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Lock usage 2014 figures from telemetry


Richard T

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Wow Aylesbury Lock on the G.U has seen an increase of over 500% usage. Was this lock previous under restoration for e prolonged periods?

 

Possibly something to do with the fact that the Aylesbury Arm was closed for most of 2013 due to the collapse of lock 12.

 

Tim

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Scuse my ignorance but I have done 874 locks in the last two years and at not one have I seen anyone counting the lock usage. Not have I seen any electrickery - how on earth do they get these figures?

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Scuse my ignorance but I have done 874 locks in the last two years and at not one have I seen anyone counting the lock usage. Not have I seen any electrickery - how on earth do they get these figures?

 

Look for a long metal tube in the lock, usually in the recess where the gate opens, and a few yards away a metal box with a little solar panel on top.

There is also a little team of contractors who drive round cleaning the crap out of the sensing tube, you score extra for spotting these!

 

............Dave

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How many of the counts are from lock leakage?

 

There are two locks I know well Dimmingsdale 3032 and Compton 3791, a difference of 659. I find it hard to imagine boats going through one and not the other (2.8 miles and 2 locks apart ).

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How many of the counts are from lock leakage?

 

There are two locks I know well Dimmingsdale 3032 and Compton 3791, a difference of 659. I find it hard to imagine boats going through one and not the other (2.8 miles and 2 locks apart ).

Possibly to do with the boatyard below Compton and isn't there a line of moored boats below Wightwick Lock?

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How many of the counts are from lock leakage?

 

There are two locks I know well Dimmingsdale 3032 and Compton 3791, a difference of 659. I find it hard to imagine boats going through one and not the other (2.8 miles and 2 locks apart ).

 

It is counting lock operations, (emptying or filling), but can't know if there is a boat in the lock at the time.

 

If it so happened that the flow of traffic in each direction resulted that at one of the locks it was nearly always already in favour of the arriving boat, but that at the other the lock nearly always needed turning, (2 operations), that can explain discrepancies in the numbers. OK, that isn't likely to happen to that extent, but it shows the principle.

 

Any counter on a "leave empty" lock gives the impression that there is more boat traffic than there is, because it counts all the otherwise unnecessary emptyings or fillings. Cow Roast lock on the GU used to suffer from this.

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I just know that I must be missing something here but can anyone explain how K & A lock 15 (Semington) and Lock 21 (Seend) have different results? Semington has 3761 lockages and Seend has only3468,does that mean that 293 boats have gone missing between the two? (there are no winding holes). Is there a boatyard between them that turns out nearly 300 boats a year? Have they found the 'Bermuda Triangle' of the canal system unsure.png . Is anyone out looking for these 'lost boats'? We need to know!!

 

On a slightly less frivolous note, when passing along that way (several times) last year one of the volunteer lockies pointed out to me the telemetry at Bradford on Avon lock that he was proudly saying had one of the highest usages on the system but it doesn't appear on the data. Has it gone or was he giving me duff info?

Edited by Wanderer Vagabond
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Surprised the figure for Audlem is as low as it is and that Wheaton Aston is a good bit higher. Audlem seems to be a flight which is busy all season round, not just in school holidays, more so with the marinas in the area.

THere used to be a lot of liveaboard boats above the lock that would go down for water and pumpout at the services below the lock.

 

Whilst I know queues are common, I'm surprised that Cholmondeston Lock on the Middlewich branch of the Shroppie is one of the busiest in the country.

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As has been said Lock usage and boat movements are not the same.

 

But individual Boats going through the Frankton Locks ARE counted.

But do not appear in this report. Why?

 

It would also be interesting to see the change in boat No,s on the Severn locks which are also counted?

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I just know that I must be missing something here but can anyone explain how K & A lock 15 (Semington) and Lock 21 (Seend) have different results? Semington has 3761 lockages and Seend has only3468,does that mean that 293 boats have gone missing between the two? (there are no winding holes). Is there a boatyard between them that turns out nearly 300 boats a year? Have they found the 'Bermuda Triangle' of the canal system unsure.png . Is anyone out looking for these 'lost boats'? We need to know!!

 

On a slightly less frivolous note, when passing along that way (several times) last year one of the volunteer lockies pointed out to me the telemetry at Bradford on Avon lock that he was proudly saying had one of the highest usages on the system but it doesn't appear on the data. Has it gone or was he giving me duff info?

 

I think Alan Fincher may have the answer. If its the lower Semmington lock then it is (or was) a leave empty lock, and even though I think the notice has now gone I suspect most K&A natives still leave it empty.

BoA is interesting, is it actually busy in the number of lockings, or just busy in a chaos sort of way with hire boaters (stag and hen boaters) causing a queue because they have never worked a lock before and were not listening when the hire company told them how to work a lock???

 

..............Dave

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THere used to be a lot of liveaboard boats above the lock that would go down for water and pumpout at the services below the lock.

 

Whilst I know queues are common, I'm surprised that Cholmondeston Lock on the Middlewich branch of the Shroppie is one of the busiest in the country.

It's obviously on the busy four counties ring, but I reckon it's more about the local marinas.

 

Venetian has been being improved over recent years, and may be busier.

Aqueduct Marina has seen an increase shared boats over the last 3 years. These can often be the most actively used boats. Cholmondeston Lock is between Aqueduct and Nantwich/Llangollen/Chester. All popular destinations.

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Ellesmere Port wide locks have been closed for a number of years.

 

Now such a low number of usages has been recorded, can we expect the the flight to remain closed indefinitely?

 

There is a dry dock between the two wide locks, usage of which may explain why there are any movements at all.

 

Tim

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What do the summary figures for the regions mean?

 

N

Hi Nick

 

They add up the number of uses for the recorded locks then divide by the number of locks counted to arrive at an average per lock. Interesting that Central Shires has the highest average but it does have some very popoular canals in it.

I'm disappointed that there is not telemetry at one of the Soar locks such as Loughborough, Barrow or Kegworth as this would give an interesting comparison with Kings Lock. I might suggest that the local IWA pursue this although at the moment the focus is on getting boaters to stop in that really 'awful city that has no safe moorings' called Leicester. Funny that we've never had any problems there and we have stopped in unothodox places on the outskirts and our only damage was in one of the 'safe' villages north of the city!

REgards

 

Richard

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  • 11 months later...

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