Wigan flight

[Ange]

Being 'locked in the flight' seems to be regarded with horror. In fact you can moor between locks 77 & 78. I believe Ange of these forums has done so (though not by choice). I considered doing so last year, as you can cut yourself off from the devils on the towpath by mooring with the workboats on the offside.

Tis true - it was our first major flight and we woefully underestimated how long it would take, and then faced an empty pound just over half way up the flight in fading light, so decided to reverse back through one lock and moor for the night. We were advised to make an early start the next morning as that stretch of towpath is used by kids to walk to school, and some have been known to mess around with boats there. We were off by 7am with no overnight problems.

[Derek Porteous]

Being 'locked in the flight' seems to be regarded with horror. In fact you can moor between locks 77 & 78. I believe Ange of these forums has done so (though not by choice). I considered doing so last year, as you can cut yourself off from the devils on the towpath by mooring with the workboats on the offside.

I am a little confused here. I cannot remember seeing any workboats on the Wigan Flight. There is a path on both sides of the flight (OK there is one obvious one, but the off-side is also walked by dogwalkers). The only place I remember which you can cut yourself off from the general public is outside the CaRT offices, but is practically at the bottom of the flight anyway. Having said that we have done the Wigan flight many time (admittedly always starting at 8 am) and always found the natives friendly and polite. This includes the kids going along the footpath to school in the morning and indeed at lunch time, as we have never down the flight in less than four hours.

[frangar]

With all due respect Martin, I think Skipper has raised a very valid point, and that you are trolling.

 

Daniel

I hereby award you an honorary greenie.....

 

Cheers

 

Gareth

[Guest]

Yours is from me BTW....

[frangar]

Well if its made you feel better......

 

Cheers

 

Gareth

[Guest]

Well if its made you feel better......

Cheers

Gareth

Sadly I'm now out of them, content yourself with a virtual one.

Getting back on topic the thing to watch out for on the Wigan flight is not the school kids but the large metal spikes that hold some of the gates back. How nobody has managed to impale a foot on one over the years is hard to understand.

[jonathanA]

FWIW we did the wigan locks up down and back in the last 2-3 weeks. There was a lot of taffic down as it coincided with barrowford re-opening (I think I saw innisfree pass us near blackburn). so there was a lot of traffic going down - CRT's response the only lockeeper I saw was busy picking up litter.... by the time we got to the long pound that you can moor up in (77-78) it was virtually dry and I had to go back 3 locks to run enough water through to get into 78. (no wonder the tailgates were like niagara falls)

 

coming up we were able to share and there was reasonable traffic bothways... no CRT presence whatsoever only a security guard who couldn't tell us what he was securing and admitted he was so bored he'd taken to helping boats up the flight (he very kindly assisted a single hander who was ahead of us in the flight).......

 

at the top of the flight we had intended mooring (well 21 locks is enough in a day) but the water level was so low we couldn't get into the bank and cruised on. - this was obviously cuased by the blackburn issue as we discovered when we met our first and only lockkeeper at johnsonS hillock and he was surverying the locks for problems (surely they know about the broken gear it been like that for long enough)

 

the problem for users of the L&L is we've had johnsons closed for two weeks, Barrowford and now blackburn its more or less making the L&L unusable for summer cruising, whilst I commend CRT for the speed of the repairs and particularly the updates they put on waterscrape there is a bigger issue here and people will decide its not worth the risk and move to other parts of the system (certainly I'm thinking long and hard about that)

 

sorry this isn't meant to be a rant or a pop at CRT as the guys on the ground are always first class.

[Mike Todd]

End of July we (two geriatric plus energetic son) completed the flight in exactly 4 hours in very wet rain.

 

If you can get up or down them in 4hrs, you're superman.

[Guest]

Thanks for that; need to get through Poolstock, wigan and towards Appley Bridge in the morning

Came through this morning and I have seen deeper puddles. It was really shallow and all the locks were leaking as usual. Made me laugh when I saw a poster on one gate encouraging boaters to report leaks. The particular gate that the poster was on is one of the worst. After travelling around all over the place for two months on the boat, it struck us today how bad Wigan locks are.

[DeanS]

End of July we (two geriatric plus energetic son) completed the flight in exactly 4 hours in very wet rain.

 

 

Hi SuperMmm...Mike

[FadeToScarlet]

duplicate topics merged.

[jonathanA]

Thanks for that; need to get through Poolstock, wigan and towards Appley Bridge in the morning

 

i don't think the stoppage/restriction is going to affect you then is it as i don't think it affect locks after the leigh branch ? (towards liverpool)

[DHutch]

I simply object to be being called a 'troll' by the owner of an internet forum who should actually know what the correct definition of an internet troll is.

I didn't call you a Troll, I said you where trolling. Which is slightly different, and while it all open for opinion, an I'm posting as a member of the site rather than as the owner, I don't thing it was a mile away from the mark.

 

I', also not one for 'CRT bashing' as you say, and welcome the revised post on there site, however it does read on as originally posted that it would be very hard to get past the flight, or at very least, you would all of a sudden have to plan around it, and as said, that would annoy me if it was part of my holiday or boating plans.

 

 

Daniel

[Guest]

 

I didnt call you a Troll, I said you where trolling.

 

 

Means the same thing to me like....

[DHutch]

Well up to you Martin. But to me a troll is someone who's sole purpose is to troll, aka, trolling, someone who doesn't do anything else. Some who is otherwise not a troll, may however then at times make trolling posts.

 

Its like the difference between being someone who is generally unreasonable in personality, and someone who is generally a sound and reasonable person that has just said something unreasonable.

 

If you wish to discuses this further, I'm happy to talk via PM or in a separate thread.

 

 

Daniel

[Guest]

Fair explanation I would say....though we could get into what is defined as a 'trolling' post, there is a variable definition of that term ranging from being provocative to actually threatening someone with harm as has happened in recent well publicised cases, I guess it is being associated with that latter category that I object to, though I agree I can be provocative.but so can a good few on here including the poster I was responding to at the time.

 

Any way I am happy to leave it there if you are.

Edited September 7, 2013 by The Dog House

[Guest]

 

i don't think the stoppage/restriction is going to affect you then is it as i don't think it affect locks after the leigh branch ? (towards liverpool)

Thanks. We were OK except for the very shallow water. I didn't think we were going to get through at one point.

 

After many years on the L&L (1967 onwards) I am for the first time thinking of moving our boat to another canal. It makes me very sad to say this as I grew up on the L&L (if indeed I have grown up yet) but I am sick to death of the condition of some parts of this beautiful and historic canal.