Avoiding Liverpool was the aim: All aboard the world's ONLY moving aqueduct There are several fine examples of Victorian engineering still working in Blighty. Tower Bridge in London is one of my personal favourites. I was surprised to discover that another was on my doorstep. Well, 4.34km (2.7 miles) from my doorstep to be more accurate. The Grade II-listed Barton Swing Aqueduct in Salford was built …
Thank you. However, while it may be the world's only swinging aqueduct, it isn't the only moving one. There is the much more modern Falkirk Wheel which is just as mind-boggling as it rotates in a vertical plane, without tipping the water out! (I guess though that you could argue that this isn't an aqueduct as it doesn't carry water across something!)
I see your Falkirk Wheel and I raise you a Ronquières Inclined Plane [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronqui%C3%A8res_inclined_plane ].
That's essentially a bit of aquaduct that doesn't swing, but it crawls up and down a hill. About once a week, as its business case was never justifiable, just built for political reasons.
The Falkirk wheel is a boat lift, it moves boats between two canals on different levels. The Barton aqueduct is a different thing, it swings open to let boats that past that are too tall to pass under.
Boat lifts are much more common, there is the Anderton boat lift (mentioned in this article) which is an older example of the same thing.
Interesting article, I knew the Barton aqueduct was the only working example in the UK. I didn't realise that it was the only one ever in the world.
The Falkirk Wheel is not an aqueduct. It's a boat lift and was long pre-dated by the one at Anderton, albeit of a different design. There have been many examples of boat lifts, with incline plane lifts probaby being the most popular. Possibly the most bizarre one of all was the cassion lock on the Somerset Coal Canal which involved boats being floated into a sealed box which was raised and lowered through a water-filled cassion. It never really got beyond a demonstration.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerset_Coal_Canal
I could have written that!
And a little way further is the bridge at Old Trafford which when crossing, as a 5 year old, I decided to shoulder barge the rotten wooden door at the base of the pier, as 5 year old idiot children are prone to do. The door swung open, taking me with it, opening onto nothing but rusty iron metalwork sticking up out of inky, oily depths of water far below. Hanging onto the door handle for all my life was worth I had no option but to swing out and back. I've been terrified of bridges crossing water ever since. Took all my nerve and several attempts before I could walk on the pier at Brighton.
And when I was older I'd drink in the Packet House at Patricroft Bridge, nip in the chinese next door, walk home through the park & try and get in the house without waking my mum
Never once succeeded, so it's just as well I always got extra ribs
The Bridge I never liked was Warburton Bridge, my aunt used to take me over it to go to Lymm, I always got told off for walking in the road but the path was just planks & I could see the drop through the gaps between them, still don't like that bridge, then there was the little toll bridge just after it that I never had any money for.
Deary me that was a looong time ago now
Ironbridge Gorge in England is worth a visit. The eponymous bridge over the Severn was built in 1779 from cast iron sections - like Lego. The first of its type in the world and still in use.
There is a museum of Victorian houses, shops, and small industries that are often staffed and working. An old penny coin feels very heavy nowadays.
The ceramic tile museum creates a Victorian atmosphere by adding a hissing sound to give the effect of gas lighting using naked flames rather than an incandescent mantle. The equivalent of PC or router fans in an office nowadays.
The remains of an "inclined plane" indicate the primitive way to get barges between the river and the canal that is higher up the hill. Basically the barges were hauled sideways up or down the slope on rails.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canal_inclined_plane
Ironbridge Gorge in England is worth a visit. The eponymous bridge over the Severn was built in 1779 from cast iron sections - like Lego.One of my brothers stuck his head between the railings on the iron bridge and got stuck. We told him that as it was a listed monument the fire brigade would probably chop his head of rather than cut the railings. Luckily he managed to pull his head back out.
There is the Burlington Canal Lift Bridge <http://historicbridges.org/bridges/browser/?bridgebrowser=ontario/burlingtoncanalliftbridge/>. Nothing too exciting.
