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In 2005 as Pluto can confirm the RCHS West Midlands Group organised a Waterways History Conference at Birmingham with Pluto and Buckby Locks giving talks and Sonia Rolt attended.

 

This image was on show, but where was it and what was the cargo

 

 

6006001.jpg

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Cor that's hard. Doesn't look Dutch, really narrow boat, sprit rig, and no leeboards, looks more like a fishing boat. Narrow gauge tramway or railway with a really wide bodied wagon.. I am going to make a foolish guess at yams or sweet potatoes and somewhere in South Africa!

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It is about time there was a worthwhile challenge

The date is 1922 and the caption was "a boat load of peat from the marshes".

 

Carrying peat on UK waterways is hard to find, although maybe there was some on the Shropshire Union. This image was said to be in Germany, but deserves to be identified as where, and where the peat was collected from!

 

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There is a vast complex of turf canals between the Ijsselmeer and the Elbe which vary considerably in size and length of use. These are two of the more interesting remains: the fourway lock at Emden, and a wooden lock, the Nijeveensluis just to the north of Meppel. A really good place to stay is Giethoorn, where many of the houses can be accessed by old turf canal.

1994 Emden lock 947.jpg

DSCF6050.jpg

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Unlikely to be in the Ruhr area as there was plenty of coal there. The main turf area was north of a line from Amsterdam to Hamburg, though there were smaller regions outside of this. I have attached a map for following a 'turf route', though the main area was further north east around Groningen. The photo is of Giethorn, which is one of the more touristic turf canals.

turf canals.jpg

DSC_0156.jpg

Edited by Pluto
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Peat or turf could be a fuel, but also had agricultural use, hence the peat works in the UK noted often for their narrow gauge diesels and then there were those in Ireland whose systems have now closed. On the Irish system some of the peat was made into briquettes for sale or burnt in a power station, but now the concern for the carbon neutral has led to the whole network of railways closing down

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