We travelled down this. You can see the counterweight travelling up under the caisson. There are 2 caissons. The tower is a viewing platform for the public and has no part in the operation.
This is the world's largest inclined plane. It is on the Brussels-Charleroi canal near the village of Ronquières. Each caisson can be moved independently and can carry vessels up to 1350 tonnes.
Had a tour of this when I was very little (almost 50 years ago). In fact, I'm pretty sure I still have the Viewmaster slides somewhere that my parents bought for my brother and me. I remember it being very impressive in person.
4.42 I thought Australia had huge creepy crawlies but that insect was massive! Oh, hang on, sorry it was on the window! Looks like Australia still has the largest insects!
call me Captain Ignorant as i had no idea that even existed. creative solution, not sure how it compares to locks, it would be interesting to get a closer look at the mechanism and even more so the seals on the caissons, they both seem to do an excellent job.
I suppose there is an elevation differential threshold at which this becomes better than locks. The one in Saint-Louis-Arzviller (France) replaced a set of 17 locks, it took forever to go through it, even if it was a single giant lock (dont even know if its feasible) you would need to discharge a massive amount of water each time and it wouldnt be as fast
According to the official data, 18 locks would be needed to achieve the same elevation differential. The sailors would be busy for almost a complete day just passing so many locks.
There is a counterweight, you only power a few pumps and pump the right quantity of water in the boat's "bathtub". Once some balance is reached with the counterweight, the quantity of energy required to maintain the movement is limited.
Each of the two caissons is powered by 6 engines of 125 kW each. I don't know how much of that power they actually use, there's probably a good amount of redundancy and over-engineering.
i wonder how the "bath tubs" can be made so watertight with only steel doors... i did not see any rubber or something like that, or is the weight of the water inside enough to push the door into the framing to seal it shut?
Close fitting tolerances - thats what minimises leaks. For something of that size, rubber (or synthetic equivalents) are almost useless as the pressure under a few metres of water just squeezes the rubber out of the way - rubber seals tend to be useful on smaller things, as the size of the seal compared to any gap is big enough that deformation under pressure is small enough. Up the scale, up the deformation, up the leaks. Better seals can be made, but they are very expensive, and for special applications only.
Thank you UA-cam algorithm. I'm curious though. How much water is wasted this way compared to a traditional lock that drains and pumps start in to raise the ships? I'm sure it's costly for energy but for water usage how bad can it be?
In principle, no water is lost at all: any water that goes down with the caisson comes back up again. This is one of the two main advantages of the inclined plane (and other types of boat lift) compared to a traditional lock.
Denne nedåver bakken er det muli og Borre hull under bakken og så lede vannet fra elva jenom www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/hydroelectric-energy/ Under bakken og generere strømm med er fallhøyden stor nokk til og drive vorr mange hus stander med strømm om du lar elva gå i rør til generator huset for strømm produksjon?
This is a canal, not a river, so there is no natural flow. There is a pipe adjacent to the inclined plane through which the water can either flow down (and generate electricity) or be pumped up, if the level of the upper canal becomes too low.
@@jerryvandyke9216 He must have more feet at home. Meaning he has other feet that he can use. Because it looks like he is trying his best to lose a foot in a very stupid accident with a large and heavy moving object.
@@candacebanack8935 cool. It's like living on an island. Kids come home on weekends on a ferry! Never knew this stuff existed till now. Cool engineering!!!!
People live on those freighters plying the canals year round while their children are in a residential school and they use their cars to pick them up on the weekends and bring them home.
well simply there is no advantage to emptying it by keeping it full the Cassion reamins the same weight no matter if there is a big, small or no boat in it - the boats displace the same weight of water as they themselves weigh. this means that the energy input can be minimised by keeping the same counterweight. you are also saveing the time it takes to empty and refill which could add 5 minuets or so to the process per trip, so you get more trips done in a day and therfore more revenue
@@fishevans6417 That is extremely clever. It did not occur to me about the precision of the water displaced. On the other hand, maybe it would be good for the crew to be able to dance 5 minuets in what would otherwise be a pretty boring job?
