Hello
Good morning
from a very chilly Falkirk on the Union Canal in Scotland.
Yes, it might be sunny but it's cold.
It's a four-layer day people.
[Laughs]
So why is it called the Union Canal?
Well when they built it, it was meant to unite the two big cities in Scotland, Edinburgh and Glasgow
and the Union Canal linked with the Forth and Clyde Canal
via a flight of eleven locks about half a mile behind us
and they went down, curved around the hillside and came out on the Forth and Clyde
and everything was all right for a while.
But then as the canal trade started to decrease
they closed the locks they were dismantled, some of them were filled in
and the link was broken.
There was no union between Glasgow and Edinburgh anymore
All done.
and things stayed like that for well over 60 years.
But then in 1998 they started the Millennium Link Project,
it cost 84 million pounds.
[Shaun] Ooooh!
Yeah
and they were going to try and redo the link between the Union and Forth & Clyde Canals,
but since they closed the locks, they built houses and businesses and roads
and a viaduct that carried the railway had been filled in,
so they had to get through, how were they going to do it?
Go through somebody's kitchen.
[Laughs] It would have probably been ours wouldn't it?
[Laughs]
So they had a lot of planning to do.
[Music playing]
The first challenge was to dig a new channel, a new cut,
which comes from Port Maxwell about half a mile back,
Port Maxwell, it sounds like Fort Boyard doesn't it?
Do you remember that with, Samantha Fox?
Fort Boyard? It sounds nothing like it.
It does doesn't it, it sounds more exciting than it is,
it's just a set of visitor moorings now.
But it's right next to where the canal used to branch off
and go down the eleven locks to the Forth and Clyde Canal.
So the new cutting comes down here
and here are a new set of locks, it's a double staircase lock
and it takes the canal down about 30 feet.
[Music playing]
So what is a staircase lock?
Well locks usually have an area of water between them called a pound,
but here the locks are joined together,
they were usually built where the canal had to climb a steep gradient over a shorter distance,
They can be a bit daunting especially for new boaters or those with little experience,
so there's always some experienced staff on hand to guide you through.
As we go into the top lock, the gates are closed behind us
and the water is then emptied into that lower chamber.
Once the water levels are equal,
the lock keepers open the gates and we move forward into that next lock
and the water's then emptied from this chamber
down to the canal at the bottom, it's as simple as that.
[Music playing]
If you'd like to check out some huge and interesting staircase locks,
watch our episodes on the Bingley Five Rise Locks,
Neptune's Staircase and the Fort Augustus Locks on the Caledonian Canal,
I'll put links in the video description.
[Music playing]
As you come out of the staircase locks you've got a really sharp starboard turn
and then Roughcastle Tunnel ahead.
Weirdly it's the first canal tunnel to be dug in the UK for decades,
but it's only the second ever canal tunnel to be dug in Scotland
and they had to dig it because above it is the railway between Edinburgh and Glasgow,
there's also Bonnyhill Road, which is a busy road.
There's some houses and there's the Antonine Wall,
which is a historic roman wall and they weren't allowed to disturb that.
[Retro psychedelic music playing]
Colin] As we approach the tunnel [Retro psychedelic music playing]
you can see the lights flashing [Retro psychedelic music playing]
red and green and red and green [Retro psychedelic music playing]
don't worry it's not a warning of the [Retro psychedelic music playing]
trippy experience that you're about to encounter, [Retro psychedelic music playing]
it just means proceed but with caution. [Retro psychedelic music playing]
[Retro psychedelic music playing]
Roughcastle Tunnel is a baby, it's only 20 years old, [Retro psychedelic music playing]
it's 575 feet long [Retro psychedelic music playing]
and it recently had some amazing [Retro psychedelic music playing]
architectural lighting installed [Retro psychedelic music playing]
along the length of the roof. [Retro psychedelic music playing]
Things are about to get rather groovy
[Retro psychedelic music playing]
WOW that was amazing and things are about to get even better.
We emerge from the tunnel,
approaching the aqueduct that carries us towards the Falkirk Wheel.
Standing 115 feet high,
I can see distant mountains further north into Scotland from here
and a bit more concerning, a dead end in the canal
with a 79 foot drop.
[Music playing]
When the Millennium Project began,
the biggest challenge was always going to be reconnecting the Union Canal
back to the Forth and Clyde Canal.
But with the Union being over 100 feet higher than the Forth and Clyde
and the old locks long since dismantled,
engineers were tasked to come up with something unique
to bring these canals back together.
[Music playing]
They came up with all sorts of weird and wonderful ideas
to try and solve the difference in height,
rolling eggs,
tilting tanks, a giant seesaw
and even an overhead monorail
that lifted boats out of the water
and onto a lift that looked like a huge ferris wheel.
