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Logistics of a journey


Sutefu

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Dear All, 

I wonder whether you can help me. I'm undertaking a research project which requires some knowledge of canals; I'm slowly learning, but I was hoping there was something you could help me with!

Does anyone here know if it is possible to travel directly from London to Nottingham via canal boat? On maps it looks as if one can.

If so, can anyone estimate as to how long that journey might take?

Many thanks for any assistance you can offer me.

All the best,
Stephanie

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5 hours ago, Sutefu said:

If so, can anyone estimate as to how long that journey might take?

Non-Stop it will take around 95 hours, this can be split into just over 4 days non-stop, 48 days at 2 hours per day or anything in between.

The time of year will have a huge impact - In the Summer you will be queuing for locks, in the Winter the Rivers will be closed due to flood waters, and the Canals will periodically closed for repairs.

Do you want to travel in the dark - bearing in mind the short daylight hours we currently have you cannot do big distances in the daylight

As a suggestion, and subject to canal closures and route changes I would consider 30 days of reasonable duration would give you a little safety margin if you need to be in Nottingham on a specific date.

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14 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Non-Stop it will take around 95 hours, this can be split into just over 4 days non-stop, 48 days at 2 hours per day or anything in between.

The time of year will have a huge impact - In the Summer you will be queuing for locks, in the Winter the Rivers will be closed due to flood waters, and the Canals will periodically closed for repairs.

Do you want to travel in the dark - bearing in mind the short daylight hours we currently have you cannot do big distances in the daylight

As a suggestion, and subject to canal closures and route changes I would consider 30 days of reasonable duration would give you a little safety margin if you need to be in Nottingham on a specific date.

I very much doubt that you will be queuing for locks on the Grand Union, and hitting the Watford and Foxton flights at the right time means you can easily avoid and delay there as well.

The rivers don't often flood (River Soar about 2 or 3 days in last 12 months) - I've done it in 6 very long days(to little Venice from Sawley) 

In towards Hull may have been a better wording!!

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On 18/11/2017 at 17:41, matty40s said:

You also can only do it in a boat no wider than 7ft, none of those fat boats will fit all the way unless they go out via the Thames and back in at Hull and down the Trent.

For sea going boats there is a shorter route out the Thames, round the coast to the Wash, then in at Boston to the river Witham, followed by the Fossdyke and river Trent.

The direct route via canal isn't possible at the moment with the Leicester line of the Grand Union being closed, so you would need to go via the North Oxford, Coventry and Birmingham and Fazeley canals to reach theTrent and Mersey canal and river Trent down to Nottingham. All routes have width, depth and height restrictions that will limit the boats that can do the trip.

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On ‎18‎/‎11‎/‎2017 at 12:08, Sutefu said:

Does anyone here know if it is possible to travel directly from London to Nottingham via canal boat? On maps it looks as if one can.

I think the answer is (something like)

"Normally, yes, but due to canal closures this year the answer is currently NO".

You could get it loaded onto a truck, driven to Nottingham, unloaded for around £1000 and you would not be stuck for weeks, caught in between closures.

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Its a bit of a funny question - what do you mean directly? I guess, if it were public transport (train or coach), one could define direct or indirect as meaning you could step onto one train at London, then step off that same train in Nottingham, as qualifying for direct.

If its in your own car, then of course it would be the same car used for the entire journey (ie direct?) but the route would not be "as the crow flies" (so, indirect?) I don't think there's any form of transport which could genuinely follow the line the crow took, so they'd all be, necessarily indirect. Is it a black or white thing though - surely if its not direct, then it cannot be anything other than indirect???

Anyway, your research project sounds fascinating but it seems to be done already, by the guys behind canalplan.org.uk . If its for a course of study, I wonder whether its worth "reinventing the wheel" and if so, I'd imagine the stuff you need to know is more technical than "is this journey possible?" Or maybe its just a bit of it?

