I did this about 40 years ago with a youth group. One of many fun things I experienced as youth. We absolutely loved it and even when it rained we all wanted to steer the boat and do the locks. Unforgettable experience.
I just found these videos showing the canals in England. I spent 35 years working on the Upper Mississippi locks and dams. I find it amazing that these old locks are still usable. Opening the gates by hand, that is unthinkable over here. Paddles? We call them valves and they are huge. Very interesting and I would love to take a trip on a narrow boat.
Worth noting that the lock gates themselves are almost never older than 20-40 years, average life span being 30 years. The pound itself might be 100+ years old, as are the winding mechanisms, but the lock itself is rarely very old.
A newbie question please. With all the water pouring in from the now closed gates, should you then leave the opened gates open once you've left the lock?
I'm afraid too much work for me. You have to be on top of your game to do this. But I do enjoy watching the narrowboaters' videos traveling along the gorgeous English countryside.....I get pooped out when they say 8 locks to go thru according to their map/ Yikes!
You basically just do the same in reverse, open gates, put boat in, open the holes on the top gate to let the water fill the lock, open top gates, boat leaves
Ok this is probably going to be a stupid question, do you need to open both gates on the lock to drain it, if you are solo can you just use the one gate to save having to cross the lock to re-lower the gate before departing.
Just from ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-iopNqKNfJBg.html up to ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-iopNqKNfJBg.html more specifically. Sorry, I was not very specific. Regardless, a very helpful clip.
