Crusty Chief
Guru
Very interesting series. A lot of history. Just starting the 3rd season.
http://http://youtu.be/8zRI7xwN_mU
http://http://youtu.be/8zRI7xwN_mU
Last edited:
Canal video series
- Thread starter Crusty Chief
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone who enjoys boating.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
OP
OP
Crusty Chief
Guru
Not sure about the link above,
Search YouTube, "Great Canal Journeys"
Search YouTube, "Great Canal Journeys"
kthoennes
Guru
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2013
- Messages
- 2,473
- Location
- USA
- Vessel Name
- Xanadu
- Vessel Make
- Mainship 37 Motor Yacht
The link worked fine for me. Looks like an interesting series, I'll have to watch them sometime. It's always been so surprising to me that boaters operate the locks themselves on so many of those small canals in England (France too maybe?) Thanks very much for posting that link.
CC - TY so much for posting. I stored link. Plan to occasionally watch with wife. 47 + hrs will take many months to complete... in short bursts. Timothy West, wife, and family seem to be a fine group for displaying canal life. Cheers! Art
Diesel Duck
Senior Member
Thank you for providing the link to a wonderful series of videos. This travelogue adventure with Timothy West and Prunella Scales is very refreshing not to mention inspiring. I can only hope to be so adventurous when I'm their age, 79 and 81 respectively.
Thank you again!
Thank you again!
OP
OP
Crusty Chief
Guru
Thank you all for the positive feedback. Not your typical YouTube videos, and this couple gives a lot of inspiration. By the Third season you see the age effects, but they keep plugging along.
The locks on the continent are for the most part operated by lockkeepers or are automated. This is one reason we find the British canals so much more interesting. We have been running narrowboats in England since 1990.
I took this photo while descending a flight of 17 locks on the Shropshire Union canal near Audlem. Friends that joined us on the trip are operating the lock. We will pass the boat locking up in the basin between the locks that is there for this reason. It is waiting in the lower lock for the water to drop in our chamber so our friends can open the doors and we can drive out.
Attachments
Last edited:
Marin, hard to imagine you traveling at that slow a pace.......more than once.
Ted
It's a totally different world and experience from the kind of boating we do here at home and in another part of Europe. Narrowboating is like walking on water through fascinating and beautiful country as well as history. It's not boating to get somewhere, you are there the whole time you're on the boat. The history of the canals is something that intrigues us and the particular boat we use reflects that history in its engine type and interior configuration, even to the point of its working-boat throttle and shifter controls. For us it's a hands-on experience into a way of life that played a major role in Englad's rise to industrial power.
Attachments
Last edited:
If you are going to England to do a Narrowboat trip, you might try Scotland and fit in a lift on the Falkirk Wheel. https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=Falkirk+Wheel&ei=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-001
When I saw it just a year or so after it opened, it was already becoming a solid attraction for the otherwise sleepy town of Falkirk. One of the wonders of the modern world.
When I saw it just a year or so after it opened, it was already becoming a solid attraction for the otherwise sleepy town of Falkirk. One of the wonders of the modern world.
OP
OP
Crusty Chief
Guru
stubones99
Guru
Comparing canal boats to Trawlers... Wheeee!
life at 4 miles per hour, half that of a trawler.
Neat scenery.
Stu
The Falkirk Wheel is impressive but I am much more impressed with another British boat lift, the Anderton Lift on the Trent & Mersey canal. Built in 1875 to move boats between the canal and the River Weaver some 50' feet below, it is still in operation today. The painting shows the lift in operation during the early 1900s, the two photos show the lift in recent years.
Last edited:
On the subject of canal lifts, there have been all sorts of ingenious and impressive means developed to move boats from one level to another where locks were not possible or practical. One of my favorites, partly because we've been on it, is the inclined plane at Montech, France. It was built parallel to an original set of four (IIRC) conventional locks with the idea that it would speed the movement of traffic. Unfortunately it didn't, but it remains a unique feature on the canals of France.
It consists of a pair of connected diesel-hydraulic locomotives running on rubber tires along a sloping concrete aquaduct. In practice, a boat enters the bottom of the aqueduct between the two locomotives, coming to a stop just before it grounds out on the sloping concrete bottom. The huge blade mounted in front of the locomotives is lowered behind the boat and the locomotives start up the slope. The blade pushes the boat and the water it's floating in (there are rubber seals around the sides and bottom of the blade) up to the top of the inclined plane until the water trapped in front of the blade is at the same depth as the canal water being held back at the top. When the levels are equal a door is opened and the boat moves out onto the canal. For boats going down the process is reversed.
The Montech lift is not used much these days as it's been proven to be faster to use the original locks but it still operates for tours and special occasions or requests. In the last photo the locomotives are backing down the slope with with a boat and the water it's floating in.
It consists of a pair of connected diesel-hydraulic locomotives running on rubber tires along a sloping concrete aquaduct. In practice, a boat enters the bottom of the aqueduct between the two locomotives, coming to a stop just before it grounds out on the sloping concrete bottom. The huge blade mounted in front of the locomotives is lowered behind the boat and the locomotives start up the slope. The blade pushes the boat and the water it's floating in (there are rubber seals around the sides and bottom of the blade) up to the top of the inclined plane until the water trapped in front of the blade is at the same depth as the canal water being held back at the top. When the levels are equal a door is opened and the boat moves out onto the canal. For boats going down the process is reversed.
The Montech lift is not used much these days as it's been proven to be faster to use the original locks but it still operates for tours and special occasions or requests. In the last photo the locomotives are backing down the slope with with a boat and the water it's floating in.
Padeen
Senior Member
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2015
- Messages
- 110
- Location
- United States
- Vessel Name
- Mary A
- Vessel Make
- Chris-Craft Speedster
Thanks C Chief: great series!
stubones99
Guru
Here is another video blog of a guy living aboard a narrowboat in the UK, exploring their canal system.
https://www.youtube.com/c/cruisingthecutuk
https://www.youtube.com/c/cruisingthecutuk
