As one who often ponders such things I agree that the average is about 2.5
lock-fulls per passage (of 1boat alone or 2 sharing) going up and down. Of
course if the boats go say 3 up then 3 down (as happens at the 3 rise narrow
locks at Grindley Brook) then the water used per passage is slightly less. With
a 2 lock riser 1 up 1 down or 10 up 10 down gives the water use figure. But the
basic theory is that... the more locks in a riser there are the better the
saving as you increase the value of n as in n boats up then n down.
Of course back-pumps would make the above problem redundant - and bring in
a new one -their costs to install, maintain and run.
David Cragg
Martin Clark <[EMAIL PROTECTED] valley.co.UK> wrote:
On Locks and Quays tonight, Mike Clarke of L&L fame, whom I thought
to
be a bit of an expert, remarked that the Bingley 5-rise Lock Staircase
was not a good solution to the problem, because every boat that passes
through uses 5 lockfuls of water.
Now, I am pretty sure that he is just plain wrong here.
A boat going down the 5-rise would take just one lockful of water down
with it. A boat going up after a boat had just come down would use 4
locks full of water. However, another boat following it up would use
only one lock of water.
A boat going down just after one has come up would use no water, as the
lockful of water it takes down with it was already drawn from the pound
above by the boat coming up.
The average would be somewhere between one and four locks of water
depending on the sequence of boat movements in each direction. Barry
likes to get single narrowboats passing pairs of narrowboats half way up
and this will save water, bringing the average down a little.
Anyone else have any thoughts on this?
BTW, anyone seeing tonight's Locks and Quays will have seen brief
footage of me legging Standedge Tunnel!
--
Martin Clark
Internet Boaters' Database http://www.boaterweb.co.uk
Pennine Waterways Website http://www.penninewaterways.co.uk
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