Anderton Boat Lift - 1920s article on electrification

[Québec]

Stumbled across this article, on the Internet Archive, from the 1920 edition of 'Electrical Wonders of the World'.

 

https://archive.org/details/TheAndertonBoatLift

[DHutch]

Will have to have a look at that tonight.

 

 

Daniel

[Ray T]

Good find, thank you.

[Scholar Gypsy]

Thanks - very interesting.

 

I was struck that the conversion in 1902 from counterbalanced hydraulic to independent electriccooperation took only a 38 day stoppage ....

[Derek R.]

As this subject is directly related to the other thread on the Anderton lift, is it possible to merge these two threads?

 

The article is fascinating, but teasingly frustrating in not precisely describing the purpose of the two brick building sat the bottom of the lift. The article also states that the lifting of the gates was at one time done manually, and later changed to electric operation. Which ponders the question - is this the purpose of the brick huts with their relative control gear? In every other way a well written article.

[Québec]

The photographs in the article do prove one thing about those buildings: they were inhabited. In both photos there is clearly smoke coming from the chimney, leading one to assume that someone was in it for considerable periods of time. Otherwise why bother with a fire?

[Derek R.]

Inhabited implies a dwelling place. That they were not, no more than a coal office in some railway goods yard, but you can bet there was a fire in there!

[Laurence Hogg]

As this subject is directly related to the other thread on the Anderton lift, is it possible to merge these two threads?

 

The article is fascinating, but teasingly frustrating in not precisely describing the purpose of the two brick building sat the bottom of the lift. The article also states that the lifting of the gates was at one time done manually, and later changed to electric operation. Which ponders the question - is this the purpose of the brick huts with their relative control gear? In every other way a well written article.

 

Good idea to merge Derek. The work was finished in 1908 so what went on in the years previous may be of interest but it wasn't done in 1902 as someone has intimated. The offices are just the right size for the tramway style controllers mentioned if you think of the front of a typical Preston type car.

[Pluto]

You can download a copy from the bottom of my British boatlifts page.

[tarboat]

For anyone interested in the use of the boatlift at Anderton, this is a page from the lift log book for September-October 1908. It shows the number of lifts per day and also the number of boats up and down in each caisson.

 

 

[Derek R.]

Fascinating. On my birthday, 68 boats passed through the lift! Except I wasn't around in 1908.

 

I notice no work done on Sunday. Nowadays, some might say no work done any day.

[Peter-Bullfinch]

I came down the lift today and the four staff I spoke to all said that these small buildings were now believed to be exactly as Laurence had told us. All staff had now been briefed to describe them correctly.

 

Today the lift was part of the Northwich heritage event. Some staff dressed in Victorian dress. Volunteers were working hard taking groups around the structure and at the base outlining it's operation and history. The marquee was serving refreshments.

[Laurence Hogg]

I came down the lift today and the four staff I spoke to all said that these small buildings were now believed to be exactly as Laurence had told us. All staff had now been briefed to describe them correctly.

 

Today the lift was part of the Northwich heritage event. Some staff dressed in Victorian dress. Volunteers were working hard taking groups around the structure and at the base outlining it's operation and history. The marquee was serving refreshments.

 

Well, well, well, the penny dropped it seems, would have been nice if they had responded to the detailed emails. I am glad to hear that the right info got there in the end, thanks.

 

edited to add, pity they cannot change the webpage!! https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/news-and-views/news/come-and-see-the-anderton-boat-lifts-restored-toll-houses

Edited September 13, 2015 by Laurence Hogg

[Ramsammy]

Hi everyone, I am new to this forum but hope I can add some interest.

 

The tram controls you mention in the "Toll Buildings" would have operated the river gates on the caissons in the electrified 1908 conversion. These caissons were connected by an electrical umbillical cord that drove a winch mounted on the caisson and remains of this can still be seen.

 

In the new system both river and caisson gates are now operated together via a latch system negating the need for electrics to the caissons.

 

Pre 1983 and the closedown all other gate winches and brakes were in the wooden building at the top.

 

in reply to Derek R

 

The River Weaver is not constant in water level and anderton boat lift had to live with this problem, there was a wedge system at the bottom of the lift that could be adjusted to ease the problem. Is this is the manual reference you refer to?

[Derek R.]

Hi, and welcome.

 

I had not considered the differing river levels needing adjustment (which is logical), and was not aware of a wedge system. How did that work?

The old article mentioned a manual system for operating the gates - presumably at the bottom, so I guessed (wrongly) the lower level buildings might have been there for whatever manual system that was.

 

Thanks for the added info.

[ditchcrawler]

so I guessed (wrongly) the lower level buildings might have been there for whatever manual system that was.

 

Thanks for the added info.

There has been a thread about that, I think Lawrence started it

There has been a thread about that, I think Lawrence started it

Sorry Daniel started it but Lawrence posted on it http://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=78617&p=1632418

[Ramsammy]

Hi Derek, The concept was that the level in the caisson would be the same as the river level so as to reduce the amount of energy and strain needed to lift the river gates. As the river level was never constant, the caisson would be lowered to to match and a wedge would be raised to meet the caisson and seal it to the river abutment. This was carried out by a leadscrew attached to each end of the wedge operated by a handle. This system did not work well due to water pressure and was abandoned by applying fixed jacks under the wedge and the operators would then snatch the gates against the water pressure. The wedge system is in place today using hydraulics for lift with additional pressure applied horizontally at the lower part of the wedge to combat river pressure.

 

Hope this helps Garry

[Derek R.]

Sounds like it's better seen than described, but thanks for the description.