Largest single item carried in a narrowboat

[billh]

Hi All,

We had an interesting topic of the gauging of the Severner boats, showing that they could carry 40 tons or so,that set me thinking....

Discounting bulk cargoes like coal and stone, what was the heaviest single item loaded into a narrowboat and what did it weigh?

I am thinking of perhaps an engine , boiler or steel slab . I have seen pictures of boilers and bridge girders precariously balanced on two boats , usually only moving a short distance by water, I mean something that fitted within the "loading gauge" and taken through locks etc.

Was it necessary to spread the load throughout the hold to protect the bottoms? Was there a problem with centre of gravity being too high and causing instability?

I have some evidence that a 750hp mill engine was moved by narrowboat in 1917 from Ashton Under Lyne to Silsden** in Yorkshire ( where it still exists!) . Obviously it would have been in pieces , but some of those parts would have been pretty big.

**The trip was either done with short narrowboats like "Elland"" or transhipped to wide boats mid-journey .

Bill

[kingofthecut]

Hi All,

We had an interesting topic of the gauging of the Severner boats, showing that they could carry 40 tons or so,that set me thinking....

Discounting bulk cargoes like coal and stone, what was the heaviest single item loaded into a narrowboat and what did it weigh?

I am thinking of perhaps an engine , boiler or steel slab . I have seen pictures of boilers and bridge girders precariously balanced on two boats , usually only moving a short distance by water, I mean something that fitted within the "loading gauge" and taken through locks etc.

Was it necessary to spread the load throughout the hold to protect the bottoms? Was there a problem with centre of gravity being too high and causing instability?

I have some evidence that a 750hp mill engine was moved by narrowboat in 1917 from Ashton Under Lyne to Silsden** in Yorkshire ( where it still exists!) . Obviously it would have been in pieces , but some of those parts would have been pretty big.

**The trip was either done with short narrowboats like "Elland"" or transhipped to wide boats mid-journey .

Bill

 

Biggest single item I've carried is a 6 1/2 tonne block of stone from Wansford to Ely.

[MoominPapa]

Biggest single item I've carried is a 6 1/2 tonne block of stone from Wansford to Ely.

How did you load 6 1/2 tonnes at Wansford?

 

MP.

[kingofthecut]

How did you load 6 1/2 tonnes at Wansford?

 

MP.

 

with a big crane by the lock side!

[Pluto]

They may not be narrow boats, but short boats on the L&LC did carry some large items. Lancashire boilers were common, and I have photos of them being carried on both sides of the Pennines. One interesting journey with a large item was that of the second (iron) Litherland swing bridge, dating from c1890, which was brought down the River Mersey, from the makers in Garston, as deck cargo on a short boat, and then carried along the canal for installation. Wooden swing bridges were carried regularly, as were replacement overbridge parts. Another large cargo which may have been carried were the cast iron bridge beams for the swing bridges at the entrance to Railway and Humber Docks c1840 which had been cast at Haigh Ironworks, Wigan. I cannot say they were definitely carried, but Foulridge Tunnel was damaged around that time when a bridge casting hit part of the tunnel's lining.

[the grinch]

i've seen a picture of small (i believe Mini's) cars loaded in to a narrowboat

[alan_fincher]

Interesting question.

 

I can't actually think of too many examples of archive pictures I've seen of narrow boats carrying anything particularly large or heavy.

 

I believe some small cars were experimentally delivered at some stage, but still looking at under a ton per item, I guess.

 

One fairly large and heavy item was bottom gates for deep double locks. Gates were routinely delivered to installation site by boat, and many these days are marked as weighing well in excess of 2 tons, sometimes closer to 3 tones, I think.

 

Still not a lot compared to what a narrow boat can carry in total, though.

[carlt]

As there are no impressive narrowboat loads I'll introduce another canal boat.

 

In 1982 Davy-McKee won the tender to build the biggest steelworks, in the world, in Mexico.

 

This involved four castings of 350 tons each being moved from Germany, to Sheffield (Thatcher ensured that the UK no longer had the capacity to produce the 500 tons of steel, required for each casting).

 

The castings were too big to go by rail, no wagon was big enough and the bridges, between Goole and Doncaster were too weak for them to go by road.

 

The only solution was to carry the castings by boat, from Goole to Doncaster, then transfer them to the road, for the remainder of the journey.

 

Victor Whittaker got the job of moving them because he was the only person who had a wharf strong enough to handle the craneage.

 

Unfortunately the boat that could carry that sort of load did not exist so Victor cut the stern and bows off two keels "Dora" and "Toto" and put 22'9", in the middle, giving a keel 140' long.

 

The castings were only 52' long but, because of lack of canal maintenance, the boat could draw no more than 7' so the extra length was merely bouyancy.

