Tim, if you are going to venture further north (in france) why not give my town a visit? Nantes has a few interesting things.....maybe the giant machinescwill tickle ones fancy. www.lesmachines-nantes.fr/

Love the new intro. Though I had become quite fond of the old one. But hey, all's fair in a pandemic, right? Nice mask, I understand the US will begin to wear them...(only half a million reasons why we should have started that in March)

That is actually pretty neat. It is a pity it didn't work out because, like you said, the concept was pretty sound.

Thanks for the nice video. I was using the locks in both directions with a boat in the early 1990s The monster was looking much better at that time, but nevertheless was out of service. I wished to see it in operation, wondering how the construction would avoid loosing the water during travel. I also have some video shots of the sleeping monster. You helped me get more information now after 30 years. Greetings !

This is some of the masterpieces that never became what they could have been.... I like such things....

I’ve travelled the Canal du Midi twice. Once was in 2018 and the site looked very much as in the video, except it was warm and sunny. The other time was in 1983 and we had the experience of travelling down the water slope on what I think was its first day of operation. It was certainly very new. One of our party stood on top of our boat in his Speedos playing the bagpipes to celebrate the event. This was long before the advent of affordable video cameras so there’s no movie evidence, I’m afraid.

Loving the Thunderbirds and stingray piano music.

Go to the Cote d'Azu; lots of quirky stuff there aswell.

Really appreciate the Thunderbirds & Stingray theming. :)

Wish I'd known. I travelled through Bezieres many times this century with time to spare...

Given that there are other ship elevators in France one of which was already built in 1888, this really has the air of an engineer over-indulging...

I bet part 3 will be about the Krasnoyarsk ship lift

"but because the place was closed, there was no one around to shout at me" that's a good one! I always worry about stuff like that when exploring places! PS also I read the description as "a giant beast designed to push cannabis" and wait.. what? XD

A day on this part of the Canal du Midi is the best experience. Multiple locks, an aqueduct and great scenery.

I saw the Montech Water Slope on Rick Stein's French Odyssey. Very impressive.

Hello, Salü, Mr Ducon.

Wonderful video on a really a strange solution for a problem which has been solved in other locations very elegantly. Examples: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falkirk_Wheel en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niederfinow_Boat_Lift (even the country that invented over-engineering got it right). And yes there is a French example as well en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fontinettes_boat_lift. And you could build such thing also going diagonally with longer chains.

If you think this is a Canal Project 200 years after its time, have a look at the Falkirk Wheel. This is a millenium solution to the same problem that joins the Forth and Clyde Canal to the Union Canal in Central Scotland.

Ah, an Anderson Fan well played Sir...

Before you get too excited, the other tractor is broken since 2009 because of engine failure.

Basically, it is French.

yay !

My (non-engineer) suggestions for this invention: 1) Grind a small trough down the center of each concrete "rail", then attach a toothed rack along each trough so that the teeth are slightly below the original height of the trough. Then, replace the 2nd rearmost set of wheels with toothed gears to match the rack in each trough. This way, the only set of wheels that need to be powered are the gear-wheels. This would increase the tractive force potential greatly, provide more precise and predictable movement, and also eliminate the catastrophic potential of a hydraulic leak. (hydraulic leaks can be eliminated by the below suggestion) 2) swap the complicated powertrain with a 3rd rail or caternary system, along with simple electric motors. This would also likely make the power re-generation process much simpler, and also eliminate the hydraulic fluid issues

Thanks for continuing to do these videos even though the lockdown in France must be serious limiting your trips. Know that your work is very much appreciated. xoxo

Check the Elbląg Canal in Poland. Similar idea- lifting the boats up and down instead of using the docks. The only difference is it's still working and it was being constructed a little bit earlier, I believe

Hey Tim, check out the boat lift in Ronquières, Belgium, it looks similar And also check the boat lift of Strépy-Thieu, also Belgium.

Love your presentation style, mate. Also very informative. Many thanks for another excellent video.

1:45 is he balanced on the edge of the bridge?

