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Favourite Flight of Locks.


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1 hour ago, magpie patrick said:

Fonserranes takes some beating - certainly my favourite flight of 2018!

Fonserrans all 8 from below compressed.JPG

We went up and down it/them in a hire boat some five years ago. It is quite dramatic - the lock keepers don't hold back!

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I would say my favourite probably has to be the crow heading up the Titford, very quick and easy to work (except at end of last year's BCN Challenge!). However I like quite a lot of the other BCN flights, particularly Ryders Green and Walsall. I do agree that the Delph is great as well.

 

One of my least favourite has to be Knowle, always windy,, heavy to work, a nightmare if single handed, and never any other boats to share with!

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I googled "bank Newton ground paddles" to find an image and this was the top result

 

Happy memories both of our first full year on our new boat and some much missed forum members who no longer contribute for various reasons.

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12 hours ago, jonathanA said:

 

Your quite right I stand corrected should have put my glasses on ! 

 

Is it the one with the coal yard  ? 

This coal yard?

I remember thinking it is a very rare sight these days, and not something we tend to see in the deep South!

 

Another of them paddles in this picture too - we rather liked them!

 

IMG_6393.JPG

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18 hours ago, Ray T said:

I like the Rochdale,  Tuel Lane and the guillotine lock at Todmorden make a nice variation.

 

I went to the opening of Tuel Lane. There were hundreds of people around the lock when the first boats went through. The lock-keeper wound up the paddles and left the windlass on the spindle! I cringed to think what would have happened if it had spun off and hit someone? 

Hope they don’t still do it.

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5 minutes ago, jenevers said:

I went to the opening of Tuel Lane. There were hundreds of people around the lock when the first boats went through. The lock-keeper wound up the paddles and left the windlass on the spindle! I cringed to think what would have happened if it had spun off and hit someone? 

Hope they don’t still do it.

Surely Tuel Lane Lock has hydraulic paddle gear?

 

Whilst it is obviously not good practice to leave a windlass on any paddle, hydraulic gear is designed to stay in the position you leave it in, (i.e. you don't put any kind of pawl on when the addles are drawn).  Even faulty examples only self wind down very slowly, surely they are never going to travel fast enough on their swn for a windlass to fly off?

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1 minute ago, alan_fincher said:

Surely Tuel Lane Lock has hydraulic paddle gear?

 

Whilst it is obviously not good practice to leave a windlass on any paddle, hydraulic gear is designed to stay in the position you leave it in, (i.e. you don't put any kind of pawl on when the addles are drawn).  Even faulty examples only self wind down very slowly, surely they are never going to travel fast enough on their swn for a windlass to fly off?

You’re probably right. 

It’s just bad practice in my opinion. It sets a bad example and one day someone who does it could do it on the traditional style of winding gear.

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33 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:

This coal yard?

I remember thinking it is a very rare sight these days, and not something we tend to see in the deep South!

 

Another of them paddles in this picture too - we rather liked them!

 

IMG_6393.JPG

Long time since I went through that lock but I seem to remember the that the winding gear on the bottom gates were unique. They were mechanical not hydraulic, but wound up and down very easily without any pawls being required.

Edited by jenevers
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12 hours ago, Athy said:

We went up and down it/them in a hire boat some five years ago. It is quite dramatic - the lock keepers don't hold back!

That is true but I wouldn't class them as my favourite, spectacular maybe. I wonder what it would be like to work Foxton like that

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1 hour ago, ditchcrawler said:

That is true but I wouldn't class them as my favourite, spectacular maybe. I wonder what it would be like to work Foxton like that

Possibly dangerous. From photos of Fonserranes it looks like the lock keepers take advantage of the locks having low cills to allow them to operate adjacent locks at least partially in tandem rather than completely sequentially. Is that the case? 

 

You can't do that if there is a risk of grounding on the cill. I have been told that the narrow staircases at Stourport are built with a single invert and can be operated in combination. Certainly there is no visible cill for the upper lock when the lower lock is at the lower level. Never seen them drained to confirm though.

 

JP

Edited by Captain Pegg
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20 hours ago, alan_fincher said:

I can't remember exactly what flights have what paddles.

Certainly some of the locks in that area have these, which we rather took to, provided they are actually working......

IMG_6384.JPG

 

 

Certainly some of the distant views are stunning.....

I think this is Gargrave, but am happy to be corrected, as it is quite a few yeras since we last did it, and with a 72 foot boat, no longer an option!

 

IMG_6391.JPG

Being pedantic though, a summit isn't a lock light, which is the actual topic for this thread.

I'm not sure the approaches to it from either direction really count as a "flight", do they, more a never ending slog!

