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Why are lock beams grey on the Shroppie?


larrysanders

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37 minutes ago, larrysanders said:

I've been told the Shropshire Union Railway and Canal Company bought up a load of battleship grey paint after WW1 - is this really the reason?   

Your thoughts?

 

Thanks 

 

A wooden lock gate lasts 25-30 years on average, so all the gates will have been replaced three or four times since then ...

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13 hours ago, Tracy D'arth said:

I wish they never painted them, it makes the wood rot faster.

Oak weathers well but once encapsulated in paint it cannot dry out and the fungus starts the rot.

TD'

do they not just paint top and sides to let moisture out the bottom?

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15 hours ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

A wooden lock gate lasts 25-30 years on average, so all the gates will have been replaced three or four times since then ...

But possibly that was the reason for the original colour and it has remained as some sort of 'tradition'??

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15 hours ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

A wooden lock gate lasts 25-30 years on average, so all the gates will have been replaced three or four times since then ...

 

16 minutes ago, The Happy Nomad said:

But possibly that was the reason for the original colour and it has remained as some sort of 'tradition'??

As HN says, lock gates are generally replaced "like for like" so if the old ones were grey, the new ones will be

 

If you want to play with colours on the Lower Bann in NI the gates are pained green and on the Chelmer and Blackwater the lock furniture is a rather vivid blue 

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I may be the only person that cares - but they're called balance beams, not lock beams.

 

They were repainted into grey as a traditional colour for the SUC within the last 20 years or 60, having been in standard BW black and white for at least 30 years prior to that. It was I think one of Tom Chaplain's projects when he worked for BWB in what now seems the good old days.

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