have 3 options available to us.  Thoughts on what would be the best plan?

I've heard there's an interesting new water feature at Norton Canes, you could head up to Pelsall and then go investigate? ?

[john6767]

2 hours ago, RebelMike said:

I've heard there's an interesting new water feature at Norton Canes, you could head up to Pelsall and then go investigate? ?

Thanks for the tip, but we have already been there.

 

Anyway I am now back in the nice safe virtual world after a trip out to the scary shops, Asda click and collect was very good though.  More posts coming soon.

[john6767]

Firefly had a quieter day ahead, and we haven't moored at Birchills Junction before so we decided to explore a bit about the area. 

 

Birchills junction has a chequered history. An Act of Parliament in 1792 included the authorisation for the Wyrley and Essington Canal to build a branch from Sneyd Junction to Birchills. This is lucky because its exactly what we're doing today, from Birchills to Sneyd. So by 1797 Birchills Wharf, just beyond the top of modern day Walsall locks, was the terminus of the Wyrley and Essington Canal and provided access for trade to Walsall. Even before it was finished building however the company had gained, in 1794, the rights to extend as far as Huddlesford Junction making the Wyrley and Essington an extensive network which included the climb up to Wyrley Bank to get to the coal mines (which is also lucky as we're off there today as well!). So the canal from Birchills Junction to Birchills Wharf became a Wyrley and Essington Branch, but still the access for traffic to Walsall. 

 

Birchills Wharf

Ref: Firefly YouTube Archive, BCN Challenge 2015

  

Meanwhile the Birmingham Canal was being built, approaching Walsall from the south. The Wyrley and Essington was navigable to north of Walsall by 1798, but the southern route to Walsall, up what we know and love as the Walsall Canal opened in 1799 and took the Walsall-bound traffic from the Wyrley and Essington. It's been said that by 1809 the branch from Birchills Junction to Birchills Wharf was dammed off and dry and had been for some time. However other reports query that, because a tramway was built from Birchills Wharf to William Harrison's lime works and was in operation from 1832 which would seem an unlikely decision if Birchills Wharf was not navigable at that time. However when the short link of 8 locks up from Walsall Junction was built in 1841, with the amalgamation of the Wyrley and Essington and BCN companies, joining the southern and northern branches via Birchills Junction it created a through route that incorporated Birchills Wharf. The short Walsall and Essington branch to the then, possibly derelict Birchills Wharf became part of the route from the top lock to Birchills Junction and hence was considered part of the Walsall Canal. 

 

 

Ref: Firefly YouTube Archive, BCN Challenge 2015