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Lift bridge on the Rochdale


NB Esk

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I'm just off to get some lottery tickets.  Just came through the Grimshaw lane lift bridge, about an hour ago, moored up for some lunch when I heard the barriers being operated.  Grabbed my iPad, as I wanted to video it in action, bridge got about two to three feet up when there was a loud pop and a huge spray of hydraulic oil and down it came.  I was under that an hour ago, lucky or what?

Details are Grimshaw lane lift bridge, between locks 64 and 65, Rochdale canal.  Inoperable at present.

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Aye, that's the one. A ram failed that time and it was out of action for about a week.  A CRT team are there now and looks like they're pouring oil in so maybe it was just a pipe had blown.

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Hopefully there is some sort of mechanical locking mechanism when it is fully raised. The thought of the hydraulics failing with a boat underneath isn't pleasant. I felt rather nervous when we passed underneath the raised deck. It needed the ministrations of the CaRT man in a van to get it working for us.

Jen

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34 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

Hopefully there is some sort of mechanical locking mechanism when it is fully raised. The thought of the hydraulics failing with a boat underneath isn't pleasant. I felt rather nervous when we passed underneath the raised deck. It needed the ministrations of the CaRT man in a van to get it working for us.

Jen

Know what you mean, that deck is a concrete slab.  I was too far away to tell if the guy had his finger on the down button but what I can say is it didn't come down level, one end came down faster than the other.  It was at a jaunty angle and making a real protesting noise, I'm surprised it eventually landed squarely.

Anyway, it looks like it's back working, at 6.30pm the two boats that were waiting, passed through.  At least I should get some water down.

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We came through as the Ram failed. Very spectacular the whole canal was covered in a thick layer of oil. The bridge was actually on its way down when the fail happened, on the post nearest the control panel, Chris just kept his finger on the button and it all came down and the barriers went up.  I was mooring up for our epic night out in Middleton Junction - NOT.
We thought it was a hose failure but its hard to tell where the oil was actually coming from, when it is all boxed in. Took them most of Saturday to work out what was actually wrong I believe.

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Cheers Ian Mac

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What's going on here? Two major failures in a fortnight on a structure that's relatively new, gets very little use ( it's not like dozens of operations a day as with some moveable bridges). Bad design? Lack of maintenance? Vandalism? Combination of all three? One thing it won't be is abuse by the users (boaters) . I do hope the oil lost into the canal was biodegradable, I think that is the case for all CRT hydraulics now, though it's very expensive  compared to the older mineral oils.

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You stay its relatively new its actually 16 years old, and I suspect as with all Hydraulic systems, the pipes, etc now all need to be replaced as they reach the end of their live expectancy. So far its one seal and one hose which have failed. I'm not sure at what point one renews all the remaining seals and pipes. If you own a JCB one normally waits for each pipe to fail, rather than replacing them on mass as its significantly cheaper, to do it that way in the long run.
Talked to the boater who was closing it when it failed this second time, he said the hose failed on the way down and it then came down at a bit of an angle but closed properly.

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Cheers Ian Mac

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