Canal inclined plane

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An inclined plane is a type of boat lift cable railway used on some canals for raising boats between different water levels. Boats may be conveyed afloat, in caissons, or may be carried in cradles or slings.

History

Inclined planes have evolved over the centuries. Some of the first were used by the Egyptians to bypass waterfalls on the Nile.<ref name=flic3 /> These consisted of wooden slides covered with silt which reduced friction.<ref name=flic3>Template:Cite book</ref>

Timeline

600BC – The Diolkos, an early Greek inclined plane, was in use.<ref name=Tew>Template:Cite book</ref>
385AD – Inclined planes were in use on the Grand Canal in China.<ref name=Tew/>
1167 – Nieuwedamme overtoom (a simple type of incline) was built at Ypres.<ref name=Uhlemann/>
1568 – Wagon of Zafosina in use near Venice.<ref name=Uhlemann/>
1777 – 3 inclined planes or 'dry wherries' began operation on Dukart's Canal, near Coalisland, in the south-east of County Tyrone in Ulster.<ref name=hadfield>Hadfield's British Canals eighth edition Joseph Boughey Page 49 Template:ISBN</ref>
1788 – An inclined plane was built by William Reynolds and used, for the first time in England, to raise canal boats on England's Ketley Canal.<ref name=ShipliftsPianc1989>

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1792 – William Reynolds of Ketley Ironworks constructed several inclined planes on the Shropshire Canal.<ref name=ShipliftsPianc1989/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
1792–1921 – In 1792 the Shropshire Tub Canals were built incorporating a number of inclined planes. One of these, the Trench plane closed in 1921 and brought to an end boat-carrying inclined planes in Britain<ref name=hadfield/>
1797–1822 – At Worsley Navigable Levels, a coal mine operation in Greater Manchester, England, an underground incline started in 1795 was completed in 1797.<ref name=Uhlemann>Template:Cite book</ref>
1800 – Francis Henry Egerton (1756-1829), who became The 8th Earl of Bridgewater in 1823, wrote 'The Description of the Inclined Plane at Walkden Moor. (Lancashire)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1806–1828 Two inclined planes built on the Stollen Canal at Gliwice, Upper Silesia.<ref name=Uhlemann/>

1831–1924 – Between 1825 and 1831, 23 inclines were built as part of the Morris Canal, New Jersey, USA.<ref name=ShipliftsPianc1989/> This waterway, Template:Convert long, connected the Hudson and Delaware Rivers, rising more than Template:Convert. In 1832, Frances Trollope, publishes in "Domestic Manners of the Americans" her account of a visit the previous year to see one of the inclined planes of the Morris Canal. In 1924 the canal was abandoned and later dismantled. The Morris Canal's design was reused for the planes on the Elbląg Canal.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="catskill">Template:Cite web</ref> (see below)
1837–1865 – The extension to the Kidwelly and Llanelly Canal, Wales opened in 1837, including two counterbalanced inclined planes and one single-track one.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
1849–1942 – Inclined plane built on the Monkland Canal near Blackhill, Scotland to supplement existing locks.<ref name=ShipliftsPianc1989/>
1860–present – The first four inclined planes of the Elbląg Canal in Germany (East Prussia), nowadays Poland, were opened in 1860.<ref name=ShipliftsPianc1989/> A fifth incline was added later to replace five wooden locks. This canal reused the design from the Morris Canal for its inclined planes.<ref name="catskill"/>

1900–1926 – Foxton Inclined Plane was built in England to help overcome shortcomings of the Foxton locks on the Grand Union Canal. Mothballed in 1911 and seeing only occasional use and dismantled in 1926.<ref name=ShipliftsPianc1989/>
1969–present – In 1969 the Saint-Louis-Arzviller inclined plane replaced a ladder of seventeen locks over a distance of four kilometers on the Marne–Rhine Canal in France.<ref name=ShipliftsPianc1989/>

Other examples

With caissons

The electric inclined plane at the Krasnoyarsk Dam in Divnogorsk, Russia<ref>Template:Cite web (Boats of the Yenisei Shipping Company traveling via the ship lift of the Krasnoyarsk Hydroelectric Station: Photo gallery) Template:In lang, E-river.ru</ref><ref>From River to River - photo gallery, Englishrussia.com, 2007</ref> The ship capacity is up to 1500 tonsTemplate:Which, maximum ship size is Template:Convert and elevation is Template:Convert. This is an electric rack railway. The track gauge of the railway is Template:RailGauge, making it the widest gauge railway of any type in the world.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>