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Vandalism on The Walsall Canal


Alan de Enfield

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What can C&RT do ? (apart from the obvious and use steel beams)

From Narrowboat world :

WHAT seems like a senseless act of vandalism, the new lock balance beam replacing the one sawn off one on the Walsall Canal has also been sawn off and taken.

It was last week that the lock balance beam of Lock 1 of the flight of locks on the Walsall Canal was sawn off, preventing navigation, Keith Gudgin tells us.

During the night

Though Canal & River Trust quickly replaced the beam, it was discovered this morning that this balance beam too has been sawn off and taken away sometime during the night.

Being so heavy, this is obviously not children vandalising the lock, but adults seeming wanting the timber.

A quandary

This means that again the navigation has to be closed, leaving the Trust is a quandary as to replacing the beam yet again

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Presumably as this has now happened twice, C&RT will be posting a couple of Security people close by, but out of sight to catch the theives if, and when, they add a further replacement.

Edited by David Schweizer
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Just now, David Schweizer said:

Presumably as this has now happened twice, C&RT will be posting a couple of Security people close by but out of sight to catch the theives, if and when they add a further replacement.

It is 3 times really both ends of the lock were originally done on different nights.  So you would guess that unless something happens tonight they would be back to do the other new beam.

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1 hour ago, Alan de Enfield said:

What can C&RT do ? (apart from the obvious and use steel beams)

From Narrowboat world :

WHAT seems like a senseless act of vandalism, the new lock balance beam replacing the one sawn off one on the Walsall Canal has also been sawn off and taken.

It was last week that the lock balance beam of Lock 1 of the flight of locks on the Walsall Canal was sawn off, preventing navigation, Keith Gudgin tells us.

During the night

Though Canal & River Trust quickly replaced the beam, it was discovered this morning that this balance beam too has been sawn off and taken away sometime during the night.

Being so heavy, this is obviously not children vandalising the lock, but adults seeming wanting the timber.

A quandary

This means that again the navigation has to be closed, leaving the Trust is a quandary as to replacing the beam yet again

Ignoring the obvious mistakes in NBW 'journalism'..... no I cant, a few points.

It was lock 4 both times, one beam a night.

None of the beams have been removed from site afaik, the first two were both rolled into the canal giving CRT another task to perform to get them out. I am presuming last nights vandalism is exactly the same.

Edited by AMModels
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I remember that some wooden balance beams used to have two  iron rubbing strakes (D-section bar) fastened  along the length  of the beam to protect the wood from wear and tear, that feature seems to have been forgotten, but would go some way to guard against chain saws.

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1 minute ago, Rob-M said:

According to the tweets from Lee Bates the beams were left on site, they just cut them off and left them there so they weren't after the timber.

Bastards -- not even doing it for the money, just sheer wanton destruction...

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9 minutes ago, Victor Vectis said:

Bored kids ???

How many kids can use a chainsaw?

Is there someone there with a grudge against the canal or boats perhaps?

Maybe kids is too loosely used. I meant louts / teens. And you would be surprised who can use a chainsaw.

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29 minutes ago, john6767 said:

Per the other thread, 2 people have been apprehended it seems

 

25 minutes ago, max's son said:

See the stoppage section  

I don't seem to get that channel.

Seemingly lost a lot since the new format came on stream - 'New Posts' does not seem to capture ALL new posts.

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4 hours ago, Kawayuppie said:

Summer holidays. Bored kids. There will be more of this, sadly. :(

Why do people immediately jump to such conclusions? Have the Police revealed the age of the two people aprehended? I seem to remember that when this was happening on the Rochdale some few years ago, the Culprit turned out to be a local Farmer who had some grudges against BW and the Rochdale Canal Society.

Edited by David Schweizer
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8 minutes ago, Bewildered said:

The cut does look to clean for a chain saw but what else could clean cut a foot square oak beam?

Any normal saw would do it, plus I have some particularly lovely Japanese hand saws that would deal with something similar

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54 minutes ago, tree monkey said:

Any normal saw would do it, plus I have some particularly lovely Japanese hand saws that would deal with something similar

A bow saw is handy for cutting big lumps of wood

Richard

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1 hour ago, tree monkey said:

Any normal saw would do it, plus I have some particularly lovely Japanese hand saws that would deal with something similar

The lock beam must be about 18" square, and the longest modern "normal saw" available is only 24 " long so not really long enough to get any purchase on the wood. I have several traditional saws in my workshop up to 38" long which would work, but they cut significantly slower than a modern hard point triple ground saw.

 

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6 minutes ago, tree monkey said:

Yup, odds on it was a bow saw

Strange thing though isn't it, beacuse if your intention was vandalism plain and simple, you would want to do it as quickly as possible, and care little about the smoothness or straightness of the cut.

I think if I marked the entire thing up carefully with a set square and ruler, and really took my time over it I probably wouldn't be that accurate or neat!

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