On 1 Jun 2009, at 13:36, Brian on Harnser wrote:
> On these lock flights apart from the top and bottom locks there are
> two
> paddles. A white one at the bottom of the lock which empties the lock
> into the side pond/pound and a red one which fills the lock from the
> side pond/pound.
> Basically before you empty lock 1 going down, you draw the red paddle
> to fill lock 2, the water from lock one is then let out into the side
> pond/pound to replace the water used to fill lock 2.
Nice one, Brian, I was just winding up to do an explanation myself
when your post arrived - much more concise than I would have managed.
To come back to your original point, AIUI, the weir crests are not
much above the cill level between the two locks concerned, and in
some cases, the side pond leaks well before the weir overflows, hence
the anxiety to make sure that the lower lock starts filling first.
Trevor, there is a rhyme to help you remember the sequence:
Red before white
You'll be all right
White before red
You'll wish you were dead!
Some years ago, there were a pair of lockies on the flight, Mick and
Crystal, who could make that last line literally true. Mick in
particular could do a good impression of Windsor Davies playing an
enraged CPO addressing a defaulter.
On the occasion seared into my memory, I had attempted to be helpful
by drawing a red paddle in anticipation of it's being needed, and he
wasn't pleased. We were in Streamline, our Ownerships boat at the
time, and his final, immortal observation was
"You Ownerships people think you are something special, but you're
just glorified hirers really."
Glorified hirers has remained our name for share boaters ever since.
All the best
Bruce
"The superior man knows what is right, the inferior man knows what
will sell" Analects of Confucius, circa 500 BCE
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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