And yet in Ontario the Big Chute Marine Railway does the same thing only different. A big carriage sinks into the water. Boats float in, tie up to the carriage. It comes out of the water and the boats are suspended on slings under the carriage that are here where they tie up. Carriage goes up or down the hill beside the rapids connecting two lakes with a drop or climb of 20 m or so. Easy peasy. The French make things so damn complicated

Hey, a place I've been!

Lox? Why do I need lox?

Ahhh. the french... with their bizarre solutions to (sometimes non existent) problems I get reminded of that every time I am in Paris and see those subways with rubber wheels

Wow i visited that city during my stay in valras plage yet didn't know this was there.

I spent years going to Béziers all summer, and had no idea this was there!

3:35 You know we come here for the wild special effects.

All they needed was a winch system with a cradle on wheels for the barge to sit in. Could have looked similar to how they used to drag railway wagons up steep slopes in the Pennines. Nice try 'Francaisites'.

Oh my god! The Captain Scarlet and Stingray tunes are beyond incredible.

When travel is back to normal, have you considered plan incliné de Ronquiéres? It is a really impressive boat lift for cargo ships up to 81. Something meters long.

i guess today it would be a great way to spend a million euros every year of tax payers money - how things change, something that was non-viable 30 years ago, today seems like a drop in a bucket of government waste. I bet it could be financed by just the local tourism office

This reminds me a little of the Big Chute Marine Railway in Ontario, Canada, which loads boats onto a rail-driven platform to basically go up a big incline.

Interesting

Could you cover a region that I only found out about very recently, Flemish France? It's southeast of Calais and I was fascinated to find out there was a Flemish/Dutch region in France. It would be cool to find out how many people there are actually Flemish and how the French cope with the (I assume) for them hard to pronounce place names :P

NEW INTRO!!!!!!! I LOVE IT

Loving the London Tube upholstery for face mask.

Thank you for your warm cozy channel

Technically, this is just another train video.

Just having 2 locks on either side, then pulling the ship up on a frame with wheels would have been easier. I feel like the moving lock in this one wouldn't be exactly tight, or easy to move.

Thank you for the backing music to the second half of this. Brought back SO MANY MEMORIES

I found this video - more or less - enjoyable.

so it a ship lift. there are literally 100 of different lift design... it an interesting topic if someone do a overview of all of them.

1:50 - Ah the Rosie & Jim theme as background music, I see what you did there 😂 Anyone else here remember Rosie and Jim?

Meanwhile.. Sorry, back then in Prussia there was this: nlcameras.info/wiki/oqXIdI56nITRxag/video Narrator in German language but with Eng Sub Go to 3:14 en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbl%C4%85g_Canal

We have a rail transport system in one of canals in Poland, Mazury. It is working to this day as far as I know and it is reliable and simple :-) cheers

The WHAT kinda made this video for me

"I'll put a link in the description in case you want to go and see the whole video." Well yes, yes I do.

could have driven 5 tons of boat and water uphill with 6 tons of water going down the hill plus some cables and pulleys...

*I HAVE SAILED THROUGH THESE LOCKS* as well as about 300 others across France - one of the best times of my life...

I love the music cues!

If you're ever able to come to Franconia, you could do a video on "the water main that can carry ships" aka the Main Danube canal which among other things serves to move excess water from the Danube over the watershed north

Turn that slope into a 'water-slide' attraction, to give something 'fun' back to the local people.

Ever been to the Ronquières Inclined Slope in Belgium?

I'm a bit confused by the framing of the issue. These types of boat lifts aren't rare. It may be that it's the only one where a n actual vehicle runs on tracks. Go to Belgium for a UNESCO-classified set from the late nineteenth century, as well as the highest boat lift in the world (up to 2016, when brexit ... just kidding, when the one at the Three Gorges Dam became operational).

"The system was never reliable, kept failing, and ... the authorities officially gave up and it was abandoned forever." Yep, sounds French to me.

Roise & Jim would be thrilled at your choice of background music during your explanation of the jioining of the two canals. The Falkirk wheel works better and is more efficient

Brilliant bit of lateral thinking. Pity it succeed.

"There was no-one around to shout at me." The story of urban exploration.

You are a bright spot on the otherwise abysmal Internet.

