River Nene electrified (Guillotine) locks

[ditchcrawler]

3 hours ago, OldGoat said:

I managed to contact someone who knows at EA this morning and he said -

There were no holes where you could stick a screwdriver 

To coin a phrase, "They would say that" They removed the handles for a reason, they are not going to encourage you to poke screwdrivers etc in to replace the handles.

 

[OldGoat]

39 minutes ago, Mike Todd said:

My pix clearly show that Earls Barton is electrified

I may be a bit dense - but what picky, where? - I assumed it was a chide to me for not looking.

I had a look (quite a long one - 'cos I discovered you interest are similar to ours, even from a different angle, I'm interested in organs and The Management - geology and architecture), but I found nowt. 

[Scholar Gypsy]

So the bonus question is which locks can be reversed.

One of the slightly alarming features of the manual locks is that there is nothing to stop you reversing the lock yourself. Please don't try this at home - very dangerous!

[erivers]

34 minutes ago, Scholar Gypsy said:

So the bonus question is which locks can be reversed.

One of the slightly alarming features of the manual locks is that there is nothing to stop you reversing the lock yourself. Please don't try this at home - very dangerous!

But don't the Environment Agency claim that that function of these once dual-purpose locks now serves no purpose on the river Nene. ?

[Mike Todd]

On 20/06/2018 at 17:34, OldGoat said:

I may be a bit dense - but what picky, where? - I assumed it was a chide to me for not looking.

I had a look (quite a long one - 'cos I discovered you interest are similar to ours, even from a different angle, I'm interested in organs and The Management - geology and architecture), but I found nowt. 

Sorry to be unclear but I was referring to the photos that I took last month when cruising from Northampton to Peterborough. A few are included in our blog nbalchemy.blogspot.com 

[Jennifer McM]

As a 60 (ahem something ?) woman, I worked most of the locks, (the last one Orton Lock before Stanground lock was yesterday), managing quite well.

 

The manual locks have holes where a 6" philips screwdriver fits perfectly. Where some of the wheels have 'stiff spots' making the wheel hard to turn, the screwdriver comes into it's own.  The EA guy in Northampton Marina advised to get and keep, a momentum turning on the wheel - good tip.

 

Two of the six manual locks (I understand) used to be operated by solar panels, but they got nicked. The EA trialled a new mechanism (probably heavier counterweights) which has really made them very easy to work. 

 

The worse experience at one of the locks, for me, was having to clear a huge spider's web from a top gate before I'd dared to lean on it ?

 

In the locks, especially the electric ones, our boat's held steady by the stern rope, and centre line on bollards, using forward and reverse when necessary.

 

Opening the double top gates are not too bad, the gates are well balanced.

 

It's going to be interesting when we turn to go back up the locks, as the top gate paddles look fierce. I'd rather spend an extra 5 minutes filling the lock slowly. If the paddles are quickly cranked open, I guess it would be like putting the boat in a washing machine.

 

Sharing a lock makes life easier (obviously) but the lock landing isn't generally big enough for two boats, which made getting one of the crew off difficult for helping to set the lock. Having shared through about 5 locks, think I'd prefer to be on our own.

 

The Nene is beautiful, and I'm surprised and delighted how full of history it is. The water is crystal clear, and full of wildlife. 

 

Edited June 22, 2018 by Jennifer McM

[MoominPapa]

1 hour ago, Jennifer McM said:

 

It's going to be interesting when we turn to go back up the locks, as the top gate paddles look fierce. I'd rather spend an extra 5 minutes filling the lock slowly. If the paddles are quickly cranked open, I guess it would be like putting the boat in a washing machine.

 

 

The main thing to know about the gate paddles is that the water flow bounces off back of the lock and pulls the boat forwards (towards the gate) quite hard. This is not what most people expect. As long as you have a rope running _back_ to a bollard, it's fine.

 

Going up, we find it's more efficient to take advantage of the guillotine being open to ignore the lower lock landing and go straight into the lock, dropping shore crew at a ladder as we go in.

 

MP.

 

[OldGoat]

3 hours ago, Jennifer McM said:

As a 60 (ahem something ?) woman, I worked most of the locks, (the last one Orton Lock before Stanground lock was yesterday), managing quite well.

