Anderton Boat Lift

The Anderton Boat Lift (English Anderton Boat Lift ), named after the nearby village of Anderton, is located in the county of Cheshire in northwest England. It connects the River Weaver with the Trent and Mersey Canal.

The boat lift was built in 1875 was over 100 years in operation until it was closed due to corrosion in 1983. In 2001, we began with the restoration, and in 2002 it was reopened. It was the first hydraulic boat lift ( plunger - lift ) in the world.

Economic conditions

In Roman times rock salt was mined in Cheshire. By the end of the 17th century, numerous salt mines were the reason so-called Cities of Salt Northwich, Middlewich, Nantwich and Winsford emerged. In order to be able to remove the salt, until 1734 the River Weaver was expanded from its confluence with the Mersey way up to Winsford navigable. With the Trent and Mersey Canal in 1777 was a second transport route. This built for Narrowboats Canal was partially parallel to Weaver, but about 15 feet above the river valley. He opened up the area lying further south to Stoke-on -Trent, with its coal mines and from the 18th century rapidly growing ceramic and porcelain industry.

Rather than compete with each other, the operators of these two waterways but decided to cooperate. Therefore, in 1793 a harbor was built at Anderton on the north bank of the Weaver, immediately below the embankment on the Trent and Mersey canal was. With the help of bulk tubes, cranes and inclined elevators salt and other goods between the two waterways have been transshipped.

History

Planning

By 1870, the harbor of Anderton had developed into a major freight hub. However, the constant reloading of goods between the two waterways proved to be extremely time -consuming and costly. For this reason it deems the operator of the Weaver- shipping route as necessary to connect the two waterways together. It was first thinking of a lock staircase, but the loss of water from the high channel would have been too large. Therefore, they suggested before in 1870 to build a boat lift. The former owner of the channel, the North Staffordshire Railway Company, but did not want to contribute to the cost, which is why the Weaver operators finally decided to bear the total cost alone.

The operating company then commissioned their senior engineer Edward Leader Williams, to create designs for a boat lift. Leader Williams examined different approaches and finally decided on a design with two water-filled troughs, which served as a counterbalance each other. This principle had already been realized in 1835 at the Grand Western Canal, here were a total of seven pumping stations have been built, in which the troughs were each about three over guide rollers running chains linked. However, an extremely massive support structure, it was necessary to carry the weight of both water-filled troughs can. Leader Williams was planning, therefore, the troughs not to hang on chains, but instead they rest on plunger, which move up and down in the underground, water-filled hydraulic cylinders. Thus, the superstructure was required only for lateral guidance of the troughs. After the decision was made for hydraulic operation, Leader Williams commissioned the experienced hydraulic engineer Edwin Clark with the actual planning. The lift should occur on a small island in the harbor of Anderton.

Technology

The two wrought-iron troughs were each 22.9 meters long, 4.7 m wide, 2.9 m deep and were two narrowboats of the 72 - foot class ( 21.9 m long) record. Each trough had an empty weight of 90 tons and weighed 252 tons when full. ( Due to the Archimedean principle it does not matter whether ships in the trough are or not. ), Boosted by each trough by a single hydraulic cylinder consisting of a 15.2 m long cast-iron piston with a diameter of 90 cm, which is underground in a also cast-iron cylinder with a diameter of 1.7 m moved.

The superstructure consisted of seven hollow cast-iron pillars on which guide rails were installed for the troughs, a working platform and stairs and walkways for the operating personnel. Down at river level troughs were lowered into the water of the harbor, so no gates were necessary here. At the upper end provided a 50 meter long, wrought iron canal bridge to connect to the Trent and Mersey Canal ago.

In normal operation, the water level was in each upper trough set slightly higher than in the lower trough. Then, a pressure line between the two cylinders is opened. The upper trough, heavier due to higher water level, then decreased slowly and pushed it out of his water cylinder through the pressure line into the other cylinder, and thus raised the bottom tray upward. In addition, a hydraulic accumulator was available to move independently the troughs at the beginning and end of a trip can. A steam-driven hydraulic pump acted on the memory pressure. It was also possible to lift the troughs by means of the memory and the vapor pump completely independently. However, such independent lifting operation with around 30 minutes took about ten times as long as normal.

Construction

In July 1872, the building permit was issued, and the end of 1872, work began. After about 30monatiger construction, the lift was opened to traffic on July 26, 1875.