Tim, I've been following you for quite some time now. I enjoy all these quirky but interesting subjects you have brought to us. However I've failed to pick up on any of the musical clues you have included - not one of them. That's probably because I'm listeniing to your words. Please keep the flow of information coming.

I'm absolutely loving the hidden thunderbirds theme song!

Love the thunderbirds references

Thunderbirds on piano! Now I can die happy!

When I was with my colleagues on a trip there in 86 it was broken as usual. But the old staircase is more fun anyway.

Have you ever vistited Schiffshebewerk Lüneburg-Scharnebeck. That's also extreme engineering. :D

I've been trying to visit this city for ages but can't seem to make it in a straight line. I shall have to try a different approach.

New intro, "It went all the way downhill from there", Cliffhanger: great video (again)

It really looks quite fascinating! An alternative to the solution chosen at Falkirk, Scotland. While the canal slope is no longer operating, it’s nice to see that it’s still in place! I wonder if it’s going to get at least some cosmetic restoration?

I worked for many years on the Canal du Midi and the Canal du Rhône à Sète. I've gone through the staircase locks many times. The original "waterslope" was built in the early 70s at Montech north of Toulouse to replace 5 locks and worked fairly well. The Fonserannes slope was built too late as commercial barge traffic ended in the mid 70s. Locks at the time were only 30m long which restricted access. I returned to the Midi in late 1985 by which time the slope was out of use due to a catastrophic hydraulic failure and the chief engineer had apparently committed suicide. It was never meant to be a serious replacement for the 7-locks which only dealt with pleasure traffic and was seemingly built in an effort to sell the idea to China. I am amazed to see that it was put back into use at a later date as it would be nothing but a wasteful drain on limited funding for the canal system, though there was also a nonsensical and heritage-destroying policy of lengthening locks to 40m in the late 80s which destroyed stone bridges and lengthened the oval locks using concrete. When one adds in the felling of trees along its length, not much has been done to preserve the heritage of the canal.

Why didn’t they just slope the water?

Brilliant as always. Love all the musical Easter eggs :)

Very interesting! But: Did you get a drone for yourself or was someone with you? Cheers

It would have worked much better and more efficiently if the moveable barrier was hauled up and down the slope by wire ropes driven from a fixed winch base. It would eliminate the hydraulics and the traction problems and be much cheaper to run.

See Ronquieres Belgium

We have a few of these in Belgium nlcameras.info/wiki/rqm6p6GDmH6wy4Y/video

Beziers itself has gone downhill over the past 20 years. Doesn't feel French nowadays.

The same (more or less) exists in Montech (North of Toulouse)

Did anyone realize that the canal made spain and portugal an island nation😂

Hi, Tim. There is a similar (but older and still in use) construction in northern Poland - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbl%C4%85g_Canal - welcome to come and film, when traveling will be possible again :)

Your videos are intresting bc you make me wanna visit places that i would never expect to visit. 😂😂

Good edit.

The cliffhanger is outstanding. I want part 2.

If you would like more information about the water slope in Montech, there is a mini "documentary" about it in the show Mysteries of the Abandoned, season 2 episode 7 (around 33 minutes into the episode). Funnily enough it doesn't show it ever working. Surprisingly, there doesn't appear to be any videos of that running either, with the exception of one video that shows it moving just a few meters towards the end of the journey down-slope.

Petit joueur. Go to Artzviller!

It's not civil overengineering, it's French engineering...

Yay! Recognised the Thunderbirds theme before reading the comments. Hoping in part 2 you get there via the cool railway from Beziers that.goes under the Millau viaduct then over the Garabit viaduct 😀

thanks for showing us that thing. hopefully it gets restored/fixed one day

Brilliant thankyou!

If it's working as intended, then it hasn't been engineered enough.

I want to go to all of these places. But the COVID......

WOT?

It’s a great idea, if only for the amount of water it saves on each trip. But why not fix the motive force on terra firma and use the same principle as a cable-car? It’s not like the monster has to lumber across the landscape. No need to worry about recovering energy because the French are flush with hydroelectricity and nuclear. Two insane monster vehicles travelling in opposite directions would act as counterweights, improving efficiency, safety and throughput. What lock system wouldn’t benefit from having boats travel up and down at the same time?