 

Ooh! You must be a mardyarsed southerner. The west side is a flight, not that far between them, coming up from Littleborough . As for Todmorden, I'd consider there is a flight after the guillotine, up to Bacup Rd / top of Gauxholme, then they are spread out up to Summit. Stunning views all the way. As for dissing the Rochdale 9, what other flight offers drugs and buggery? 

20 hours ago, alan_fincher said:

I can't remember exactly what flights have what paddles.

Certainly some of the locks in that area have these, which we rather took to, provided they are actually working......

IMG_6384.JPG

 

 

Certainly some of the distant views are stunning.....

I think this is Gargrave, but am happy to be corrected, as it is quite a few yeras since we last did it, and with a 72 foot boat, no longer an option!

 

IMG_6391.JPG

Being pedantic though, a summit isn't a lock light, which is the actual topic for this thread.

I'm not sure the approaches to it from either direction really count as a "flight", do they, more a never ending slog!

 

Ooh! You must be a mardyarsed southerner. The west side is a flight, not that far between them, coming up from Littleborough . As for Todmorden, I'd consider there is a flight after the guillotine, up to Bacup Rd / top of Gauxholme, then they are spread out up to Summit. Stunning views all the way. As for dissing the Rochdale 9, what other flight offers drugs and buggery? 

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4 hours ago, Captain Pegg said:

Possibly dangerous. From photos of Fonserranes it looks like the lock keepers take advantage of the locks having low cills to allow them to operate adjacent locks at least partially in tandem rather than completely sequentially. Is that the case? 

 

You can't do that if there is a risk of grounding on the cill. I have been told that the narrow staircases at Stourport are built with a single invert and can be operated in combination. Certainly there is no visible cill for the upper lock when the lower lock is at the lower level. Never seen them drained to confirm though.

 

JP

I'll post photos later of how they operate Fonserranes when ascending - basically you're right, there is a vacant chamber between the boats and the paddles

 

The upper staircase at Stourport has a cill at normal height under the intermediate gates I've seen a hire boat caught on it when some local experts told them not to bother topping up the top chamber when ascending. I had wondered if the lower staircase has one, and even the top gate of the lower staircase has an unusually deep cill, as I found when I was once careless with Ripple and she drifted back but didn't catch anything.

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1 minute ago, Phil Ambrose said:

I have a CD of the lock being worked and it is hairy in the extreme so respect to Athy for surviving!!!!

Phil

It is, er what's the word...?...exhilarating, yes, particularly when going up.

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4 minutes ago, Mac of Cygnet said:

I think Bosley for me, the only flight on my favourite canal.  The only drawback being the lack of pub top OR bottom.  So perhaps Diggle shades it out, as it has both, and an ice cream parlour in the middle.  And that tunnel at the top.......

Good call. Bosley locks have unique features and a beautiful setting. As well as mitred gates at top and bottom they also have stone chambers which is rare (unique on narrow canals?). Many are capped with stone but have brick walls.

 

I recall mooring somewhere south of Bosley and walking down a main(ish) road to an isolated pub once, but it was a good few years ago.

 

JP

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6 hours ago, Captain Pegg said:

Possibly dangerous. From photos of Fonserranes it looks like the lock keepers take advantage of the locks having low cills to allow them to operate adjacent locks at least partially in tandem rather than completely sequentially. Is that the case? 

 

JP

Looking down on the chamber being filled by passing water through the intermediate chamber

 

Edited to add, actually the top chamber in this photo as it's the only one the public can stand next to, but the principle is the same

 

Fonserranes chamber going up compressed.JPG

Edited by magpie patrick
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25 minutes ago, magpie patrick said:

Looking down on the chamber being filled by passing water through the intermediate chamber

 

Edited to add, actually the top chamber in this photo as it's the only one the public can stand next to, but the principle is the same

 

 

Mike Askin doing this at Bascote on the GU.

 

 

Edited by Ray T
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19 hours ago, Tom and Bex said:

I would say my favourite probably has to be the crow heading up the Titford, very quick and easy to work (except at end of last year's BCN Challenge!). However I like quite a lot of the other BCN flights, particularly Ryders Green and Walsall. I do agree that the Delph is great as well.

 

One of my least favourite has to be Knowle, always windy,, heavy to work, a nightmare if single handed, and never any other boats to share with!

We spent 12 years going up & down the Crow as we moored there from 2004 to 2016(we did actually stop moving,plus go to other places?).I've never done Knowle when it hasn't been windy & wet !One time,I swear I had a bendy boat as it was blowing an absolute gale & I managed to get our boat into the next lock without touching the lock sides or the boat already in there.One of those moments you wish had been filmed ! 

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