Foxton Locks & The Inclined Plane by foot, Narrowboat & Drone - A Brief History
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- Опубліковано 29 сер 2024
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Foxton Locks & The Inclined Plane by foot, Narrowboat & Drone
Join me in the early hours at Foxton Locks in Leicestershire as walk and explore the site and its history in full.
Starting at the top lock, we walk and talk, as well as drone from above, about the history of Foxton Locks and the Inclined Plane. Moving on we take a look at the old boiler house, the heart of the Inclined Plane before talking about how it all worked.
Featuring extensive historic footage and drone footage too
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#foxton #locks #foxtonlocks #inclined #plane #leicestershire Additional Music by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0.
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Ant, I lived and worked in the East Midlands for over 30 years and always wanted to visit Foxton but never did. Now I don't have to after watching your informative video. How privileged we are today to have the technology available to many which enables productions like yours. Your research, informative commentary, music and editing are second to none, keeping the viewers attention and interest to the end. To think this magnificent piece of engineering was built using pick and shovel, muscle and sheer determination. Oh and don't forget, probably a couple of pounds of beef, a couple of bread loaves and a gallon of beer a day for each Navvie.
well said Ken, the combination of lovingly built locks with all the considered wood, iron and brickwork and a pleasant boozer by the looks of it and lots of history, and a very good nature friendly feel as well, quite incredible really, a very relaxing watch (I fell asleep and had to rewind the video when i woke up!)
Due to displacement, the caissons weighed the same whether they contained just water or water plus a fully-laden boat. Information online seems to indicate it was a balanced system, so one went down when the other went up, thereby balancing each other. This would mean that very little power would be needed to move them.
Thank you for this very informative video. Many years ago I went through the Foxton flight and had no idea there was once an inclined plane. Regarding the effort needed to move the caissons, it's true each would balance the other as happens today with the Falkirk Wheel. I had an interesting chat on a train one day with an engineer involved with Falkirk and he told me very little power is needed to move the thing because it's all balanced and very low on friction as. These days we have all sorts of friction-reducing devices that were not available in the 1900s, so a lot of power would have been needed to overcome the static friction and get the caissons on the move. Thereafter, of course, effort would be needed to overcome the friction of the wheels turning in their axleboxes and the friction of the wheels on the rails as the caissons moved.
@@chrislawson8625 The inclined plane was no doubt based on the principal of the funicular cliff railways of which many examples survive & all they did was to enlarge the concept so it could carry boats as this is really an enlarged version of the funicular cliff railways & would have been the worlds largest funicular railway. Does the Foxton inclined plane pre date the other equally famous boat lift namely The Anderton Canal Lift which unlike the Foxton inclined plane still survives & has been fully restored to full working order & is still used for its original purpose. & is the only working historic canal lift in the UK. As for the Falkirk Wheel this does not count as historic as this is a modern creation of recent origin.
I've visited the inclined plane, but never thought of that. I suppose it also didn't matter if the boats of a pair had different weights either.
A brilliant commentary, many thanks. One small terminological inexactitude, the moving caissons would weigh exactly the same, loaded with a boat or not, as a boat floats by displacing its own weight in water. So without a boat there would be more water and with a boat displacing it's own weight in water, there would be exactly that much less water. In other words the caissons always balance each other and the effort need to move them would only be to overcome inertia and frictional losses! Mike Henton
Great vid remember a school trip in the 70’s to the locks when the incline plane was all overgrown and derelict. Just one observation to make about the steam engine used to power the lift which was actually quite small and didn’t need much power. The two lifts were counterbalanced and weighed exactly the same regardless of wether a boat was in them therefore the engine only needed to overcome the friction of the wheels on rails. Clever engineering indeed.
I spent many happy hours at Foxton as a achild, and my parents carefully explained the history of the locks and how they worked. I was always fascinated! Thanks for this great visit.
Thankyou for watching Caroline :)
We went through these locks in the early 2000's. Incline was very overgrown then. Did this in an October, so weather was not great. Spent some time in the pub😂. Thanks for jogging our memory
I am new to this channel. I am so glad I found it. The production etc puts most mainstream programs to shame. Absolutely brilliant.
Thank you so very much for your kind comment 🙂
Yet another excellent video - thank you.
Whilst we have been up & down these locks many times, and moored overnight before transit either at the top or the bottom, the videography and in particular the aerial views provide an amazing overview of the area. Being a hybrid, we traverse the locks on electric propulsion - it being more efficient - and, with the usually large number of visitors to the locks, this slows us down as we are quizzed about the boat.
