Totally OT - canal question

[robgraham]

This has nothing to do with DIY, but takes advantage of the encyclopaedic knowledge here !

I've a troublesome knee and have been banned from all physical DIY by the physio - light exercises and 1 hour's flat walk a day. That's where the canal comes in - I'm exploring the local canal (near Edinburgh) in 1 1/2 mile sections. The mind as you can well imagine goes into neutral and the question arose as to how barges crossed in the old days when there was only one path for the horse and draw rope? Anyone know ?

Rob

[BodgeIt]

Rob, as you sorted out my halogen lamp psu this is the least I can do...

[Moonraker]

[muymalestado]

Fascinating.

[Jeff Gaines]

Hear, hear! I've always wondered how they did that.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember robgraham saying something like:

You never seen a horse swim?

[T i m]

Unusually I actually spotted an little error and reported it to them. I'm pleased to say they agreed with me, corrected it and said 'thanks'. ;-)

It was only a typo / spell checker thing ...

"A sensible boathouses soon learns the trick of leaning steadily into the collar ... "

Cheers, T i m

[robgraham]

others - had no idea about the effective size of that element of the industry. The parallel interestingly enough of the feeding, etc. is that the navvies who built the canals were equally well looked after. I don;t know about this country, but seemingly when they were building the lines across the US central states, the lines were being laid at the rate of a mile a day. It was about a mile a month for this local canal, which is around 70yds a day which for manual labour is pretty fast..

I hope my experience with these lamps doesn't turn out to be a false dawn! At least the outlay is not significant. You will probably have to sort out the connections - I opted to get line sockets from Maplin.

Rob

[Robin]

Yes, but it doesn't cover the use of scythes by passenger "expresses" to cut the towropes of oncoming goods vehicles which didn't give way. Was that just made up by CS Forester?

"Assuredly this canal traffic was a miracle of modernity, and it was gratifying to be on board the very fastest of the canal boats, the Queen Charlotte, that took priority over all other traffic. On her bow she carried a glittering scythe-blade as the proud symbol of her superior importance. It would sever the towline of any approaching boat which did not drop her line quickly enough to let her through."

[Spamlet]

Another question gone begging is how they organised going through the tunnels. In fact, a recent TV prog mentioned that barges could be backed up for weeks waiting their turn. I would imagine the tunnels would still be the biggest drawback to canal transport today.

S

[ARWadsworth]

Like the Channel Tunnel and Operation Stack:-)

[geoff]

In message , Grimly Curmudgeon writes

No - I've seen a horse fly, though

[Andy Burns]

wikipedia in the section explaining how the horse stays in harness where the towpath changes side.

[djc]

Bargee lies on back on roof of boat and 'walks' along roof of tunnel.

[The Natural Philosopher]

prior to motorised narrow boats, that is.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember geoff saying something like:

I've seen a house fly.

[Mike Barnes]

Grimly Curmudgeon :

And fruit flies like a banana.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Naomi Campbell attracts men like flies.

[PeterC]

But the men that like flies wouldn't be attracted by Naomi.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Oh I dunno. Entomoligists like stick insects after all...