 

The manual locks have holes where a 6" philips screwdriver fits perfectly. Where some of the wheels have 'stiff spots' making the wheel hard to turn, the screwdriver comes into it's own.  The EA guy in Northampton Marina advised to get and keep, a momentum turning on the wheel - good tip.

 

Two of the six manual locks (I understand) used to be operated by solar panels, but they got nicked. The EA trialled a new mechanism (probably heavier counterweights) which has really made them very easy to work. 

 

The worse experience at one of the locks, for me, was having to clear a huge spider's web from a top gate before I'd dared to lean on it ?

 

In the locks, especially the electric ones, our boat's held steady by the stern rope, and centre line on bollards, using forward and reverse when necessary.

 

Opening the double top gates are not too bad, the gates are well balanced.

 

It's going to be interesting when we turn to go back up the locks, as the top gate paddles look fierce. I'd rather spend an extra 5 minutes filling the lock slowly. If the paddles are quickly cranked open, I guess it would be like putting the boat in a washing machine.

 

Sharing a lock makes life easier (obviously) but the lock landing isn't generally big enough for two boats, which made getting one of the crew off difficult for helping to set the lock. Having shared through about 5 locks, think I'd prefer to be on our own.

 

The Nene is beautiful, and I'm surprised and delighted how full of history it is. The water is crystal clear, and full of wildlife. 

 

I'll go and mangle a screwdriver before we go. If I come across the river inspector - I'll 'have a word' about his incorrect info.

We're on the Thames so working locks with fierce gate paddles is the norm. That's why you should use two lines.

It used to be good practice on the canals to open the near side paddles first when going up in a broad lock, that seems to have been forgotten

1 hour ago, MoominPapa said:

 

The main thing to know about the gate paddles is that the water flow bounces off back of the lock and pulls the boat forwards (towards the gate) quite hard. This is not what most people expect. As long as you have a rope running _back_ to a bollard, it's fine.

 

Going up, we find it's more efficient to take advantage of the guillotine being open to ignore the lower lock landing and go straight into the lock, dropping shore crew at a ladder as we go in.

My Management doesn't like / wont do ladders (on a more civilised river 'One' has steps with a hand rail....

 

A further question - where do folks moor overnight - in the rough, or only on official moorings? Looking through videos and Google Earth, the banks look quite soft?

 

[Jennifer McM]

1 hour ago, OldGoat said:

I'll go and mangle a screwdriver before we go. If I come across the river inspector - I'll 'have a word' about his incorrect info.

We're on the Thames so working locks with fierce gate paddles is the norm. That's why you should use two lines.

It used to be good practice on the canals to open the near side paddles first when going up in a broad lock, that seems to have been forgotten

My Management doesn't like / wont do ladders (on a more civilised river 'One' has steps with a hand rail....

 

A further question - where do folks moor overnight - in the rough, or only on official moorings? Looking through videos and Google Earth, the banks look quite soft?

 

I defo don't do ladders either ...

 

Thanks MoominPapa for the tip about the locks - that's something I didn't quite realise.

 

You might know, but it's good to join http://www.friendsoftherivernene.co.uk/moorings.html for a tenner for the year, it's well worth it. You can join on line and have them send their sticker through the post, or if that's not possible, as in our case, you can join at White Mills Marina, you'll need to give them cash as the money is kept separate from their accounts, they'll provide you with the stickers. You can't moor up without the stickers. We moored at several FOTRN moorings, all were 'wild' with the grass cut beautifully - all moorings are on pins.

 

Don't forget to take a look at No Problems River Nene info. 

[OldGoat]

5 minutes ago, Jennifer McM said:

I defo don't do ladders either ...

 

Thanks MoominPapa for the tip about the locks - that's something I didn't quite realise.

 

You might know, but it's good to join http://www.friendsoftherivernene.co.uk/moorings.html for a tenner for the year, it's well worth it. You can join on line and have them send their sticker through the post, or if that's not possible, as in our case, you can join at White Mills Marina, you'll need to give them cash as the money is kept separate from their accounts, they'll provide you with the stickers. You can't moor up without the stickers. We moored at several FOTRN moorings, all were 'wild' with the grass cut beautifully - all moorings are on pins.

 

Don't forget to take a look at No Problems River Nene info. 

Aha! I did look at the friends site and may well join, thanks.