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The Paddle Gear Thread (formerly Cheshire Paddle Gear)


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2 hours ago, Pluto said:

Sorry not to be able to give full details, but a full survey of L&LC locks is on my to-do list. It may be that the early locks, those built 1770-1790, had bottom ground paddles, whilst those built later did not. However, there were numerous rebuildings of individual locks, as can be seen from those in Yorkshire where the bottom ground paddle tunnel has been infilled. I suspect that to overcome the lack of water from ground paddles, the gate paddle openings were increased in size, as seen in the counter-balance photo. This also happened on the Rochdale Canal, where what most people take for their traditional paddle gear was actually installed to make opening the heavier larger sectioned paddles easier to open. This gear should also have an automatic brake, so that the paddle has to be wound down. They were concerned that dropping the larger paddles would damage the gear.

Noted

 

I'm thinking of picking one or two L&L flights to walk this summer when I'm up visiting dad- I've seen Greenberfield quite a lot, but probably haven't seen Barrowford or Bank Newton/Gargrave since I was a teenager (about 40 years ago) 

 

 

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Thinking of ground paddles at the lower end, If I remember correctly they are (or were) commonplace on:

 

The Peak Forest (pre-restoration)

The Northern Stratford

The Lee and Stort

The Northern GU (as rebuilt 1930s)

Warwick and BIrmingam/Napton (prior to 1930s rebuild)

Birmingham And Fazeley in Birmingham (Farmers/Aston/Digbeth) but not the lower locks (Curdworth - not sure about Minworth) 

Tame Valley Canal, possibly other bits of the BCN
Older L&L locks? 

 

There may be others? 

Also one or two random ones - Wolvercote and Isis on the Oxford, both of which were rebuilt in the 1830s, Etruria Bottom Lock on the T&M, new lock in the 1970's 

There doesn't seem to be any pattern at all - is the choice entirely the whim of the engineer? 

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The Kennet and Avon is interesting; west of Newbury it is top ground paddles and bottom gate paddles all the way, but between Newbury and Reading it is mostly top gate paddles and no ground paddles (from the pictures I've seen). I know that, to be accurate, it is the Kennet Navigation east of Newbury, but surely the locks weren't originally built without ground paddles?

 

Also interesting to see from pictures that the sluices in the top gates east of Newbury don't have baffles, particularly given they don't have ground paddles!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Walk along K&A at Seend yesterday. The gearboxes applied to the top ground paddles have also been applied to some bottom gate paddles. However the gate paddles already have gearing so this makes them very slow to operate. The gearbox droves through the original spindle, which appears to be the old K&A 1 1/8th inch square. 

 

The ground paddles are original pre-closure gear. The gate paddles are not

20210403_110950.jpg

20210403_111548.jpg

Original ground paddle with gear box

20210403_111102.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 26/03/2021 at 18:47, Philip said:

The Kennet and Avon is interesting; west of Newbury it is top ground paddles and bottom gate paddles all the way, but between Newbury and Reading it is mostly top gate paddles and no ground paddles (from the pictures I've seen). I know that, to be accurate, it is the Kennet Navigation east of Newbury, but surely the locks weren't originally built without ground paddles?

 

Also interesting to see from pictures that the sluices in the top gates east of Newbury don't have baffles, particularly given they don't have ground paddles!

The locks on the Kennet were originally turf-sided, with a timber structure to keep boats central.  Paddles were operated by a crowbar, as on the River Wey.  I very much doubt if there were any ground paddles.

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The first ground paddles were used on the Willebroek Canal, which opened in 1550. The engineer was Jean de Locquenghien. It is possible that Thomas Steers saw the locks in the 1690s, when he was fighting in William of Orange's army in the Low Countries. A few years after his return to England, he became the first Dock Engineer in Liverpool, and was involved with the Douglas, the Mersey & Irwell, and possibly the Weaver navigations. Around 1740, he was asked to take over as Engineer for the Newry Canal in Ireland, building the summit locks with ground paddles, the first time they had been used in GB. Steers locks were not very successful, and were rebuilt circa 1800. He seems to have used a wood lining to the tunnel which caused problems, and stone or brick was used subsequently. By increasing the depth of lock it was possible to build, upper ground paddles would have reduced the cost of canal building, and almost all canals built subsequently seem to have used them instead of paddles in the upper gates.

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On 26/03/2021 at 18:47, Philip said:

The Kennet and Avon is interesting; west of Newbury it is top ground paddles and bottom gate paddles all the way, but between Newbury and Reading it is mostly top gate paddles and no ground paddles (from the pictures I've seen). I know that, to be accurate, it is the Kennet Navigation east of Newbury, but surely the locks weren't originally built without ground paddles?

 

Also interesting to see from pictures that the sluices in the top gates east of Newbury don't have baffles, particularly given they don't have ground paddles!