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1 hour ago, Paul C said:

Its a bit of a funny question - what do you mean directly? I guess, if it were public transport (train or coach), one could define direct or indirect as meaning you could step onto one train at London, then step off that same train in Nottingham, as qualifying for direct.

If its in your own car, then of course it would be the same car used for the entire journey (ie direct?) but the route would not be "as the crow flies" (so, indirect?) I don't think there's any form of transport which could genuinely follow the line the crow took, so they'd all be, necessarily indirect. Is it a black or white thing though - surely if its not direct, then it cannot be anything other than indirect???

Anyway, your research project sounds fascinating but it seems to be done already, by the guys behind canalplan.org.uk . If its for a course of study, I wonder whether its worth "reinventing the wheel" and if so, I'd imagine the stuff you need to know is more technical than "is this journey possible?" Or maybe its just a bit of it?

I don't think the OP indicated that her project involved devising a means of calculating the tie to travel the journey by canal but that, for some unspecified reason (it would be nice to know why!) she need to know how long it would take. There was no suggestion of re-inventing any wheel in the post - but she may be for other reasons!

What she has learnt is that the answer (as so many do) depends . . . At the moment it would probably involve some huge detour because of closures - and even so may not be possible (assuming that a sea route is not allowed in the rules of the question and that on the back of a truck would be cheating!)

However, if the project is about some aspect of history - say a claim in a document that someone made such a journey - then it is now known to be possible. However, this would not always be sufficient as some journeys might now be possible but not at other past dates if a key link was once abandoned and now restored - and vice versa of course.

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On 11/18/2017 at 12:08, Sutefu said:

Dear All, 

I wonder whether you can help me. I'm undertaking a research project which requires some knowledge of canals; I'm slowly learning, but I was hoping there was something you could help me with!

Does anyone here know if it is possible to travel directly from London to Nottingham via canal boat? On maps it looks as if one can.

If so, can anyone estimate as to how long that journey might take?

Many thanks for any assistance you can offer me.

All the best,
Stephanie

Yes, Stephanie, it is possible. A company called Fellows, Morton and Clayton provided a regular cargo carrying service with steamers towing horseboats between London and Nottingham in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. From conversations I had many years ago with ex-employees of FM&C who had worked on the steamers, I recall them saying that the boats worked non-stop and usually made Nottingham late on the third day after leaving City Road Basin. 

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10 minutes ago, TheDuker said:

Yes, Stephanie, it is possible. A company called Fellows, Morton and Clayton provided a regular cargo carrying service with steamers towing horseboats between London and Nottingham in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. From conversations I had many years ago with ex-employees of FM&C who had worked on the steamers, I recall them saying that the boats worked non-stop and usually made Nottingham late on the third day after leaving City Road Basin. 

mmmmmmm that as you said was year ago and you must remember that we have as a species been going backwards for the last few years just as two " For instances " Try finding a building firm that in this day and age would have the ability to build say York Minster or even more on topic talking transport just a few years ago  Joe Public  could fly by supersonic passenger jet across the world and today with all our progress he cant. 

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On 11/20/2017 at 18:17, mrsmelly said:

mmmmmmm that as you said was year ago and you must remember that we have as a species been going backwards for the last few years just as two " For instances " Try finding a building firm that in this day and age would have the ability to build say York Minster or even more on topic talking transport just a few years ago  Joe Public  could fly by supersonic passenger jet across the world and today with all our progress he cant. 

There are many builders around today who could build a York Minster, you've only got to look at the mosques and temples that have/are being  built in the UK to see the standard of stone carving being carried out today.

Tim

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On 20/11/2017 at 16:19, Paul C said:

I was musing if it were more like, a project to come up with (for example) least cost route planning, given a particular defined network and costs of transport. In this respect, canalplan, however it does it, does it very well.

Canalplan uses some network traversing algorithms  with weightings for each waterway type and for things like locks, swingbridges and tunnels.

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