Crt Guidance For Operating Canal Equipment

[zenataomm]

I wonder how far he got, or is he currently commuting in from Preston Brook?

[Keeping Up]

... if you turn the wrong way at Gayton Junc you need to do another 34 locks as part of turning round!) ...

We were at the Queens Head at the bottom of Tardebigge a few years ago when a Viking hireboat arrived and bemoaned the fact that he'd missed the winding point at Stoke Prior. He was somewhat dismayed to be told that the next winding point was at the top of the flight, so the round trip from Stoke to Stoke to turn round would total 70 Locks. It didn't help that he was over 70 years old and his only crew was his parents, plus he needed to be back at Worcester by the next morning. After some discussion another boater offered to tow him backwards to Stoke.

[fanshaft]

 

Interesting side issue about the weed hatches. Back in the early days of the canals, was there anything significant likely to be wrapped around a large prop to affect it? I can think of the ropes used then, but there would have been no wiring, plastic bags, barbed wire, synthetic fibres, mattresses etc

 

PS Obviously back in the early days there was no weed hatch because a horse drawn boat didn't have a propellor.....

Interesting point. We tend to think that fouled propellers are a recent problem but I recall being told by an ex Cowburn and Cowpar boatman that they did pick up stuff on the blades such as mattresses, wire etc and did get stuck in bridge holes as well This is also echoed in books such as 'Hold on a Minute' . Of course it didn't help that some boatmen would throw their rubbish in the cut and otherwise cause it to shallow. I've heard from several sources that boatmen used to shovel coal out and over the side in Gannow tunnel on the L&L - all that effort to save one grab full at the power station!

 

Regards

 

David L

[adam1uk]

if you turn the wrong way at Gayton Junc you need to do another 34 locks as part of turning round!

Only if you compound your error by missing the winding hole above the top lock...

[nine9feet]

I dread elf n safety getting involved as they are crippling this country.

 

Generally I agree. But there are times when it is appropriate and I am grateful.

 

Have had lots of gongoozlers watching before but when going down Hampstead Road Locks on Sunday there were hordes of them everywhere and I was grateful that the fence was there round the lock to keep them out of harms way :-)

 

Cheers

[Wanderer Vagabond]

Just been reading horror stories about boat sinkings in locks and I am flabbergasted to discover CRT provides no guidance or safety advice on operation of locks, bridges etc.

 

 

As a person relatively new to this world of narrow boating I am aware of a lack of prominence of info explaining or showing how to properly and safely take a boat through a lock.

 

I accept that I should go on a helmsmanship course but that will only partially cover whats required.

 

When I was working in big industry there were loads of safety videos on all sorts of eg fork lift trucks etc.

 

Surely this is something CRT should provide as it is their infrastructure that is employed and it would appear that most of these sinkings are often operator error. Not surprising if no proper specific guidance is provided.

 

Have I missed something somewhere or this a glaring big hole in CRT's info.

I think that the analogy you need to draw is to compare CRT with the Highways Authority (yes, I know some want them to be a housing authority but that's a whole different argument ). Something like 1700 people a year die on UK roads but the Highway Authority are generally pretty blameless since the onus is on you to make sure you have the necessary skills to use the roads. CRT supply the infrastructure and how you use it is up to you, much the same as the roads. If you go onto the roads without any training you would probably die fairly rapidly so pretty much everyone takes driving lessons. It is not however the Highway's Authority's job to teach you about driving. If CRT were daft enough to take on the responsibility for teaching you how to use the boats they would be subject to endless litigation since every time someone injured themselves they could sue CRT claiming that they hadn't been told that doing something daft could result in death or injury.

 

Your comparison with industry is a bit false, the endless videos, presentations etc on safety isn't because they are all a good bunch of blokes caring about your welfare, it is to stop you suing the ar*e off them if you are injured. If you are being paid to do a job they have a responsibility to ensure that you are competent to do it and have suitable equipment. Since you are on the waterways by choice, for leisure, no-one has the same responsibility for you, you have to do it for yourself. If you were employed as a professional boatman by a carrying company they would probably have to give you all the training under the sun (so you couldn't sue them) but for a leisure pursuit the sound argument would be 'Well you don't have to do it'

[Alan Saunders]

Interesting point. We tend to think that fouled propellers are a recent problem but I recall being told by an ex Cowburn and Cowpar boatman that they did pick up stuff on the blades such as mattresses, wire etc and did get stuck in bridge holes as well This is also echoed in books such as 'Hold on a Minute' . Of course it didn't help that some boatmen would throw their rubbish in the cut and otherwise cause it to shallow. I've heard from several sources that boatmen used to shovel coal out and over the side in Gannow tunnel on the L&L - all that effort to save one grab full at the power station!