Peterborough Lift Lock on the Trent-Severn Waterway. It is a Hydraulic type built in 1904 and upgraded in the1980s. Length 43 metres (141 ft); Width 10 metres (33 ft); Fall19.8 metres (65 ft 0 in)
Coordinates 44°18′27″N 78°18′03″W.
The lock has two identical bathtub-like ship caissons in which vessels ascend and descend. Both caissons are enclosed at each end by pivoting gates, and there are pivoting gates at the upper and lower reaches of the canal at the junctions with the caissons. The gates on the caissons fit into slots on the gates on the reaches, so that they open in unison.
Each caisson sits on a ram, the shafts for which are sunk into the ground, are filled with water, and are connected with a pipe that has a crossover control valve. The caissons are guided up and down on either side by rails affixed to concrete towers. See Wikipedia: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peterborough_Lift_Lock>
Kirkfield Lift Lock, Trent-Severn Waterway. Operation-Hydraulic. First built 1907 and upgraded in 1969.
Length 42.4 m; Width 10.1 m; Fall 14.9 m. Coordinates 44.58973°N 78.98981°W. See Wikipedia: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirkfield_Lift_Lock>
BUT OUR MOST UNUSUAL ONE is:
Big Chute Marine Railway
During WW1 the government decided improve the Trent-Severn river system. Located on south-east Georgian Bay there was a bloody great around which the river flowed. It had been decided to bypass the rick and they even built the beginnings of a canal and lock.
Then the war concluded.
So they ran railway lines over the rock. Boats were floated on to the carriages, which were submerged, and then inched up and the next boat was secured. Eventually the train was hauled over the rock and the baits released.
Big Chute Marine Railway is a boat lift at lock 44 of the Trent-Severn Waterway in Ontario. It works on an inclined plane to carry boats in individual cradles over a rock of about 60 feet (18 m). See Wikipedia: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Chute_Marine_Railway>.
Ruined.
It used to be an elegant thing of counterweights, and before that the two caissons moved in opposition. By ensuring that the decending one was slightly fuller, the amount of motive effort required to operate the lift was minimal.
After the "restoration", each caisson has a single, modern hydraulic cylinder. The two sides are independent, and the lifting is by having a sodding great electrically-powered oil pump lifting all those tons of water. It works, yes, but it's now rather a full-scale working model than a restoration
The DP's (Delayed Pioneers) from the UK simply named villages/town/objects after places/things in the UK.
Ontario has a City of London with the Thames River (in that order) flowing through it, too.
Back in the day, the term "Taronto" referred to a channel of water between Lake Simcoe and Lake Couchiching, but in time the name passed southward, and was eventually applied to a new fort at the mouth of the Humber River. Simcoe was named after a British governor.
My favourite town in Northern Ontario, Kapuskasing, is located on the Kapuskasing River, 493 km northwest of North Bay. The name derives from a CREE term meaning "branch" (the Kapuskasing R being a branch of the Mattagami) or "place where the river bends."
I went up in this beast once. (The "New Lift" that is.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrichenburg_boat_lift#/media/File:Neues_Schiffshebewerk_Henrichenburg.jpg
Our little boat was rather dwarfed by the enormous barge we shared the space with. We basically tucked in under his stern. Was slightly scary when he fired up the turbines (yes, really) and the giant propeller started thrashing away right next to us.
Maybe 6/5 if the article had included a link to moving pictures (as kindly provided by kurios).
Anderton Boat Lift, anyone?
Incidentally, one of the tourist trips up the Ship Canal to Salford managed to run aground a couple of weeks ago. Fortunately no casualties:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-36758499
It came in an El-Reg red-colored (antistatic?) bag, nice touch.
So, will there eventually be a "Geek's Guide to Britain II: After Brexit"?
(Also currently reading: How Not to Network a Nation:The uneasy history of the Soviet Internet. Great stuff, if someone is interested ...)
... try this video of a late-'30s Claytons tar boat with a Bolinder single-cylinder 2-stroke engine. Tom Kitching (usually at the back in the video) and Edwin Beasant (usually at the front) were 2/3 of Pilgrims' Way, had been nominated for a R2 Folk Award, and decided to get to the ceremony at Salford Quays on Spey. It was February. It was a bit icy...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qxwCucEC_A
Some lovely photos there, Alun!
