Walsall Lock 8 Top Gate Replacement

Winter is the time for British Waterways to close sections of the canal for repairs and maintenance work.

Locks 6 and 8 of the Walsall Flight on the Birmingham Canal Network (BCN) are both closed this week for replacement of the top gates.

The photos are of lock 8 (lock 6 being very similar).

The work was nearly finished when I visited.  The red crane had already been used to lift the old gate out and to lift the new gate into position.

The security fencing is to deter vandals, while the scaffolding round the edge of the lock is to make the site safe for the workers.

The pound above the lock had been drained so the area around the top gate was (almost) dry for them to work and so they could see and access all the parts normally underwater.

They had the gate moving freely and were just trimming the edge to make a tight fit against the stonework of the lock wall.

They were going to fill the pound in the afternoon to check for leaks before making final adjustments to the gate.  Then all that remained was to tidy the site and remove the scaffolding and fencing.

From the Monday morning start to the Friday afternoon finish the locks were closed.  With two teams working in parallel the flight would be reopened by Friday afternoon with new top gates on both locks 6 and 8 and the minimum of inconvenience for boaters.

Posted on Friday, November 30, 2007 at 12:06
Comments (0) Category(s): BCN

Trow Stuffers Anonymous

The Cotswold Canals Trust produce a quarterly magazine (The Trow) for over 5,000 members.  Four times a year they enlist volunteers to stuff the magazines into envelopes, usually in the evening at the Saul Heritage Centre.

This time they met in the morning.  The task was larger than normal as this issue was accompanied by a leaflet about the Santa Special cruises, and by an A4 letter (which had to be folded in half), and by three books of raffle tickets.

This time I took advantage of the daylight to capture a little video footage of everyone working hard.  I produced the Cotswold Canals DVD last year and I’m collecting additional material for a supplementary DVD showing recent activities.

Needless to say I spent the rest of the three hours folding, collating, stuffing etc.

It’s a shame that British Waterways charge us for parking in an almost empty car park at the Heritage Centre for activities like this.

Posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 17:55
Comments (3) Category(s): Cotswold Canals

Llangollen DVDs are now ready

We’ve finished the Llangollen Canal DVDs and they are just being copied ready for dispatch which should be by Monday 15th November.  You can now place orders on the website.

This time there are two versions, available separately or as a 2 DVD set.

The popular DVD in our usual format follows our boat cruising along the Llangollen Canal from Hurleston Junction to Llangollen and from Frankton Junction along the Montgomery Canal to the limit of the northern section at Maesbury Marsh.

This is the first time we have filmed from our own Waterway Routes boat rather than a hire boat.  We also visit the key villages and towns along the route.

The popular DVD also includes a short extract from our “Bowcam” - a forward facing camera recording the whole trip in time-lapse speeded up form.

For a little fun we have also edited the “Bowcam” film to show the whole journey in 61 minutes with the addition of maps, commentary and music.

We’ve annotated the film to show the mileage, bridge and lock numbers so you can always tell where you are.

The Bowcam journey is available as a separate DVD or as a 2 DVD set with the popular DVD in one box at a reduced price for the set.

It’s available to order on our website now and we can supply wholesale to any business, canal society or other organisation if you just contact us.  There will be complimentary copies in the post shortly for our proof watchers who made helpful suggestions on the draft to make it even better.

Posted on Wednesday, November 7, 2007 at 21:41
Comments (1) Category(s): Llangollen