18th February 2014
Derbyshire County Council, which owns this stretch of the canal, has paid for another new set of lock gates, this time at Dixon’s Lock (lock number 4). This is the third set of new lock gates on this section in three years – another clear demonstration of its commitment towards the canal.
The gates had to be brought on a track cleared by Bolsover Woodlands Enterprise. These are the bottom gates.
You can see the slots for the bottom paddles, which open to let the water out, and the little knobs that slot into cups on the floor of the lock for the gates to pivot. More about these later.
Here comes the top gate and the balance beams.
The top gate is swung into place …..
….. and is secured.
The balance beam slots in easily.
Now it’s the turn of the offside bottom gate.
You can see that it is quite a drop into the lock.
First problem – the wedding ring, the metal loop that holds the top of the gate in place, won’t fit.
Second problem – the little knob won’t drop into the cup.
A larger hole was cut for the wedding ring and the knob was filed down – see the sparks fly.
By now quite a crowd had gathered – no pressure then!
On goes its balance beam.
Here’s the towpath side bottom gate being lowered.
A bot of fiddling around at the bottom …..
….. and its wedding ring is fitted.
On goes the balance beam …..
….. fitting snugly.
After all this effort, the finishing off, fitting the paddle gear etc., will be done in the next couple of days.
This is one of the gates from the original Dixon’s Lock. It was swept away during open cast mining in the early 1990s. Our Work Party built the current, entirely new, lock in 1994/5.
The gates were again made and fitted by Hargreaves Lock Gates.
To see a video of the gates arriving, click here.
To see a video of the bottom offside gate being swung into position, click here.
To see a video of the bottom towpath side gate being swung into position, click here.
Update 21st February 2014
The paddle gear has been fitted. It still has to be painted and the locks fitted.
The wedding ring anchors are secure.
They started to refill the lock. You can just see that they have fitted new ground paddles.
It looks really smart now, but Mick will soon be along with his black and white paint.
The Ekki wood is a lovely reddish colour when wet.
This view down the trackway shows how comparatively remote the lock is.
Update 27th February
The first boat to use the new gates – John Varley on a full length trip.
(Photo by Richard Chappell)