The drop is 68 meters or 223 feet. It is 1432 meters long. It can carry boats up to 1350 metric tons. Achieving the same drop using conventional locks would require 18 of them, enough to keep the sailors busy for a full day while this is typically cleared in 30-40 minutes. (travel time is 22 minutes).
It would be much more efficient it they acted as counter weights for each other, guessing one was broken at time or recording and that's how it's supposed to work?!
There used to be 16 locks (later 14) to cover the height difference of about 68 meters. The journey through these locks could take up to 2 days. The inclined plane was part of the modernisation of the canal.
Trinda Tredna the boat is fully loaded ,it does not look like it but sand is very heavy,that load likely takes the place of 50 heavy dump trucks (or more) of the highway😎🇨🇦
It would be at the quay on the opposite side from the dredger. There is a large car park there for the trip boat passengers. A commercial barge would simply carry on non stop to its destination.
@@PeterWilcox Peter, I m probably not articulating myself well enough, so bear with me, i'll try again. The Boat being lowered is in a bath or vessel of water. For that boat to carry on it's way it has to transfer buoyancy from the bath or vessel of water it now floats to the subsequent canal. How? Does the bath or vessel it was lowered in become totally submerged at the bottom?
@@NGC1433 It seems you are the one not understanding the physics here. It is NOT the reverse. Up top the far end of the bath carrying the boat is in fresh air - nowhere near water. At the bottom the bath HAS to get the water level in the bath the same as the canal water level which means - and it's my opinion, that the bath HAS to submerge BEFORE opening the far gate. THAT'S WHAT'S MISSING on this video and all i was enquiring about because it would have been nice to see the vessel discharged. I am sorry your assumption was totally wrong, think it through before posting.
@@robertstancer4469 I think you're making it more complicated than it needs to be. See this diagram: www.ronquieres.be/images/schema%20principe%20plan%20incline.jpg
from wikipedia: The purpose of the construction was to reduce the delays imposed by the 14 locks (already reduced from 16 in the 19th century), which had hitherto been needed for the canal to follow the local topography.
Isn’t that obvious? Canals need to be even that they can used for shipping. So once in a while you need a sluice to overcome height differences, for high differences in elevations you need something like this, there are different solutions all over the world in Britain there is even a carousel
Ok i don't get the point of this......its a fucking ship.....it can travel up a slight incline like that in water no? It's not like they have to worry about waves or anything like that in a river/stream like this lol. Or is it just steeper than the video makes it appear?
The difference in height between the top and the bottom is 222.2 ft. A ship could slide down a wave that high but would not be in a very good shape at the bottom. Going up a wave that high would be impossible, don't you think?
@@TheXanUser The last time I checked ignorance wasn't so funny. ;)) The idea that somebody thinks that the expression "the West" is the same as the western Hemisphere is hilarious !! Thank you for the laugh
"You ever ride a car on a boat in a pond on an elevator that went mostly sideways?"
Did that pick up line work?
@@AndreasDelleske you had me at ...CAR
Ever ride a “bike” on a car on a boat in a pond on an elevator going sideways
i did
@@mrb4461 were you carrying a cat that had a flee…?
This is the world's largest inclined plane. It is on the Brussels-Charleroi canal near the village of Ronquières. Each caisson can be moved independently and can carry vessels up to 1350 tonnes.
Had a tour of this when I was very little (almost 50 years ago). In fact, I'm pretty sure I still have the Viewmaster slides somewhere that my parents bought for my brother and me. I remember it being very impressive in person.
Me too but in about 1980! Was at school in the relative area. It was a yearly trip for us. My father was stationed at S.H.A.P.E Fond memories:-)
Captain: "I am driving a boat"
Operator: "I am driving a river"
LOL. It's like the LA speed check but with canals
You don’t drive a boat, you con a boat. RIP papa jim
What a masterpiece and beautiful engineering too. Thanks for posting this as well. Have a nice day.