Excellent video and extremely well put together. You and Mrs Ant should be very rightly proud. 🙂👌👍
A very detailed, thourough and extensive description of the flight and its purpose - so top marks all round.
Excellent for those who want the basics - BUT, but if you - the viewer - neds clarification (and it's all there), it is well worth scanning through, look at the detailed plans - and watch the video again - perhaps pausing and viewing the plans a gain. Everything suddenly becomes clear.
Very many thanks for your works and presentation **** !
Inclined Planes were put forward to get over the South Devon Banks But Brunel got involved in the Atmospheric system where a piston sucked along a large tube was used. Fast and silent the first few. BUT huge pumping engine houses required at intervals. Rats and friction destroyed the leather flap very quickly. Inclines were in use on the original North Yorkshire Moors Railway but advances in Locomotive design and size meant that they soon rebuilt it to the present course. PRESERVED. Locomotives still slip no 6989 out of East Grinstead yesterday afternoon on wet rails COUGH COUGH.
Of course, Modern materials would have a counterbalance system whereby a scattering of canoes get into one tub, and a very heavy barge gets into the other and a small electric motor moves them top to bottom with ease. YES, water displacement means that they both weigh the same. Oh the 1970 Physics Lessons.
David and Lily.
I'm glad I wasn't the only one to notice the flaw in Ant's comments about lifting heavy barges!
As each caisson (lift-tub) was full of water, they balanced each other out as counter-weights, & thanks to Archimedes they therefore weighed the same no matter whether the boats were empty or full, or even no boat at all in either of the caissons!
What an incredible site that inclined plane would have been. It's a shame they couldn't recreate it, but then money is not exactly flush right now. Thanks for this.
I am always amazed on the ingenuity of design and building of large projects like these before large diesel-powered building equipment that we take for granted today. Looks like you had a great day.....
Wow wow wow I love your videos your knoll-age when you do these is amazing you must put so much effort into making these, your choice of music leaves me in tears everytime well done and keep it up.
Went to Foxton Locks a couple of years ago, brilliant piece of engineering as was the inclined plane. Top video Ant, as usual
Wonderful. I have been there many times but never heard of the incline so a big thank you
Another great video Ant,very informative. The inclined plane must have been a sight to see when it opened.
Thanks for the tour today. An interesting area to visit and get accustomed to. Good to see you again. Cheers Ant! 😊
Hi Ant...Excellent video as always. The weight of the tubs on the inclined plane would have always been the same, no matter how loaded the boat was. The weight was always a tub full of water, and this wouldn't change when the boat was put in as a boat always displaces its own weight of water..... You knew this really, didn't you? :)
Thanks!
Noticed that the winch-room/control-room above the boiler-room is clearly visible in some of the old photos. Would be great to have it all restored & working as planned!
Looked up Foxton Locks & its Inclined Plane on Wikipedia, & it appears that it was so much the lack of use that saw its demise, but the cost of operating it. Basically, the expense would've been passed onto the boat operators in the form of tolls, so obviously there were company-boats which couldn't afford to wait, as well as privateers running on tight budgets who would prefer to sit out the long wait for the staircase-locks!
One point about the ice-breaker boat. The ice-breaking would've been done manually by men wielding steel-tipped staves (boat-hooks?), & possibly axes/picks! Cold, hard work indeed!
Great video as always Ant! I've always been fascinated by the canals and Locks :)
Thanks very much Rob 🙂
It didnt matter how much weight the barges carried, the tubs on the incline never changed weight, never got heavier or lighter. When they went up or down, loaded with a barge or just water, they both weighed the same. Water diplacement of a canal boat comes into force. One went up while he other went down. The boiler didnt do all that much work really as the tubs were equally balanced and one going down would pull the other one up. They didnt go up together or down together. They worked on the seesaw principle. My wife and I and our son went there and walked down the incline. The observation point was new, but we could walk all around the place. It has changed a bit from when we at school. The boiler house was still a ruin back then in the 1970's. No windows in it and it wasnt even fenced off and anyone could climb through hte window holes and enter the boiler house. The last time we went was in 2008 or 2009.
After my sister did some genealogy family research it turns out that our paternal great, great grandfather was a lock keeper at Foxton. Despite having done a number of canal boating holidays, and still having family in the Leicester/Loughborough area, I have never visited Foxton. One day maybe.