(P.S. Wot no 'old fart' icon?)
Interesting!
In 1976 I sailed the MSC as a sailor on one of the three tankers that Shell Tankers (NL) had for bringing certain intermediate oil product from Curaçao to Barton. These 13,000 ton ships would just fit in the locks and could just turn around in Barton basin. They had an extra accomodation for the inland pilot who would stay aboard for the entire time on the canal (with at least one intermediate stop at Stanlow).
If you should want to browse the Web for these 1955 ships: they were mv Cinulia, Crania and some other C.
The collapsing bearings story should be more famous as that is what rendered traffic on the nearby Thelwall Viaduct immobile for years at a time.
Bloody ship canal, I often wonder if it generated any more money than it has cost in lost productivity for traffic sat burning time and fuel going nowhere fast.
It's good question: the railways made it almost obsolete by the time it was built. But it did significantly improve the negotiating position of importers re. the Port of Liverpool. History is full of similar instances where a direct cost / benefit analysis would indicate fail but benefits to the overall economy were definitely positive.
It also helped stabilise the water table in Manchester: floods in the basin in the city centre in what was called "Little Ireland" were not uncommon before the ship canal.
I had the same thought after reading this and recently visiting S.S. Britannia
How has the same nation who took the financial and engineering risk to produce such technology marvels been reduced to a nation of nimby luddites who find themselves incapable of even creating one set of high speed train track or even a new power station?
Maybe one way to solve our future power needs would be to strap generators onto the the bodies of Telford, Watt, Brunel et al who should be rotating in their graves at quite a clip at present
Concentration of power in London, and in particular Westminster, certainly didn't help.
In its heyday Manchester was making more money than London but the City of London soon took steps to put an end to that. Once the power passed to the bankers then industrial decline was more or less inevitable. Politics went from trying to pick winners – the disastrous nationalisations of Labour in the 1960s – to Maggie's closing down sales of steel, coal, cars, etc. (because she worked out she didn't need the votes).
Employers have also done their part by favouring deregulation and cheap labour over skilled labour. Cottonopolis even got its own form of capitalism: Manchester capitalism where pretty much anything except workers rights was possible. While the rest of Europe was skilling up, the UK was dumbing down, aiming to compete with China over wages on a level playing field. That could soon be mission accomplished.
Thanks for this. I was reading this painfully dumbed down and mostly cribbed from Wikipedia article* about the bridge a few days back and feeling frustrated at the lack of real information about the mechanics. This is how it should be done. More please.
*The pictures are nice though.
Contrast that with the new road bridge that's under construction a little way up the ship canal. When finished it will take some pressure off the old swing bridge and allow cyclists and pedestrians (and trams), from the towns of Irlam and Cadishead, to get over the water to the "Shopping Cathedral".
The new bridge consists of four concrete pillars that lift up the road deck and allow boats to sail under it. Unfortunately it recently fell down and blocked the ship canal for several weeks. Luckily nobody was hurt in the accident.
I once took my narrowboat up the Ship Canal from the junction with the Weaver to central Manchester. Cost me £200 in admin charges and a good deal of faffing about, but was well worth it. When we left Runcorn we called the Vessel Traffic Service (the marine equivalent of Air Traffic Control) at Eastham to confirm we were on our way. They asked us if we needed them to swing the bridges. I was tempted to say yes... but with an air draft of only two metres, I reckoned I'd get found out and bollocked pretty quick!
I recently took a canal boat holiday and one of the reasons I chose the Bridgewater canal was exactly to cross this Wonder of the Canal World.
It was very exciting I can tell you! Well, as exciting as canal boats get that is, proving once and for all, the excitement is all about context. ;)
The only thing I'd add to this excellent article is that the aqueduct CAN get stuck in the open position on a sunny day due to expansion. Around 15 years ago I was on a trip along the Bridgewater from Castlefield to Boothstown and back, and we were held up for around an hour as the local fire brigade hosed down the ends so that it could swing back fully. Gave us plenty of time to admire the impressive engineering though....
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