Very interesting video indeed. This is something I have added to my list of places I want to visit. Thanks for making and posting.
Few years back, went on river cruises of the Rhine and Danube. Going through the locks was just incredible. But this....Wow!! 🤯
Thanks for putting this online.
I really enjoyed seeing the counterweight moving
amazing love it
Mind blown!
MAGNIFIQUE ouvrage deja pris ancien batelier
That's amazing
Impressive ingenuity
Was there last week, man it is in a sorry state and the visitor center is closed. What a shame
Wow, having done a European River Cruise in Nov. 2019, I’d be keen to know is any River~Crusing Vessels use this...
Very good system.
4.42 I thought Australia had huge creepy crawlies but that insect was massive! Oh, hang on, sorry it was on the window! Looks like Australia still has the largest insects!
Come to Guyane ( our South American bit), you’ll see we have some nasty critters of our own ;)
Don't worry, the nastiest specimens of each creature on Earth can still be found in Australia.
It is a flying dog.
call me Captain Ignorant as i had no idea that even existed. creative solution, not sure how it compares to locks, it would be interesting to get a closer look at the mechanism and even more so the seals on the caissons, they both seem to do an excellent job.
I suppose there is an elevation differential threshold at which this becomes better than locks.
The one in Saint-Louis-Arzviller (France) replaced a set of 17 locks, it took forever to go through it, even if it was a single giant lock (dont even know if its feasible) you would need to discharge a massive amount of water each time and it wouldnt be as fast
Try this one ua-cam.com/video/N34QXyr-FY4/v-deo.html
According to the official data, 18 locks would be needed to achieve the same elevation differential. The sailors would be busy for almost a complete day just passing so many locks.
I love Peniche. I was on one when we went up the inclined plne at Savernne.
That was the Saint-Louis-Arzviller inclined plane which have been up and down. I will find my video of it one day.
@@PeterWilcox A beautiful piece of massive engineering.
a car riding a boat thats riding a boat thats riding a train
more likely that thier pov
I can’t even imagine how much electricity this thing uses.
Its counterweighted, so theoretically so electricity is only needed for internal resistances of the mechanical apparratus.
There is a counterweight, you only power a few pumps and pump the right quantity of water in the boat's "bathtub". Once some balance is reached with the counterweight, the quantity of energy required to maintain the movement is limited.
Each of the two caissons is powered by 6 engines of 125 kW each. I don't know how much of that power they actually use, there's probably a good amount of redundancy and over-engineering.
i wonder how the "bath tubs" can be made so watertight with only steel doors... i did not see any rubber or something like that, or is the weight of the water inside enough to push the door into the framing to seal it shut?
I believe they are not completely watertight. But as long as they won't lose much on the way, they will replenish it once docked.
Close fitting tolerances - thats what minimises leaks. For something of that size, rubber (or synthetic equivalents) are almost useless as the pressure under a few metres of water just squeezes the rubber out of the way - rubber seals tend to be useful on smaller things, as the size of the seal compared to any gap is big enough that deformation under pressure is small enough. Up the scale, up the deformation, up the leaks. Better seals can be made, but they are very expensive, and for special applications only.
@@andyowens5494 you're thinking too new age. The locks around here use wood beams as seals. Reasonably durable and they swell when under water.
@@md4luckycharms Yeah, I know - been through plenty, but they leak like sieves :)
❤❤❤❤❤
That's the biggest bath on a train I've seen.
that is unbelieveble menmade machine
Thank you UA-cam algorithm. I'm curious though. How much water is wasted this way compared to a traditional lock that drains and pumps start in to raise the ships? I'm sure it's costly for energy but for water usage how bad can it be?
This is slightly more efficient because a flight of locks would have water leaks at each set of gates whereas the caisson is watertight.