Because everyone had doubts, except Waddington, he named the new boat "Confidence"

Edited June 17, 2009 by carlt

[Chris-B]

Interesting question.

 

I can't actually think of too many examples of archive pictures I've seen of narrow boats carrying anything particularly large or heavy.

 

I believe some small cars were experimentally delivered at some stage, but still looking at under a ton per item, I guess.

 

One fairly large and heavy item was bottom gates for deep double locks. Gates were routinely delivered to installation site by boat, and many these days are marked as weighing well in excess of 2 tons, sometimes closer to 3 tones, I think.

 

Still not a lot compared to what a narrow boat can carry in total, though.

 

These were carried by Baldock for the motor show, pictures in the book " Working Boats"

 

Paul Ayres carried lock gates on Aldgate a few years back as well ( probably the only "real" load he ever carried... ( Sorry Paul )

 

 

Chris

Edited June 17, 2009 by Baldock

[Hairy-Neil]

( probably the only "real" load he ever carried... ( Sorry Paul )

 

 

Chris

 

The beer was pretty real to me.....

[Chris-B]

The beer was pretty real to me.....

 

Ah yes Neil.. I forgot about that...

blame old age

 

 

C

 

( Actually the heaviest weight carried was probably Paul's wallet ! )

Edited June 17, 2009 by Baldock

[David Schweizer]

A few years ago several huge Bath stone blocks were carried (individually) from Dundas on the K&A to Windsor when they were reparing the Castle after the fire, I have looked for more information but cannot find the actual weight of each block.

[richardf]

Slightly off topic - but does anyone know how the cast iron bridges on the Northern Oxford Canal were transported (when the canal has some of its loops removed) - there must have been some pretty big pieces involved.

[Hyperion 53]

Paul Ayres carried lock gates on Aldgate a few years back as well ( probably the only "real" load he ever carried... ( Sorry Paul )

 

That was 2000/1!!! Paul and Lynn also carried a new lift bridge for down Northampton locks in 2001. Believe both gates and bridge were loaded at Bulbourne workshops.

 

Regards,

[kingofthecut]

Biggest single item I've carried is a 6 1/2 tonne block of stone from Wansford to Ely.

 

I also remember Dane took some Church Bells for I think Marsworth Church. They must weigh a bit.

[kbarber]

I also remember Dane took some Church Bells for I think Marsworth Church. They must weigh a bit.

Dove gives Marsworth as 10-3-10 (in other words weight of the tenor bell 10cwt 3 quarters 10lb). Reckon a bit over 2 tons for the entire ring (6 bells), add perhaps another 3/4 ton if the fittings also went by boat and couple of tons max for the frame, albeit that might've been delivered separately. So no records broken there.

 

Incidentally the largest bell hung for full circle ringing is Liverpool Cathedral tenor at a shade over 4 tons. At 6'4" diameter it'd only just about fit into a narrow boat. Unfortunately Dove doesn't give the height but I think it's somewhat greater than the diameter, if anyone wants to work out the possibility of getting that through the bridge holes from Whitechapel to Liverpool

[Chertsey]

What was that very large looking piece of stone in Lupin on the cover of Waterways World a few years/decades back? Was that the one mentioned in post 2? Seem to recall it was on a river.

[BuckbyLocks]

Incidentally the largest bell hung for full circle ringing is Liverpool Cathedral tenor at a shade over 4 tons. At 6'4" diameter it'd only just about fit into a narrow boat. Unfortunately Dove doesn't give the height but I think it's somewhat greater than the diameter, if anyone wants to work out the possibility of getting that through the bridge holes from Whitechapel to Liverpool

 

 

Taylors bellfoundry at Loughborough used the GU for church bell deliveries for many years before the war. I am not sure if they had their own wharf or whether they used the pubic wharf close to the foundry. Whitechapel Foundry did not have such easy access to the cut.

[Tam & Di]

They may not be narrow boats, but short boats on the L&LC did carry some large items.

 

We had three L&L shortboats (plus 1 long one - Cadellis). Probably pushing it to say it was carriage, but when the New Covent Garden Soup Co moved to new premises in Acton in 1989 they bought a 40 foot cooling tunnel from Germany. They then found they could not get it into their factory by road. Helicopter had been suggested, but they then came to us and we breasted Mersey and Ribble and welded rsj's across them. The tunnel was craned on athwartships at the nearest point where there was road access (and no bridges between us and their site!). We simply motored gently along to their quay, using our Bantam pusher tug to give perfect control of the operation, winched it off on rails and into the back of the factory.

 

Ribble was at one time BWB's tripboat Fair Lady, and Mersey still had the name Arthur at the fore end from John Lily's ownership.