Problems with hydraulic

In the first five years, the elevator was working properly, the operation was interrupted only when the channel froze up. But in 1882 blurted one of the cylinders, when he was raised and there was a boat in it. The trough then fell rapidly. However, there were no injuries and the superstructure remained undamaged. During subsequent inspections burst and the second cylinder, after which the lift was closed for six months. During this time the cylinder has been replaced, and revise the pressure lines.

The traffic on the elevator took the end of the 19th century, despite growing competition from the railways steadily. However, there were always problems with the hydraulic cylinders. So the glands at the upper ends of the cylinders had to be replaced in 1891 and 1894. However, the main problem was corrosion on the flask, which led to the formation of grooves. This was the result of the discharge of industrial effluents relatively high acidity of the canal and river water, which was used as the working fluid. After an attempt to repair these grooves with copper, due to electrochemical processes, corrosion of the surrounding iron only worsened, the elevator was finally converted in 1897 for the use of distilled water. Thereby, the corrosion was only slowed. During the following years, maintenance and repair work piled up more and more, and each time had to lift either be completely closed for several weeks or could only work with a trough and thus reduced performance.

Conversion to electrical operation

1904 finally got a long-lasting closure imminent, since both both hydraulic cylinders including the piston, as well as the steam engine had to be replaced urgently. Therefore, the operating company asked its then chief engineer Colonel JA Saner trying to look for alternatives. Saner proposed to replace the hydraulic cylinders driven by a electric motor system of counterweights and pulleys. While thus the number of moving parts significantly increased, but they were all located above ground and thus for maintenance and repair work more easily accessible than the underground hydraulic system.

However, now that both the weight of the two troughs and that of the newly added counterweights had to be carried by the superstructure, this had to be considerably strengthened. However Saner promised to achieve this by the fact that he would herumbauen a separate, stronger superstructure to the existing design, and so auskäme with only three short blocking times.

The new superstructure consisting of ten steel frame structures, five on each side of the elevator. This contributed a machine basement in height of 18 meters above the river. Here electric motors, drive shafts and winches were mounted. The two troughs have been preserved, connected by ropes with 18 cast-iron counterweights. Since each counterweight weighed 14 tons, so that the mass of the filled trough was exactly compensated, and the electric motor was used in addition to overcoming the friction only for accelerating and braking. At the bottom of the basins in which landed the troughs were filled with concrete, equipped with gates and thus drained so that the pistons and glands were no longer exposed to the aggressive river water. Moreover, the canal bridge was strengthened.

This work was carried out 1906-1908. And as it had promised Saner, the elevator was only three times locked during these two years for a short time, for a total of 49 days. On July 29, 1908, the converted lift was officially opened.

Operation after the conversion

After the conversion to electrical operation, the boat lift was for 75 years successfully. Of course, now regular maintenance took place, in particular the wire ropes were by the constant bending loads susceptible to fatigue and had to be replaced relatively frequently. Also, the new superstructure was found to be susceptible to corrosion and had to be removed every eight years with a mixture of tar and rubber.

Between 1941 and 1942, the hydraulic cylinders that had been left in transforming the soil were removed to otherwise likely to use the iron for war purposes, can.

With the strong growth of road transport after the Second World War, the freight with narrowboats took on the British canal system steadily and came mid-1960s virtually ground to a halt. By 1970, the Anderton Boat Lift was therefore used almost exclusively during the summer season for the recreational boating. In 1979 the building was declared a National Monument.

Closure

In the course of painting in 1983 severe corrosion damage were discovered in the superstructure, which is why the lift was explained and closed for dilapidated. Counterweights, pulleys and gears in 1987 dismantled and stored next to the lift.

Restoration

Ten years after the closure has been a foundation of the Anderton Boat Lift Trust, founded with the aim to raise funds for an operational restoration of the drawworks of Anderton. Numerous other organizations took part in the project, and in 2001 was finally started working.

During the restoration, the lift was switched back to hydraulic operation. It modern hydraulic cylinders were used as the working medium and longer water, but hydraulic oil was not used. The now no longer necessary counterweights were dismantled and used as building blocks for a maze. However, the superstructure from 1908 to the machine floor and the wheels are preserved.

In September 2002, the Anderton boat lift was re-opened. For visitors who do not arrive by private boat, tours are offered through the elevator with an excursion boat.

The boat lift can not be visited in winter.