Up And Over : Down And Under (2)

More Stunning Engineering

Yesterday, fbb looked at new engineering on the Forth and Clyde canal. There was the canal and the Kelpies at Grangemouth, the Falkirk Wheel linking to the Union Canal, bridges at Stockingfield Junction and rejuvenation and rebuild at Port Dundas in Glasgow itself.

In passing we met two old aqueducts, one at Kirkintilloch and one at Stockingfield.

Before we complete the job with more stunnings between Stockingfield and Bowling, just take a look at this, between Stockingfield and Port Dundas.

This is the ancient Firhill Basin, labelled "Timber Basin" ...

... used to park heavy logs etc. whilst awaiting treatment at a sawmill. The other bit, labelled simply "basin" is only separated from the canal by a low bank of earth, just a curbed smudge on the map above.

This aerial view shows a football stadium (home of Partick Thistle footy club???) and the "other basin" either overgrown or filled in or a bit of both.

And here is today's Google Earth view ...

... with a cream coloured line all the way round the bend. 

It is a magnificent boardwalk connected to new footpaths ...

... which take walkers and cyclists safely and dry-footed on the site of the minimalistic bank that separated "basin" from canal.

You can see the old "timber basin" and the footy ground beyond the canal.

Good innit?

Technically, this stuff is all in Maryhill.

As, in ancient times,  fbb set out to call on his future Mrs at Bearsden, he was intrigued to drive under this bridge ...

... and here it is with a tram on its way to Milngavie.

And here it is on a map.

The Maryhill aqueduct!

Just a quick puff on a puffer and you are at Maryhill Basin(s) with a long pond ...

... which was once Maryhill dry dock, used for ship repair.

And a small bit further on again we have this.

Now that's what you call an aqueduct. Its four arches carry the canal over the valley through which flows the River Kelvin. 

Just to the right of the aqueduct was the long lost Dawsholm terminus of the long lost Glasgow Central Railway (RED).

But that is another story.

It's All On Line - Interlude

This picture appears on a web site of old shots of the Forth and Clyde Canal. It is labelled "The Kelvin Aqueduct".

Really?

Here it is from another angle.

Top level is a predecessor of the present Kelvin Bridge carrying the main Great Western Road over the valley of the Kelvin River. Middle level is the old road at this point. Bottom level, and very dark, is the river.

The bridge was later rebuilt in iron, the main road widened and the old road has long gone ...

... and Kelvinbridge station (also on the Glasgow Central Railway) has appeared ...

... and has disappeared.

The line ran into a tunnel top left of the above picture. Most of the goods yard is now a car park for the Kelvinbridge Underground station (aka the 'Subway") which lies below and right on the above picture.

Kelvin Aqueduct is top left on the map ...

... Kelvin Bridge is bottom right. There is no canal at Kelvin Bridge!

The moral of the tale is always to treat internet sources with polite suspicion and seek corroboration. fbb spotted the error straight away; but Mrs fbb's dad's electrical shop was close to Kelvin Bridge so recognition was easy.

Down And Under

The A814 Dumbarton Road was one of the main routes out of Glasgow serving the various communities that drew their wealth and their trade from the river Clyde. As is obvious from the map above, Dumbarton Road was crossed by the canal at Dalmuir.

Dalmuir is where the North Clyde electric service via Glasgow Queen Street Low Level meets up with the revived Argyle Line via Glasgow Central Low Level.

Back in the day, and long before motorised transport ruled the roost, A simple lifting bridge sufficed at this crossing.

Along came trams and more road traffic and something bigger was needed. Say hello to Dalmuir swing bridge complete with tram.

And here it is swung; showing the girder structure that ensured electrical continuity for the overhead cable which could be too low for some boats and thus had to be moved out of the way.

So the wire swung with the bridge.

And then the trams were gone, but the bridge still swung!

But when the canal was closed in 1963, the City set about widening the road at this bottleneck point. And to widen the road ...

... you simply fill in the canal, leaving just a culvert (big pipe) to maintain water flow.

Seemples!

But what happens when you want to re-open the canal?

Answer, you build a drop lock. 

It is probably the only working drop lock in the world!

The principle is simple. You build a large tank under the road with a lock gate at each end. The bridge deck is too low to let boats through, so, once a boat is in the lock, you close the gates and pump out the water. After the boat has sunk low and passed under the bridge, you refill the tank, open the other gates and off you go, bowling along to Bowling. (or vice versa_

Watch it on video.

A simple solution to an apparently intractable problem.

There have been plenty of less spectacular but very necessary solutions.