 

Regards

 

David L

Possibly apocryphal but I sure that boatmen unloaded a cwt or two of coal to be collected on the return journey and used in the cabin stove.

[Tony Dunkley]

Possibly apocryphal but I sure that boatmen unloaded a cwt or two of coal to be collected on the return journey and used in the cabin stove.

 

It certainly isn't apocryphal, and Gannow isn't the only tunnel that was used for 'lightening' loaded boats. Snarestone tunnel near Measham is full of coal that was loaded a mile or two away at the Illot wharf and destined never to be delivered to Croxley paper mills. Coal for use in the cabin range was never left anywhere to be collected on the way back, it just never got unloaded at the delivery destination.

[Peter X]

Reading about something or doing a course are both helpful, but the best way to learn a skill is usually to do it under the supervision of someone who knows it, and that's how I learned how to operate a lock. It must be how all the professional boatmen learned, picking it up from the generation before them, often as children growing up on boats.

 

Was it a very cloudy day when this boater on his way to London went north from Braunston, or did he not know that London and the sun are both in the south?

[mark99]

 

It certainly isn't apocryphal, and Gannow isn't the only tunnel that was used for 'lightening' loaded boats. Snarestone tunnel near Measham is full of coal that was loaded a mile or two away at the Illot wharf and destined never to be delivered to Croxley paper mills. Coal for use in the cabin range was never left anywhere to be collected on the way back, it just never got unloaded at the delivery destination.

Some ladies used to lighten the load of coal in exchange for services rendered. At least that's what's in a book I read recently. Possibly mythical. ?

[NigelMoore]

There were no significant hire or leisure boats, no ameteurs really for most of that time on canals.

 

On the contrary - which is a fact of history I still find fascinating – there were so many hire and leisure boats on the canals [in the greater London area anyway] that new Acts of Parliament had to be rushed in to limit the degree to which they were interfering with the commercial operations.

 

Not only did this occur within a few short years of the opening of the Grand Junction Canal, the potential desirability of such leisure use was recognised and promoted by the proprietors as part of their campaign for passage of the enabling Act. They just had not anticipated the extent of the nuisance that would be caused by the enthusiastic adoption of the canal as a leisure resource for Londoners!

[Ray T]

It's on DVD / You Tube too:

 

[Tony Dunkley]

Some ladies used to lighten the load of coal in exchange for services rendered. At least that's what's in a book I read recently. Possibly mythical. ?

 

Not something I ever experienced personally, but I suppose it could have happened.

Did the book say if the horizontal part of the deal took place before or after everyone got covered in coal dust ?

[b0atman]

Not a bad video, now this crew they mentioned can you get them at chandlers or should I be looking on e bay

[mark99]

Knowing old boaters I suspect rather than lying down and wasting time, the ...... no don't go there Mark99.

[Tony Dunkley]

Knowing old boaters I suspect rather than lying down and wasting time, the ...... no don't go there Mark99.

 

There used to be something called a jigger for emptying the boats at Dickinsons paper mill at Croxley.

Edited June 19, 2015 by Tony Dunkley

[Rod a mod from Tod]

Some ladies used to lighten the load of coal in exchange for services rendered. At least that's what's in a book I read recently. Possibly mythical. ?

 

"Coal for hole" as the coalmen and some of the less ladylike ladies round here use to call it.

[Scholar Gypsy]

Not a bad video, now this crew they mentioned can you get them at chandlers or should I be looking on e bay

 

I agree - I thought it communicated well the messages about boating etiquette, looking for oncoming boats before turning a lock, 4mph being a maximum not a target etc.

[BruceinSanity]

"Coal for hole" as the coalmen and some of the less ladylike ladies round here use to call it.

And according to someone on the Narrow Boats LP, IIRC, "slack fer ar$e 'ole".

[Darcy]

Thankyou for posting the video Ray T. I've read the booklet thing in the past, but not seen the video.

 

We've hired many times and tend to think that we know what we are doing, yet every year we have to remind someone in the crew of the correct order to do locks in, or how to do a knot. This year I have sent them a link to this and asked them to watch it before we go. Hopefully "official" instructions about hanging hands out of the boat etc, will have more weight than my attempts with the PIL.

 

It was also good to see the bit about rivers as we've not done this very much.

 

An additional benefit is that it has saved me from my normal panic, the first time we meet a boat of, "which side do we pass again ?"

 

Would it be possible to sticky a link to the video somehow, so others can find it ?

[Theo]

It's on DVD / You Tube too:

 

 

quote "The centre line should never be used for mooring up".

 

Nick