Basic rule on the K&A is the rivers at each end have upper gate paddles and the canal has upper ground paddles - however the first few locks from Newbury towards Hungerford have gate paddles despite being built as part of the canal. And from memory Garston lock, the only turf sided lock that didn't need restoration, has upper ground paddles. 

Somewhere I have a picture from within the lock of the upper gate paddles at Towney Lock - as you say, no baffles...

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50 minutes ago, magpie patrick said:

Basic rule on the K&A is the rivers at each end have upper gate paddles and the canal has upper ground paddles - however the first few locks from Newbury towards Hungerford have gate paddles despite being built as part of the canal. And from memory Garston lock, the only turf sided lock that didn't need restoration, has upper ground paddles. 
 

Garston lock was rebuilt to its current size in the mid-19th century though (?1857), being shortened at the head end.  The current ground paddles therefore can be no earlier than when the shortening took place.

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On river navigations, lock falls tend to be small and thus gate paddles can be used with little inconvenience. The introduction of ground paddles on the Willebroek Canal was probably because to lowest lock was tidal, resulting in a large fall at low tides. When canals were built, lock falls tended to be greater than on river navigations, making the problem of water falling onto a boat from upper gate paddles a problem. To overcome this, whilst reducing the number of locks by making them deeper, ground paddles were used. Where ground paddles were used, gate paddles were not fitted, and those found today were often added in the mid-19th century to speed up traffic to compete with railways, usually on the more successful canals. The image shows locks circa 1820 which appear to have a single ground paddle. If this was fairly standard, then a second ground could also have been added to speed passage through locks, rather than gate paddles.

5 D2823 GJC locks and Islington tunnel, London, T H Shepherd, 1828.jpg

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I have seen photos of locks on the Regents Canal, from the mid-20th century, showing them fitted with top gate paddles. None of the Regents Canal locks have them fitted now.

 

Marsworth top lock is interesting; it currently has only top ground paddles, but this was also the case as long ago as 1963 (going off footage of 'the Bargee'), I'd have thought this was before the mass removal of gate paddles as there was still cargo carrying at this point. 

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Saw these this morning at the new lock at Staveley on the Chesterfield Canal - maim feature of note is they face sideways, one facing the canal one facing away. 

 

Other canals used to have this feature (at the waters edge whereas these are set back) but not common these days. 

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20210418_085139.jpg

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51 minutes ago, magpie patrick said:

Saw these this morning at the new lock at Staveley on the Chesterfield Canal - maim feature of note is they face sideways, one facing the canal one facing away. 

 

Other canals used to have this feature (at the waters edge whereas these are set back) but not common these days. 

20210418_085003.jpg

20210418_085139.jpg

Always useful for stiff or heavy paddles as you can get two people doing the winding.

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On 17/04/2021 at 09:25, Pluto said:

On river navigations, lock falls tend to be small and thus gate paddles can be used with little inconvenience. The introduction of ground paddles on the Willebroek Canal was probably because to lowest lock was tidal, resulting in a large fall at low tides. When canals were built, lock falls tended to be greater than on river navigations, making the problem of water falling onto a boat from upper gate paddles a problem. To overcome this, whilst reducing the number of locks by making them deeper, ground paddles were used. Where ground paddles were used, gate paddles were not fitted, and those found today were often added in the mid-19th century to speed up traffic to compete with railways, usually on the more successful canals. The image shows locks circa 1820 which appear to have a single ground paddle. If this was fairly standard, then a second ground could also have been added to speed passage through locks, rather than gate paddles.

5 D2823 GJC locks and Islington tunnel, London, T H Shepherd, 1828.jpg

That's a picture I'm familiar with but I realise there are things I hadn't picked up. The boats are a bit short and somewhat styalised, and yet there is an interconnecting paddle with quite some detail! I hadn't noticed that the left hand lock appears to have only one paddle (I'm not sure you can see the position where it would be on the right hand lock). Adding ground paddles is rather more complex than adding gate paddles, although I know of locations where it has been done

The top-hatted gentleman on the right appears to be guaging the boat. Were Regents Canal toll clerks really so well dressed? 

On paddles,  one for @Pluto were extra paddles added for speed or capacity? I realise they were related, but increasing the number of boats that could pass would be commercially very valuable on a busy canal.

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I would suspect speed, as capacity depends upon water supply. This graph shows how L&LC reservoir capacity was increased to cope with increased demand. Capacity is in lock-fulls, calculated at a standard 80,000 galls per lock. Some years ago, I did suggest to BW's water engineers that they go back to measuring in lock-fulls, as it would remind them why they needed to supply water.

boats-water.jpg

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The 'City Basin' & 'The Tiger' boat scene is well known - and full of inaccuracies. The artist has made sketches on site, then filled in details at home/office.