I live in Leicester and I've walked my dogs around the locks and surrounding area a few times,gets a bit busy in the summer though
Very enjoyable presentation - I like your enthusiasm and very impressed with the feat of civil engineering we see here. Subscribed 👍
Hi, I've been today, your little show helped me understand the locks better,
Awww brilliant 😊
Another fantastic interesting video. The plane would certainly have been a sight to see and hear.
Excellent Ant. Many thanks, Bob
Thanks for the great video, and the Scott Buckley music is epic!
Sad to see that today everything has to be fenced off because of asbos. When I was there in 2019 there were no fences and I could walk up and down the slope and admire the old craftmanship.
Hi Ant thanks for sharing this wonderful piece of engineering take care x
If you go back to Derwent,.head over to marple locks and the top tank at Whaley Bridge, which nearly drowned the village a few years back,, cheers for the video, 👍
Such dramatic music - probably better suited to the Great Pyramid of Giza! I've visited the locks and inclined plane a couple of times, it's an interesting story from a time when England was just unspoiled countryside.
That was brilliant thanks so much 🙏
Thank you very much Dave
When we lived in Rugby we visited Foxton Locks a few times. There is, (or was !), a very nice pub at the bottom of the flight. The incline is described in Rolt's book "Narrowboat". Apparently being powered by steam was uneconomic because a head of steam had to be maintained all the time just in case a boat happened along. If the incline had survived, it would no doubt have been converted to electric power and the running costs would have been lowered considerably. Of course railway competition meant canal transport tended to disappear, and eventually the canal network became uneconomic for freight transport, so the traffic disappeared and the income from the tolls on the barges with it.
Incidentally, re the white and red paddle controls, there was a notice giving advice to those traversing the flight on their operation. It read - "Red before white, you'll be alright. White before red, you'll wish you were dead". Not doubt the consequences of incorrect operation on this, a staircase-type flight, were quite awful !!
Great to see its still been used. However I had to dip my toe into the reason canals were still been build well after the advent of the railway despite the speed and load a train could carry. It was faster and cheaper to build. A stairway of locks could be constructed at a fraction of the cost and in a fraction of the time as a tunnel. The industrial revolution needed material no matter what so most canals built after around 1860 were only meant as a temporary measure until a rail route was built. Now that's something I didn't know, now I do thanks to you,another great video thanks.
Great video Ant and a 👍🏻 to Amy for doing all the gate work
Don’t you just love what Victorian Britain was able to build
Like your drone work! 🇨🇦
Thank you les 🙂
Have done that flight. The cafe at the top does fantastic breakfast baps, and the pub at the bottom good food.
Hi Ant another great video.walked along there many times and still do,great place cheers
I loved the video and what a feat of engineering that was.
Great video Ant. Visited here a few years ago breaking up the frequent journey Derbyshire to Herts. Lovely and quiet on a Sunday night and ate in the second pub.
What history! I'm sure we'd all love to have seen that thing in action, what a sight that would have been. Lovely place even without the inclined plane history.
Nice video again Ant
And to think I thought Bingley and the 5 locks was spectacular
This is far superior ngl
👍👍
The steam engine was only 25hp, because the caissons counterbalanced each other whether they were carrying a Narrowboat or not, as their total weight was always the same. Therefore the engine only needed to initiate movement, (not actually lift the caissons), and keep them moving until a full cycle was completed regardless of which one was moving up or down the incline.
May I just say, it doesn't matter how loaded or empty the boats were, the weight would always be effectively the same.
That is, the heavier the boat is, the more water it displaces out of the "tubs" thus causing the tubs to carry more or less the same weight.
The only variation would be the water levels at the top and bottom.
But even that could be "fixed" by placing drain holes on the tubs inner gates, so that when the gates are closed and the tub first moves away from its locked / sealed position, the water drains out to a fixed level which is always below the level of the two canals.
With an appropriate counterweight (a second tub is PERFECT for this), you effectively aren't lifting and lowering the tubs, but just moving them sideways.
Imagine pushing a truck along a flat road, that's all the power you'd actually need.
In the other inclines photos, it looks as if they use metal counterweights, if that was done here so that each tub was operated individually, each tub would need its own steam engine and all of those multiple engines would need a good supply of steam, hence the large boilers.
Unlike an internal combustion engine, a steam engine system isn't restricted to one boiler per engine, or one engine per boiler.