 

 

[Pluto]

We had three L&L shortboats (plus 1 long one - Cadellis). Probably pushing it to say it was carriage, but when the New Covent Garden Soup Co moved to new premises in Acton in 1989 they bought a 40 foot cooling tunnel from Germany. They then found they could not get it into their factory by road. Helicopter had been suggested, but they then came to us and we breasted Mersey and Ribble and welded rsj's across them. The tunnel was craned on athwartships at the nearest point where there was road access (and no bridges between us and their site!). We simply motored gently along to their quay, using our Bantam pusher tug to give perfect control of the operation, winched it off on rails and into the back of the factory.

 

Ribble was at one time BWB's tripboat Fair Lady, and Mersey still had the name Arthur at the fore end from John Lily's ownership.

When I lived on Pluto, back in the 1970s, I had to tow Scorpio to and from drydock at Burscough. Working single-handed, I breasted up as it was a little easier in the wind. Normally I would just chuck a bucket on a rope off the back to keep things a bit straight, though there weren't many boats tied up in the area then.

 

Cadellis used to belong to Albert Blundell, and was originally the Ironclad of Ainscough's. Albert made up the name from the initial letters of female members of his family, all of whom also had boats re-named after them already: Christine, Agnes, Denise, Edith, LL for Blundell, Irene and Shirley. Albert usually steered a dumb boat, and I always have a vision of him at the tiller working out what to call his new boat.

 

Talking to David Lowe on Wednesday, he remarked that one of his favourite photos was one of Arthur leaving Bingley 5-rise circa 1960, but he did not know if the photo was posed. We wondered when the Yorkshire coal traffic up the 5-rise finished. I have details of some coal passing upwards in 1959, but nothing definite about the end of the traffic, which may have continued until 1963. Does anyone know anything about this traffic?

 

Returning to unusual/heavy loads, I did carry my 1934 Riley 9 special, minus body, from Burscough to Leeds in 1973, unloading onto the towpath using a block and tackle hung under the girder bridge at Armley. The police weren't too happy when they found me pushing it up the road after.

[Tam & Di]

Cadellis used to belong to Albert Blundell, and was originally the Ironclad of Ainscough's. Albert made up the name from the initial letters of female members of his family, all of whom also had boats re-named after them already: Christine, Agnes, Denise, Edith, LL for Blundell, Irene and Shirley.

 

As I understand it the M.O.D. paid him good money to get the name Ironclad for one of their ships. It was on the official Register of Shipping, and any vessel on this must have a unique name - hence the Navy's problem. When we bought her there had been a break in the paperwork trail of owners, and we were not able to easily have her registered in our name. She still had "Ironclad" carved into the bow, and we operated her for some years with that name at the fore end and Cadellis at the stern.

[Pluto]

As I understand it the M.O.D. paid him good money to get the name Ironclad for one of their ships. It was on the official Register of Shipping, and any vessel on this must have a unique name - hence the Navy's problem. When we bought her there had been a break in the paperwork trail of owners, and we were not able to easily have her registered in our name. She still had "Ironclad" carved into the bow, and we operated her for some years with that name at the fore end and Cadellis at the stern.

They could have done, but if they had done their homework, they would have found out that he tended to change the name of any new boat he bought. My boat, which I bought from him, was originally Pluto, which he renamed Denise. It was going to be Denis, but his wife had a daughter. She is still involved with canals, and has bought a pleasure boat.

[kingofthecut]

What was that very large looking piece of stone in Lupin on the cover of Waterways World a few years/decades back? Was that the one mentioned in post 2? Seem to recall it was on a river.

 

Yes, thats the one. Was a 6/12 tonne block carried to represent the building of Ely Cathedral at which apparently the stone was taken by River. It is now a water feature in Ely.

 

The story continues as the daughter of the man who organised the run now lives with me! I met her the day before we unloaded in Ely.

[AMModels]

There was a story in one of the canal mags years ago about boilers being floated down the GU for one of the factories, I cant remember when it was or where they were taken to but they wouldnt fit in the boats but were 'moved by canal' if that counts.

[Roger t' Bodger]

There was a story in one of the canal mags years ago about boilers being floated down the GU for one of the factories, I cant remember when it was or where they were taken to but they wouldnt fit in the boats but were 'moved by canal' if that counts.

 

I've just spotted this expected item on the last post. In recent copy of the magazine of the Historic Narrow Boats Owners Thingy was just that article about this huge load back in the late 80's where the boiler room was at the back of the factory (Corah's textile mill) by the cut next to Abbey Park in Leicester. They loaded these huge cylinders onto a pair of working boats belonging to Threefellows Carry Ltd, at Memory Lane and floated them a quarter of a mile to where a crane awaited. It wasn't my copy, I just had a brief read of the photo's caption before the owner mislaid it so there is much more information and names of boats too.

Edited June 20, 2009 by Roger t' Bodger