Top hats! They give the impression of authoritarian confidence. An increase in overall height of a man (or woman) creates an impression of seniority. Officers of the law an example.

 

Boy in the middle seems to have dropped his windlass, and getting a reprimand. Authority again - "We brook no carelessness!" Advertising the company policy.

The balance beams are overlapping which might be correct, but why the strange crank?

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1 hour ago, Derek R. said:

The 'City Basin' & 'The Tiger' boat scene is well known - and full of inaccuracies. The artist has made sketches on site, then filled in details at home/office.

Top hats! They give the impression of authoritarian confidence. An increase in overall height of a man (or woman) creates an impression of seniority. Officers of the law an example.

 

Boy in the middle seems to have dropped his windlass, and getting a reprimand. Authority again - "We brook no carelessness!" Advertising the company policy.

The balance beams are overlapping which might be correct, but why the strange crank?

Interesting observations

I can suggest a  couple of canals that have only one paddle to fill the lock - the Neath canal for example (pictured below at Tonna Lock) - I can't find my copy of Ian Wright's book but I don't think the Neath had gate paddles in it's commercial heyday. By contrast, the Monmouth Canal was greedy with two ground paddles and a gate paddle at the top. 

One reason I pondered about capacity is it tended to be the busier canals that added gate paddles - accepting that water supply is the ultimate constraint other measures were undertaken to increase capacity, in extremis duplicating locks, and adding extra paddles to get more boats though a lock in a given time would be quite a cheap way of doing it. 

Tonna Lock.jpg

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If you do a quick calculation based on a narrow canal carrying 500,000 tons pa, which is around 10,000 tons per week, so 400 boat loads. That means you would have around 60 boats per day, or 5 per hour based on a 12 hour day. Would you need to speed up passage through the locks to increase the number of boats? Certainly there will be a few canals which had places where the number of boats passing was nearing the limit The L&LC Wigan flight is probably one, and there would certainly be locks on the BCN where speed through the locks could be a factor, but in general water supply was probably more important. As a guide figure, suggested to me by a waterway engineer, anything over 2 million tons per year will be approaching 'saturation' on a reservoir-supplied canal. Water for river navigations is not so critical.

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3 hours ago, Pluto said:

Certainly there will be a few canals which had places where the number of boats passing was nearing the limit The L&LC Wigan flight is probably one, and there would certainly be locks on the BCN where speed through the locks could be a factor, but in general water supply was probably more important.

The Tame Valley, Rushall and Warwick and Birmingham Junction Canals were built to provide a more direct route from the Black Country to the Warwick canals / Grand Junction route to London as Farmers Bridge flight couldn't cope with the level of traffic even with 24 hour working.

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6 minutes ago, David Mack said:

The Tame Valley, Rushall and Warwick and Birmingham Junction Canals were built to provide a more direct route from the Black Country to the Warwick canals / Grand Junction route to London as Farmers Bridge flight couldn't cope with the level of traffic even with 24 hour working.

 

24 hour working and so many paddles at each end of the lock it was almost like opening the gates.

The Glamorgan canal also fitted as many paddles as possible and had 24 hour working, clealy water supply wasn't an issue as the canal had a pronounced flow on it. 

Overall I take @Pluto's point though that many canals were not that stretched for capacity. My thoughts to some extent come from working on modern leisure waterways where capacity can be an issue and I have to berate engineers who say words to the effect that "leisure boaters have got all the time in the world" - individually they have, but collectively they do not.  I guess some locks carry more boats in a day now than they did in their commercial heyday.

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1 minute ago, magpie patrick said:

Overall I take @Pluto's point though that many canals were not that stretched for capacity. My thoughts to some extent come from working on modern leisure waterways where capacity can be an issue and I have to berate engineers who say words to the effect that "leisure boaters have got all the time in the world" - individually they have, but collectively they do not.  I guess some locks carry more boats in a day now than they did in their commercial heyday.

Traffic on canals tends to be seasonal, not just leisure traffic today, which is highest in summer, but historically traffic was probably greater in winter when the coat traffic was at its peak. The current figures for the L&LC suggests that traffic over the summit is very similar to that in commercial days, but then historically traffic lower down the canal was ten times that over the summit. You cannot really judge like for like comparing leisure and commercial traffic, given seasonal variations. Closures for repair used to happen in May as that was when traffic was at its lowest.

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6 hours ago, Pluto said:

Traffic on canals tends to be seasonal, not just leisure traffic today, which is highest in summer, but historically traffic was probably greater in winter when the coat traffic was at its peak. The current figures for the L&LC suggests that traffic over the summit is very similar to that in commercial days, but then historically traffic lower down the canal was ten times that over the summit. You cannot really judge like for like comparing leisure and commercial traffic, given seasonal variations. Closures for repair used to happen in May as that was when traffic was at its lowest.

How recently did stoppages for repairs happen in May regularly?

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