--- In [email protected], [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > Which is the most notorious stand-alone lock (not affected by other waterway > factors) on the system? > My vote is for Colwich. > On Wednesday afternoon this week I approached Colwich Lock from Great > Haywood to find a long queue of boats waiting for the lock. At one point I was > eighth in line of thirteen waiting boats. This came as no surprise as this lock > is notoriously slow to fill, has heavy, ill balanced bottom gates one of which > can (and usually does) swing open in the time it takes the 'lockwinder' to > walk from the bottom gate to the top gate and an inadequate length of lock > landing (considering the queues that often form) at the southern end. For those > of us who have queued for two to four hours at this lock, a few of the > bollards that are being sprinkled around the system would be usefully located along > the banks to remove the necessity to stand holding a centre line for hours on > end. Rumour had it that the inoperative ground paddle at the top of the lock > had been recently repaired (within the last 24 hours), but had failed again. > Quote from one frustrated ancient mariner standing waiting was: Why have > they (BW) put in a plastic paddle which is not reliable, when wooden ones has > been satisfactory for 200 years? Even when the lock is working 'to spec.' > queues form quite regularly, especially at weekends (one holiday weekend some > years ago I was about 15th or 16th in the queue trying to head north, and had a > 3.5 hour plus wait). > On the plus side, apart from the railway junction overhead, it is in a > pretty location. > > Arthur Naylor > Arthur & all others commenting on this lock may be interested to note that I raised it with BW at Fazeley directly after I saw your post. They came back to me today saying: "arranged for the lock to be inspected last weekend. It seems some loose bricks have dropped into the paddle chamber causing the problems that boater have pointed out for us, consequently arranged for someone to go to the lock this week to see if the problem could be eased in the short term and have also arranged for some permanent work to be programmed.
I apologise for the delays that have arisen at the lock and the inconvenience caused. Hopefully you can appreciate we can't get the permanent work done immediately, but we try to ease the situation and sort it out ASAP." It seems they do venture out from the Fazeley office at times. As Bruce has pointed out "It experiences a LOT of traffic at peak times" but, I would suggest that if users do not point out problems to BW directly they may never find out about them, they do not appear to read this site so posting here will not get problems fixed (unless I take them up on your behalf as in this instance where I have a contact point). Clive
