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The Falkirk Wheel

scottishcanals.co.uk

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Re: The Falkirk Wheel

#31

Post by arethuza »

adw wrote: post #20
bell-cot wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From Wikipedia: > The town is at the junction of the Forth and Clyde and Union Canals, a location which proved key to its growth as a centre of heavy industry during the Industrial Revolution. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Falkirk was at the centre of the iron and steel industry, underpinned by the Carron Company in nearby Carron. The company made very many different items, from flat irons to kitchen ra…

(The nearest container port is Leith, which is about twenty miles away.)

Grangemouth is the largest container port in Scotland (not very large by global standards) and much closer to Falkirk than Leith?

https://www.forthports.co.uk/our-ports/grangemouth/

Re: The Falkirk Wheel

#32

Post by jimnotgym »

splonk wrote: post #26

I am exactly the type of nerd that is super excited about this kind of engineering, to the point where I visited a couple years ago and rode a boat on the wheel when I happened to be in Scotland. I mentioned having gone to a local in Edinburgh and got a very confused "why would you ever go to Falkirk?" It's a pretty easy half-day trip out of Edinburgh or Glasgow, and I recommend it if you have the time. One fun thing…

>easy half-day trip out of Edinburgh

Another way to think about it is to stop somewhere outside of Edinburgh. Edinburgh is an easy half-day trip away. Walk 200 yards of the Royal Mile from the castle. It just repeats with the same kind of tourist shops for the rest of it. Now get back in your car and go and see some of Scotland!

Re: The Falkirk Wheel

#33

Post by pjc50 »

profsummergig wrote: post #6

If the area was a major commercial shipping hub once, what's the reason it isn't any more? Depopulation? (If it's depopulation, then was it emigration or was it a fall in birth rates?)

Deindustrialization, triggered by depletion. The thing about mines is they don't last forever, and if you build your industry near the mines that supply it it becomes uneconomic once the mine is depleted.

Also, the world got a lot bigger, to the extent that a tiny canal was no longer meaningful.

The population of Scotland as a whole has grown slowly and continuously - nothing comparable to the mass depopulation of Ireland, even when you consider the Highland Clearances. It has however mostly concentrated in the economic centers of Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Re: The Falkirk Wheel

#34

Post by pjc50 »

splonk wrote: post #26

I am exactly the type of nerd that is super excited about this kind of engineering, to the point where I visited a couple years ago and rode a boat on the wheel when I happened to be in Scotland. I mentioned having gone to a local in Edinburgh and got a very confused "why would you ever go to Falkirk?" It's a pretty easy half-day trip out of Edinburgh or Glasgow, and I recommend it if you have the time. One fun thing…

While you're there, also see the Kelpies in Helix park: https://www.thehelix.co.uk/

Re: The Falkirk Wheel

#35

Post by jimnotgym »

profsummergig wrote: post #6

If the area was a major commercial shipping hub once, what's the reason it isn't any more? Depopulation? (If it's depopulation, then was it emigration or was it a fall in birth rates?)

The British canal system became largely obsolete when the Railways came. Partly because the railway companies bought the canals and closed them to strengthen their monopoly. The canals were restored and reopened by enthusiasts for leisure boating, and in this is still going on. This is strengthened by the tow paths being legal rights of way, and walking them is very popular.

Re: The Falkirk Wheel

#36

Post by arethuza »

pmyteh wrote: post #27
contrarian1234 wrote: post #21

Is it just for leisure or commercial traffic? it's a lot smaller than I imagined. I can't picture a river barge fitting in it, but it's hard to tell the scale

British canals are smaller than you imagine, and were even when they were commercial waterways. The standard lock widths are only 7ft or 14ft (2.1m/4.3m) so the boats are narrow, proportionally long, and very small compared to a Rhine barge or something. As with the railways, we built early, to a small gauge, and lived with the consequences of that later.

And shallower - when my son did rowing for a while on the Union canal they were told that if they capsized to simply "stand up"...

Re: The Falkirk Wheel

#37

Post by extraduder_ire »

Even though it solves a very specific problem, I'm surprised this kind of boat lift hasn't been replicated elsewhere. Even just the self-balancing properties of it.

Even if just for novelty purposes.

Re: The Falkirk Wheel

#38

Post by imurray »

The Falkirk Wheel is cool and a fun trip, along with the nearby Kelpies, which were much more striking in person than I'd anticipated.

The wheel is a one-of-a-kind, but there are other ways of avoiding having a ladder of flood locks, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boat_lift

I really liked this one in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peterborough_Lift_Lock Built as a real working lift lock (originally 1904), rather than as a tourist attraction. Powered by a little bit of extra water in one of the buckets to tip the balance and drive the pistons.

Re: The Falkirk Wheel

#39

Post by ErroneousBosh »

splonk wrote: post #26

I am exactly the type of nerd that is super excited about this kind of engineering, to the point where I visited a couple years ago and rode a boat on the wheel when I happened to be in Scotland. I mentioned having gone to a local in Edinburgh and got a very confused "why would you ever go to Falkirk?" It's a pretty easy half-day trip out of Edinburgh or Glasgow, and I recommend it if you have the time. One fun thing…

Some friends and I used to cycle to it from Kirkintilloch, after fuelling up in the Brexitspoons on the high street, and then a quick pitstop to take on another pint or so of fuel at Auchenstarry because it's a hell of a long run to the next town (Bonnybridge, Banknock being a bit out of the way).

Re: The Falkirk Wheel

#40

Post by ErroneousBosh »

jimnotgym wrote: post #32
splonk wrote: post #26

I am exactly the type of nerd that is super excited about this kind of engineering, to the point where I visited a couple years ago and rode a boat on the wheel when I happened to be in Scotland. I mentioned having gone to a local in Edinburgh and got a very confused "why would you ever go to Falkirk?" It's a pretty easy half-day trip out of Edinburgh or Glasgow, and I recommend it if you have the time. One fun thing…

>easy half-day trip out of Edinburgh Another way to think about it is to stop somewhere outside of Edinburgh. Edinburgh is an easy half-day trip away. Walk 200 yards of the Royal Mile from the castle. It just repeats with the same kind of tourist shops for the rest of it. Now get back in your car and go and see some of Scotland!

But don't do the thing that American tourists do where they say "Oh we're staying in Edinburgh and on Wednesday we're going to drive up to Skye to see Dun-vay-gin Castle because it's our ancestral seat because we're totally MacLeods you know"

You won't be able to drive from Edinburgh to even Kyle and back in a day, never mind up to Dunvegan. You just won't.

I could drive you from Edinburgh to Dunvegan and back in a day but I can absolutely guarantee you're going to hate every single terrifying mile of the journey and you won't get to see much.

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