In fact, multiple boilers powering multiple engines makes a lot of sense.
If there's not much traffic for the incline, fire up a single boiler with a smaller fire and just use one engine. If traffic increases, stoke the fire hotter and if you reach the limits of one boiler, fire up the second boiler.
In practise, it takes a while to start a boiler from cold (best practice for full size restored steam engine locomotives is to fire them up over several days to avoid temperature shocking the system), so I think they'd likely fire them both up, but only work one hard unless they needed the additional steam.
That video was great. I went through Foxton Locks on a narrow boat in the early 1970's ( good fun when you're young and fit ), but I never knew the inclined plane was there. I've heard of it since, but I suppose back then, it was all overgrown and inaccessible anyway. The whole area has been tidied up for tourists, much the same as abandoned railways have.
Fascinating. I'd never heard of these inclined planes until I came across this video. Thanks very much for uploading it.
Hello Ant. Ever since I discovered your channel, you never cease to make them so interesting and entertaining. Really enjoy them and love the music you use. Thank you from Australia
Great history and well presented,music evocative😀
Thank you very much Roger
Hi Ant On the inc. plane both tubs when full weighed the same, even with a boat in one (it displaces its weight of water). The boiler just had to provide enough power to overcome the friction of the tubs moving over the plane.
What a superb video. Really enjoyed the content and video footage. Many thanks
Thanks so very much Matt 🙂
My mrs's grandad has told me about this place, as he goes on his bike during summer. Been meaning to go ourselves, to the pub there. Think the hills a bit steep for me to wheel up but, it looks like itd be a lot of fun to come down tho... Another very knowledgeable video dude, you should honestly think about getting into history teaching if you are'nt already in that field.
A great look around the area. I expect the inclined plane was quite advanced engineering for the time.
Another great video Ant thanks for sharing 🙂
I grew up around the canals as my mum worked at North Kilworth Marina in the 80’s. We would often take a boat out for a weekend or week and go to or through Foxton Locks. It is a stunning place and I have many happy memories. Thankyou for a superb video, you’ve done the place real justice! ❤️❤️
Outstanding, expertly put together narrated and edited , riveting from start to finish.
Hi Ant, really amazing video with the drone shots and information. Thanks for putting in all that hard work for us, much appreciated.
Another crackin video Youth 👍👍👍
Thank you very much 🙂🙂
Another great & fantastic video of Foxton Locks & The Inclined Plane by foot, Narrowboat & Drone - A Brief History!.❤❤🧡🧡💛💛💚💚💙💙💜💜🤎🤎🖤🖤💘💘
There was a model of the incline in the Old Snibston science museum.
Another great video Ant as they always are. You should go and have a look at bingley five rise locks just north of Bradford. They have a gradient of 1 in 5
Superb video production again, Ant. Well done! 👍🏻👍🏻
Yes! Yes! Yes! Loving every minute! 🤓👍
Fantastic video ,
The videos is absolutely awesome. Not only do you give history, you also have ariel views and old photos to add to the knowledge. I must give you praise and admire you. Absolutely loved it.
What a sight it would be to see the incline-plane working. Thanks for the pictures of how it looked, I was wondering what it would have looked like. And thanks again for the video.
Very nice video... 👍
Facinating stuff Ant, loved it, and you answered a question I was going to ask, what are those white mushroom shaped objects on the lock flight, answer, mooring pins >
Brilliant. So interesting and well narrated. Love your choice of music. It was epic. Thank you.
Awesome! I will have to go there.
Thank you for watching 🙂
A national treasure like the guy off time team😀. Ashamed to say ive visited foxton locks but new nothing of thin inclined plane story. Thanks for the info..
Loved that thanks Ant. Canals are almost as interesting as steam trains, well that was a stretch. Really really enjoyed it. Thanks so much for taking me along. Please stay safe and take care
Thanks for another excellent video. I enjoyed Lady Bower ones also, enough to go and take a look myself. You certainly give me some great ideas for days out🙂🚴♂
What a superb video, full of information that you've documented so well, and the production is fantastic! Thanks for creating these stunning videos.
Very informative and a great video 👍
Thank you very much Steve 🙂
Brilliant vid, thanks
Thanks very much 🙂🙂
Fascinating tour of Foxton locks area. I walked from Market Harborough many years ago, but had little time to wander about. Your video shows what I missed, though I suspect, much restoration work has taken place after my brief visit in the 1980's.
