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Foxton locks open 24 hours a day

Proper Charlie

By Proper Charlie
in General Boating

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john6767 Veteran II

john6767

Posted
Posted
19 hours ago, matty40s said:

Perhaps someone had cocked up the emails saying this year's timings.

Sent the Watford one first and then just copied and pasted not taking out the relevant bit. The email doesn't read correct to me.

Whilst the wording is a bit strange (last boat in, closing etc) is is exactly the same wording for Watford, which we know is open 24hrs.

Note also that the notice is from 16 March 2017, so the 24 hour opening does not start until Thursday, so the previous opening times woulds apply until then.

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john6767 Veteran II

john6767

Posted
Posted

Ah well I tried pinging @CRT SouthEast on Twitter, and did not get much sense out of them, they did not seems to get the question

I asked
"@CRTSouthEast Does the 24 hour opening for Foxton Locks start this Thursday?"
(Thursday being the 16th which is the start data for the CRT notice that say Foxton is open 24 hours)

they replied
"@nbfirefly the locks are always open but we don't always have volunteers to assist boats through the locks"
(which is just not true as we know they lock the flight up when the lock keeerp knocks off)

so I replied back
"@CRTSouthEast at Foxton they are currently locked at 3:30, the notification from CRT says 24 open hrs from 16/03/17, is that incorrect?"

to which they replied
"@nbfirefly Notice just confirms when the lock keepers are on site again. Locks are open"

so no idea it they really are going to be open 24 hours or not based on that, I don't know why they just did not answer the (simple I thought) question.

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Lesterboy Explorer

Lesterboy

Posted
Posted

I think the wording of the e mail advice is wrong. They have copied the wording on this advice from the Watford one. Watford is open 24hrs but manned during certain hours. Foxton has never been open 24hrs due to the risk of flooding the pub etc at the bottom. There is not the same risk at Watford.

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Boat&Bikes Experienced

Boat&Bikes

Posted
Posted
14 minutes ago, Lesterboy said:

I think the wording of the e mail advice is wrong. They have copied the wording on this advice from the Watford one. Watford is open 24hrs but manned during certain hours. Foxton has never been open 24hrs due to the risk of flooding the pub etc at the bottom. There is not the same risk at Watford.

At Watford is there not a chance of flooding the lovely house just above the bottom lock? Ian .

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nicknorman Veteran II

nicknormanDonate to Canal World

Posted
Posted
40 minutes ago, Lesterboy said:

I think the wording of the e mail advice is wrong. They have copied the wording on this advice from the Watford one. Watford is open 24hrs but manned during certain hours. Foxton has never been open 24hrs due to the risk of flooding the pub etc at the bottom. There is not the same risk at Watford.

Blatantly not true. Foxton has certainly been open 24 hrs, for a couple of hundred years but just not in the last - maybe - 25 or so.

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WotEver Veteran II

WotEverDonate to Canal World

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Mike Todd said:

2017 - 1814 = 203 > 200

or is my maths a little too rusty?

Ahh, but 203 - 25 = a little < 200

Quote

... a couple of hundred years but just not in the last - maybe - 25 or so.

 

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Machpoint005 Veteran II

Machpoint005

Posted
Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, Mike Todd said:

2017 - 1814 = 203 > 200

or is my maths a little too rusty?

Yes it is - the relationship you posted is meaningless because the LHS of the '=' sign is 3, and the RHS of the '-=' iis a statement.

Although your meaning was fairly obvious it lacked precision. You need three lines:

2017 - 1814 = 3

200 + 3 = 203

203 > 200

QED

Wotever's statement is OK though!

Edited by Machpoint005
because Wotever posted in the meantime
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WotEver Veteran II

WotEverDonate to Canal World

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

Yeabut you're all forgetting the 25 years (which was only a guess anyway).

Oh no I'm not. Look up a few posts. 

12 minutes ago, WotEver said:

Ahh, but 203 - 25 = a little < 200

 

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Mike Todd Veteran

Mike ToddDonate to Canal World

Posted
Posted
44 minutes ago, Machpoint005 said:

Yes it is - the relationship you posted is meaningless because the LHS of the '=' sign is 3, and the RHS of the '-=' iis a statement.

Although your meaning was fairly obvious it lacked precision. You need three lines:

2017 - 1814 = 3

200 + 3 = 203

203 > 200

QED

Wotever's statement is OK though!

Many a piece of software has failed through inattention to the precedence of operators.

Yes I know I was using shorthand but I was not really expecting to encounter fellow mathematicians . . . so wrote as one speaks.

But it is nice to meet a fellow pedant :)

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magpie patrick Veteran II

magpie patrickDonate to Canal World

Posted
Posted

The locks used to be unstaffed in winter, on the basis there wasn't much traffic. I presume the idea here is that there won;t be much traffic out of core, staffed hours. Going through without supervision when the traffic is light is fine. 

The only time I've seen serious overloading of the sideponds at Foxton was in winter, but it wasn't the unsupervised boats fault. The locky had come along and, before taking the padlocks off, had gone and made sure every sidepond was tip-top full to the brim. Then the first boat of the day descended with all the locks and all the sideponds already brim full...

 

(I was doing a survey of the inclined plane at the time)

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magpie patrick Veteran II

magpie patrickDonate to Canal World

Posted
Posted
On 3/13/2017 at 21:09, alan_fincher said:

I kind of thing you would not be allowed to operate that on your own, if no "lockies" were present.

Indeed around 1910 the locks were used at night because the Inclined Plane was closed during the hours of darkness...

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NickF Rising Star

NickF

Posted
Posted

I first went through in 1982 and again in 1984 and I don't remember any lock keeper and certainly no coloured paddles. It's all common sense, check the whole flight is clear or that you only have to pass one in the middle pound and off you go.

I returned again in 2010 and there were certainly lock keepers then!

If confident crews go through out of hours that can only help to ease congestion.

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