Here is the canal NOT passing under the widened Great Western Road at Knightswood.

... and here is the new bridge.

There are many such!

And what might this be?

It is a chippy! Wikipedia reveals the owners' innermost thoughts.

McMonagle's Boat, docked in the Fourth & Clyde Canal in the heart of Clydebank, is a world class fish & chip restaurant and Scottish tourist attraction. With both formal dinning upstairs and casual seating outside, McMonagle's Restaurant provides a catering experience to suit everyone.

Memo to Mr McMonagle: try spelling Forth correctly. And what about "dinning"?

The chippie is at Clydebank ...

... just off Argyll Road.

Canal and chips - what could be better!

 Next Variety blog : Sunday 30th July 

Up And Over : Down And Under (1)

Stunning Engineering Old And New

At Grangemouth, the original route oif the Forth and Clyde canal ran from bottom left on the above Google Earth extract to the top right, where we see the start of the Forth-Clyde Way, the road built on the canal's route. The watercourse now tuns sharp left and leads to ...

... the Kelpies.

The sculptures were opened to the public in April 2014. As part of the project, they have their own visitors‘ centre, and sit beside a newly developed canal turning pool and extension. This canal extension reconnects the Forth and Clyde Canal with the River Carron, and improves navigation between the East and West of Scotland.

Just beyond the Kelpies is he lock that leads into the River Carron and on into the Forth.

Here is the new link c/o Google Earth ...

... and on Open Street Map.

The channel that leads off right from the Kelpies and under the M9 ...

... also connects with the river.

Sailing geographically from east (Forth) to west (Clyde) this is the first piece of big engineering to be part of the rebuild and re-opening of the defunct canal.

Next up (as they say) is the most memorable site.

But, pedantically, The Falkirk Wheel is not part of the Forth and Clyde canal.

One of the benefits of John Smeaton's design was that boats could link to the Union Canal near Falkirk and sail all the way to quays in Edinburgh. Connection was by a long lock ladder.

When passenger boats ran (slowly!) between the two great Scottish cities, some customers found it quicker to alight from the vessel at the foot of the ladder, travel up the hill by carriage and join their onward boat at the top (anf vice versa).

The Union Canal opened in 1842, but diminished its value as a transport medium. It fell into slow commercial decline and was closed to commercial traffic in 1933. It was officially closed in 1965. The canal is listed as a scheduled monument by Historic Scotland.

It has benefited from a general revival of interest in canals and, as a result of the Millennium Link, was reopened in 2001 and reconnected to the Forth and Clyde Canal in 2002 by the Falkirk Wheel. It is now in popular use for leisure purposes.

A piece of original canal engineering can be found at Kirkintilloch, about half way between the Forth and the Clyde.

It is an aqueduct which originally crossed a railway.

The canal crossed both the Luggie Water (a stream) and the railway branch to Lennoxtown (The Campsie Branch). The railway is now the obligatory footpath and cycleway but the stream remains.

There was considerable interest in 1900 watching the trains negotiate the Luggie in flood.

Proceeding west the next big renewal project is at Stockingfield Junction.

We've got an aqueduct, the junction, a bridge and a park; all courtesy of canal regeneration. But, notably, we've got one of hese.

The influential and successful businessmen of Glasgow were less than pleased when Mr Smeaton looked as if he were by-passing the city centre. But worry not; a branch was dug which served wharves in the centre and connected with the Monkland Canal.

Most of the Monkland is abandoned and filled in but one intriguing remnant remains in the centre of Glasgow. This pedestrian subway was once part of the canal ...

... where the gouging of the tow ropes is still extant on the corner post!

Because of the work on the M8 which filled in some sections, the "terminus" at Port Dundas has been substantially rebuilt ...

...with warehouses now gentrified as residential premises. 

Below is a plan of the Port Dundas area in approx 1900 ...

... showing the connection to the Monkland Canal bottom right. And today's plan ...

... has just a dribble of the former Monkland connection bottom right. fbb thinks even that dribble is now dry!

But, back to the Junction. The pieces of string attached to the intriguing tower are supporting swirly footbridges across the junction. This how it was ...

... and this is how it is! (viewed from roughly the same direction).

Stunning.

And we mustn't forget the Stockingfield "aqueduct".

When is an aqueduct a tunnel? Hmmm? Maybe it is an aqueduct because it is all one big chunk of construction. A tunnel would be under he earth and under the canal - perhaps.

This blog will conclude tomorrow.

 Next Canal Engineering blog : Saturday 29th July