Fantastic Ant' 👏🏻brilliant look around. I still love drone video. Yet another piece of our history I know nothing about until now 🙂👍🏻
Superb
Thank you 🙂
Excellent Video Ant. What an incredible place I just wished the inclined plane was still thair in working order. What a sight that would be. Good to see old photos of how it used to be. Keep up the great work👍❤.
That was truly fascinating Ant, I never knew that existed! And some expert camera work there too!
Amazing, never realised there was an inclined plane here! Great drone footage of the site!
Nicely recorded and very interesting video. I've visited Foxton locks several times over many years and it has a nice little museum there. Great images from the early days of it working as an inclined plain. Thanks Ant, for sharing this with us.
An excellent account of this amazing place, Ant. Very well documented with the maps, drone and historic photographs. A great job done, and extremely interesting indeed. Many thanks.
Visited Foxton Locks many times and explored the inclined plane before it was sectioned off. I presume the cost of using the inclined plane was higher due to the reduced transit time so boats had the opportunity to trade time for cost. I guess traffic also went in both directions on the plane but, I wonder if they also used the plane to refill the upper section when water levels were low basically making it just a water lift with barges only coming down. Frustratingly, I lost the negative of one of my most liked and interesting photo's taken in the 90's. It was looking into the lower pond one misty morning with boats having smoke coming from their chimney's. Never been able to repeat that photo sadly.
Thank you for a really enjoyable and informative video, it shows how ingenious the Victorians were to solving a problem. We seem to have lost this these days as anything takes so long with endless studies before anything can start. I look forward to your next to video.
Brilliant piece Ant really informative and interesting
Thanks very much John 🙂
Excellent video! 👏
I vaguely remember many years ago there was a plan to build a replica on the site.
But nothing came of it.
Smashing video. Sad to hear that access has been restricted due to anti social behaviour. It was all open to walk over when we visited there a few years ago on a boating holiday.
The winding gear at the top of the incline wouldn't have needed to be THAT powerful, as both caissons would have weighed the same, and balanced each other. Even if a really well-loaded boat went into one and an unladen one in the other, the water displaced by the heavy boat would mean that caisson had more boat and freight, but that would displace more water before the sluice gate on the caisson slid down to isolate it for the journey to the other end. The unladen boat would displace less water, and the caisson would weigh the same as the other as it would contain more water - and less weight of freight. So the steam engine just had to pull the equal weight caissons past each other, and thus wouldn't have had to be huge.
This place holds a lot of memories for me - it is hugely significant for one day in summer 1981. You'll just have to guess!!!
Great aerial shots and background. Visited the incline in mid-1970s when it was moderately overgrown and even more mysterious. Guess anti-social behaviour blocking it off is an unintended consequence of clearing the site. Still unclear as to why it ceased working and when it was dismantled.
I would have thought that they'd have counterbalanced one tub with another. One going up to one going down. With displacement, the weight of each would be similar, thus reducing the raw power needed to move single tubs.
The tubs were balanced with the amount of water. So if one was with boat and the other not they still would have weighed the same, as the boat displaces its weight in water.
Very Good Vid Ant - shame that the Incline Plane is no longer in use!!! 🤔🚂🚂🚂
thank you for not waking the dog then the wife as i would of suffered all day :) i am moored in the swamp which you were kind enough not to have popped down. just a footnote but i believe the ice boats were operated by boatmen and they were not paid and expected to work a full shift . also i believe the boat companies decided that even though the lift was faster as it saved the boatmen from doing locks they expected the batman to pay for the lift hence why it was not popular i could check with the museum manger if you wish. safe cruising bud
The tubs full of water would have weighed the same with or without barges. Did the 2 workings counter balance each other or were there 2 independent operations?
Ant, Could you tell me please how would one know which paddle to use i.e. white or red .. (sorry ignorant New Zealander here)
interesting solution , and for me very clear how it use to work ... but what I mis is a proper explanation of the fysics , and your words telling the full loaden ships must have been incredibel heavy .... now thats where it gets interesting . floating ships do not make the machinery work any harder in fact water is the biggest suplyer of force here and the steam power was primarily used to overcome the inertia. In fact you could use only waterpower to run this "shiplift" system .
If only those clever engineers had been able to see into the near future and advent of rail and road traffic! Glad it was built though : an homage to human ingenuity.
I must be blonde (I'm not!) But just realised, you must live on a canal boat? How lovely. Must take ages to get to where you want visit though?