How Does a Canal Swing Bridge Work? Actual Adventure! 

That's nothing. I'm planning to be a school crossing guard.

sounds bliss

Oh, yes. And you can still have river views if you don't mind short tacking.

well i no its not very pc but i probably enjoyed it more haha

delaying the car is probably worse.

much like a lock, you pull the boat up tie to the bollards, open it , drive it threw , tie at the other side and then close the gate

There are (were?) some bridges with controls on the opposite side to the mooring, easily solved for the single-hander by tying the bow-line off to the bridge itself! I seem to recall reading something recently which suggested crt were planning to relocate the controls for the last few of these "awkward" bridges.

Hi there, I know I'm a tad late to comment on this subject. I had a week on the canals around Skipton and needed to operate at least 5 swing bridges per day and EVERY bridge were operated on the opposite side of the cut to the tow-path , I had to tie up on the tow-path side. Now I was travelling with a buddy so all was ok, and so on approach to a bridge, you have to tie on the tow path side (as you needed to get the opposite banks landowner to give permission to use 'that' side ), get off, walk over bridge, open bridge, then 'buddy' would sail on through, I close bridge, cross over and then get back on board, BUT if I were a single-handed user, how do would I be able to operate the complete procedure (?) as when I have moored, crossed over and opened, I become stranded on the wrong side of the cut to get back on board to sail through, and then of course, if that were possible, once I have sailed through and moored, I am stranded again to get back over to the cut to close bridge... Can you or someone please enlighten me? I intend to become a solo-liveaboard and wonder whether to sail on canals (bridges) or rivers/broads. Thanks

I do!

very nice swing bridge demo.

Every one like this I ever operated would not release your waterscape key until the bridge was returned to the closed position. Some of the more primitive non-electric windlass operated ones can be left open but that will lead to motorists messing with the bridges and sooner or later a bridge will get broken as a result.

electric motor pumps hydraulic fluid to a ram which operates the bridge.

my apologises

You can't use squirrels because they hibernate, that's why they use hamsters.

thanks man !

ThisNarrowboatAdventure Np, would love to spend a day on a narrow boat, looks very interesting XD

Go chat to come people on the tow path you'll soon be invited to help. we needed people recently I can ask you next time

Sure I have a second channel all about life experiences so that would make a decent video.

whats the channel?

near Middlesex & Herts Boat Services

London Boat Girl it’s near Berkhamsted herts

no but you have to moor on the tow path side there is no bollards on the off side.

no i dont think so.....

haha !

oh i wish that was me!

what can i say, I'm a bastard. there was two boats going threw, I just edited that boat out as to not in pinch on their privacy

haha! what a coincidence!

Ben keith short and sweet I am not going to waffle on for no reason! glad you like them.I ama lady I do not crank it! ;)

heh wait.. you know robbie cumming is not a porn star right :p

ill look into it in future

Thank you. 😀

thanks I love it

they are magic I hear Santa uses one to get into boat children homes

I'm sure as an engineer you could look closely and see most of the mechanics of it .

some gears are part of turning the bridge.

thank you :)

our boat was second hand, it came with the key, but i imagine you can ask crt

bomrapaz07 Every boater on the canal network has at least one of these "watermate" keys. They are used to access boater facilities like this swingbridge, elsans, rubbish points, water points etc.; basically anything that boaters pay for through their licence and needs to be kept from being abused by normal members of the public.

tanks eightop42

thanks!

that's a good one! like turning the engine off at the end of a long days cruise

:P I'm a bit of a gear head, so the sound of a nice engine puttering along is kind of relaxing in my view. The sound of that alarm isn't really the same thing at all. But of course if you really aren't fond of the engine sounds on the boats, then there are options to cut down on the noise. I've been on a few boats that make it hard to be sure the engine is even on.

its ine but after 8 hours nice to have some silence