In principle, no water is lost at all: any water that goes down with the caisson comes back up again. This is one of the two main advantages of the inclined plane (and other types of boat lift) compared to a traditional lock.
Wow !
that has to be a weird feeling the first few times.
Waiting for a @TomScott video
Bonus dredge footage
See the incline that saved lives during floods in Johnstown Pennsylvania.
Denne nedåver bakken er det muli og Borre hull under bakken og så lede vannet fra elva jenom www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/hydroelectric-energy/
Under bakken og generere strømm med er fallhøyden stor nokk til og drive vorr mange hus stander med strømm om du lar elva gå i rør til generator huset for strømm produksjon?
I have Never seen anything like this! So there is a break in the river? What kind of incline is this?
Most likely a shortcut or the current is too fast in a section of river.
This is a canal, not a river, so there is no natural flow.
There is a pipe adjacent to the inclined plane through which the water can either flow down (and generate electricity) or be pumped up, if the level of the upper canal becomes too low.
👍😎
It's like if a lock and a funicular had a baby, lol.
3:10 You can tell that guy has a few more feet at home.
???
Superego Aude ,what do you mean
@@jerryvandyke9216 He must have more feet at home. Meaning he has other feet that he can use. Because it looks like he is trying his best to lose a foot in a very stupid accident with a large and heavy moving object.
This can is obviously still being used for freight.
Strange that so many of the vessels have automobiles loaded onto them.
They use the car to drive to their children's school and pick them up for the weekend. or go grocery shopping
@@candacebanack8935 cool. It's like living on an island. Kids come home on weekends on a ferry! Never knew this stuff existed till now. Cool engineering!!!!
People live on those freighters plying the canals year round while their children are in a residential school and they use their cars to pick them up on the weekends and bring them home.
@@candacebanack8935 that's a strange and interesting lifestyle
Lucius ,the captain and crew use the car to go home on the weekend or run errands,go to the grocery store ,see a doctor OR any such idea
What is the point of filling it with water? Surely the boats are flat bottomed and could support their own weight.
well simply there is no advantage to emptying it by keeping it full the Cassion reamins the same weight no matter if there is a big, small or no boat in it - the boats displace the same weight of water as they themselves weigh. this means that the energy input can be minimised by keeping the same counterweight. you are also saveing the time it takes to empty and refill which could add 5 minuets or so to the process per trip, so you get more trips done in a day and therfore more revenue
@@fishevans6417 That is extremely clever. It did not occur to me about the precision of the water displaced. On the other hand, maybe it would be good for the crew to be able to dance 5 minuets in what would otherwise be a pretty boring job?
What is the total length and drop? Wow
The drop is 68 meters or 223 feet. It is 1432 meters long. It can carry boats up to 1350 metric tons.
Achieving the same drop using conventional locks would require 18 of them, enough to keep the sailors busy for a full day while this is typically cleared in 30-40 minutes. (travel time is 22 minutes).
@@MrDiamondFlyer oh wow that amazing
Huh. Similar to what I thought for a 21st century train , just not as fast or as enclosed as I want.
It would be much more efficient it they acted as counter weights for each other, guessing one was broken at time or recording and that's how it's supposed to work?!
At 5:30 you can see the counterweight
From tower I am thinking of wingsuit
PAMAMA CANAL :'HOLD MY BEER.
Should we tell them about locks?
There used to be 16 locks (later 14) to cover the height difference of about 68 meters. The journey through these locks could take up to 2 days. The inclined plane was part of the modernisation of the canal.
@@flitsertheo Cool. Couldn't judge the elevation from the video.
В России, на "Красноярской ГЭС" больше
why it's not fully loaded ? economically is not wise or?
The weight of the carriage with boat is always the same due to water displacement, no matter how loaded.
