Canal inclined plane

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An inclined plane is a system used on some canals for raising boats between different water levels.

Typically, such a feature consists of a slope, up which there are two sets of rail tracks, and boats are raised between different levels by sailing into giant water-filled tanks, or caissons, which have wheels on the bottom and watertight doors at each end, and which are perpendicular to the slope. These are then drawn up or down hill on the rails, usually by means of cables being pulled by a stationary engine. In almost all designs two caissons are used, one going up and one down, to act as counterweights to make the system more efficient. When the caisson has reached the top or bottom of the slope, the doors are opened and the boat leaves. On some canals an inclined plane was used just to the transfer the loads up or down to the boats on a rail system.

Near Coalisland, County Tyrone in Northern Ireland, a series of inclined planes or 'dry wherries' were used to connect adjoining canal sections on Dukarts Canal, an extension of the Coalisland Canal. The system was ahead of its time and didn't work.

An inclined plane is quicker, and wastes less water, than a flight of canal locks, but is more costly to install and run. It can be considered a specialist type of funicular railway.

1 Timeline
2 Other examples
- 2.1 With caissons
- 2.2 Without caissons
3 See also
4 Further reading
5 External links

[edit] Timeline

1773 John Edyvean proposes a canal using inclined planes on the St. Columb Canal in Cornwall, UK.
1788 An inclined plane is used for the first time to raise canal boats, on England's Ketley Canal. [1]
1792 William Reynolds of Ketley Ironworks constructed several inclined planes on the Shropshire Canal. [2]
1793 American born inventor Robert Fulton wrote a letter to Lord Stanhope suggesting inclined planes instead of locks for Bude Canal in Cornwall. Lord Stanhope replied saying his idea for working the plane had already been thought of by Edmund Leach.
1794 Robert Fulton took out a British patent (# 1988), for improvements to inclined planes including a double inclined plane system to be used to raise canal boats without locks.
1800 Francis Henry Egerton, eighth Earl of Bridgewater (1756-1829) wrote 'The Description of the Inclined Plane at Walkden Moor. (Lancashire)' [3]
1827 The Rolle Canal includes an inclined plane
1801 Inclined plane built on the Somersetshire Coal Canal [4]
1832 Mrs. Frances Trollope*[5], publishes in "Domestic Manners of the Americans" her account of a visit the previous year to see one of the inclined planes of the Morris Canal. This waterway, 100 miles long, connected the Hudson and Delaware Rivers, rising more than 1400 feet by means of a series of inclined planes.
1900 Foxton Inclined Plane was built.

[edit] Other examples

[edit] With caissons

The inclined plane of Ronquières

The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in Washington, D.C. later had an inclined plane built to move boats into the Potomac River so that they could bypass Georgetown which was becoming congested with traffic. The inclined plane was two miles upriver from Georgetown.
Foxton Inclined Plane
The inclined plane of Ronquières
The electric "ship elevator" at the Krasnoyarsk hydroelectric dam, ship capacity up to 1500 tons, maximum ship size 80 x 17 x 2 metres, elevation 104 metres.

[edit] Without caissons

Inclined plane on the Elbląg Canal, showing a vessel entering the cradle.

Cradle starting its climb on an inclined plane of the Elbląg Canal.

There are also inclined planes without a tank or caisson, instead carrying vessels up out of the water cradled in slings or resting on their keels. In a few cases the boats were permanently fitted with wheels.

Big Chute Marine Railway on the Trent-and-Severn-Waterway
Bude Canal in Cornwall
Elbląg Canal between Elbląg and Ostróda in Poland
Hay Inclined Plane
St. Columb Canal built by John Edyvean
Trench Inclined Plane on the Shrewsbury Canal

[edit] See also

[edit] Further reading

Canal lifts and inclines of the world by Hans-Joachim Uhlemann, translated & edited by Mike Clarke. Published by Internat, 2002. ISBN 0-9543181-1-0.
Canal Inclines and Lifts by David Tew, Published by Sutton Books, 1984. ISBN 0-86299-031-9.