Electricity is created on site (hydro power), also the lift is not used that frequent (anymore). 14 ships a day are so
Trinda Tredna the boat is fully loaded ,it does not look like it but sand is very heavy,that load likely takes the place of 50 heavy dump trucks (or more) of the highway😎🇨🇦
Хорошая технология, жаль только для спецтехники река-канал.
When comes down, does it produce electricity??????
No, when they come down, a counterweight comes up (see 5:30). It's pretty much in balance so not too expensive energy-wise.
Perfect for lazy fish, too.
I'm not getting on a boat with that name
A view from the UK. Am i the only one feeling short changed. Where was the disembarkation at the bottom, or did i blink and miss it?
It would be at the quay on the opposite side from the dredger. There is a large car park there for the trip boat passengers. A commercial barge would simply carry on non stop to its destination.
@@PeterWilcox Peter, I m probably not articulating myself well enough, so bear with me, i'll try again. The Boat being lowered is in a bath or vessel of water. For that boat to carry on it's way it has to transfer buoyancy from the bath or vessel of water it now floats to the subsequent canal. How? Does the bath or vessel it was lowered in become totally submerged at the bottom?
@@robertstancer4469 It would be exact reverse of the departure. What exactly confuses you?
@@NGC1433 It seems you are the one not understanding the physics here. It is NOT the reverse. Up top the far end of the bath carrying the boat is in fresh air - nowhere near water. At the bottom the bath HAS to get the water level in the bath the same as the canal water level which means - and it's my opinion, that the bath HAS to submerge BEFORE opening the far gate. THAT'S WHAT'S MISSING on this video and all i was enquiring about because it would have been nice to see the vessel discharged. I am sorry your assumption was totally wrong, think it through before posting.
@@robertstancer4469 I think you're making it more complicated than it needs to be. See this diagram: www.ronquieres.be/images/schema%20principe%20plan%20incline.jpg
Eh inacreditável. Como brasileiro não consigo nem sonhar com algo assim.
What?
Wow WTF
水ごと移動すんのかよ！？
A car on a boat in water on a train car on tracks.
I'd get a bicycle roofrack on the car, and would've rode the bicycle. How can anyone miss that opportunity???
I would expect something to go sideways.
See the Arzvillier inclined plane
A few words of how and why would be helpful!
from wikipedia: The purpose of the construction was to reduce the delays imposed by the 14 locks (already reduced from 16 in the 19th century), which had hitherto been needed for the canal to follow the local topography.
Isn’t that obvious? Canals need to be even that they can used for shipping. So once in a while you need a sluice to overcome height differences, for high differences in elevations you need something like this, there are different solutions all over the world in Britain there is even a carousel
Ok i don't get the point of this......its a fucking ship.....it can travel up a slight incline like that in water no? It's not like they have to worry about waves or anything like that in a river/stream like this lol. Or is it just steeper than the video makes it appear?
The difference in height between the top and the bottom is 222.2 ft. A ship could slide down a wave that high but would not be in a very good shape at the bottom. Going up a wave that high would be impossible, don't you think?
ummmm..... I don't think water flows up hill !
เคยฝันเห็นหลายครั้งก่อนเห็นในยูทูบ
Falkirk Wheel is better imo
In what way? It can only handle narrowboats - 30 tons maximum of freight - this can handle class 4 barges up to 1500 tonnes
@@PeterWilcox I don't know, I can't swim so I don't take the chance with boats, the sea is a cruel mistress
And the west be all like, DAMN! WTF Y'all actually invest in infrastructure?!?
The West??? Were do you think this is??
@@mumblic last I checked belgium was on the east side of the atlantic and even east of the prime meridian. so its not the "west"ern hemisphere.
@@TheXanUser The last time I checked ignorance wasn't so funny. ;)) The idea that somebody thinks that the expression "the West" is the same as the western Hemisphere is hilarious !! Thank you for the laugh
@@TheXanUser It's in western Europe and It's more than 60 years old now. ;-)
@@mumblic months ago i got some talk with an American, they thought clock is the same around the globe.