[Music playing]
Finally this rotating wheel design was given the go ahead,
the shape was inspired by recognisable sights from Scotland's past.
The ribcage of a whale,
a vast turning propeller of a Clydebank built ship
and the arms which is shaped like a Celtic double-headed spear.
Over a thousand people were involved in building the Falkirk Wheel,
from the moment it was first constructed in Derbyshire 300 miles south of here,
before being completely dismantled
and brought up to Falkirk on 35 lorries,
to be built back together again like a giant Meccano set.
15,000 bolts hold the 1200 tons of steel together
and then the wheel was officially opened by the Queen in 2002.
So how does it work?
Well the engineering and design might look modern,
but the theory that actually makes it work,
dates back over 2000 years to Archimedes Principle.
Do you remember him from history class at school,
he's the greek engineer who shouted,
EUREKA!
[Laughs]
Jumped out of his bath and ran down the street to tell the King what he'd discovered.
His theory is that floating objects displace their own weight in water
and that theory is what makes the Falkirk Wheel work.
There's two caissons or gondolas, they're just like giant bathtubs
and when a boat comes into the caisson, the amount of water leaving it,
weighs exactly the same as the boat that's entering.
So as long as there's the same amount of water in each caisson,
which is constantly monitored by computers,
they'll both weigh exactly the same, about 500 tons
and that's even if one's empty and the other one is full of boats.
[Music playing]
We're all set to go,
two hydraulic water tight steel gates
rise up from a recess in the caisson behind us
and once they're locked into place,
the water in between the gates gets pumped out.
The clamps that hold the wheel to the base of the structure
are unlocked and that means the wheel can start turning.
[Music playing]
10 hydraulic motors begin to rotate a central axle
connected to the outer arms which hold the caissons.
It slowly begins to turn at about one eighth of a revolution per minute
and at that speed it's gonna take us about four minutes
to complete the half turn down to the lower basin,
which is 79 feet below us
[Music playing]
The wheel can turn clockwise or anti-clockwise,
but to prevent too much wear and tear on the bearings and the other parts of the wheel,
the operators in the control room balance out the number of times it goes in each direction.
[Music playing]
As the wheel rotates, the caissons stay upright all the time
and that's thanks to a set of gears.
two 8 meter outer rings
orbit around that fixed centre cog, via these smaller cogs
and they travel in opposite direction to the outer rings
and that's how the two caissons manage to stay level all the time.
[Music playing]
It only takes about one and a half kilowatt hours of energy
to turn the wheel in one half rotation,
that's about the same as boiling eight kettles of water.
It's all down to balance and equilibrium.
It doesn't take as much energy to move them as it would if there was just one,
in fact having two like this uses about a 20th of the power,
because all you need to do is start the movement and then stop it.
[Music playing]
Once we've completed the rotation, a hydraulic clamp locks the caisson back into place
and stops the wheel from moving
and the space between those water tight gates is filled up with water.
Once the water levels have equalised, the gates can lower down
and we can move off.
[Music playing]
At the bottom, there's a visitors centre and there's a trip boat that takes passengers up
and down the wheel and across the aqueducts and through Roughcastle Tunnel,
so you can come and have a go for yourself.
If you're a boater and want to take your own boat on the Falkirk Wheel,
it doesn't cost anything, you just need to book with the wheel in advance
so that they can see you through the locks and safely onto the wheel itself.
[Music playing]
If you'd like to take a real-time 360 degree trip on the Falkirk Wheel,
we've just released a 360 video
where you can literally look all around you during the entire trip.
It's an amazing experience if you've not watched a 360 degree video before.
There's a link on screen at the to right,
if it's not there you can check it out in the video description,
which links to our sister channel, Britain by Narrowboat,
where you can watch the video after this one.
[Music playing]
We're on one of those wibbly wobbly pontoons again
[Laughs]
and Shaun's just got a mouth full of chocolate digestive,
Again!
without the chocolate.
Do you lick all the chocolate off before you eat the digestive? I do.
No, you're just weird.
I'm not just weird, it's the same with Oreos, you eat the double stuff, I like the double stuff
and then you eat the biscuits. You don't dunk them in milk what's that all about.
[Laughs]
Anyway, here we are
on a different canal, so we're now on the Forth and Clyde Canal.
Glasgow is about 22 miles that way,
Edinburgh is about 31 miles back the way we've come.
Oooh what a ride that was.
[Laughing]
It didn't take long but it were really enjoyable,
a bit like most things in life really isn't it,
I used to know somebody like that.
[Laughs]
Four minutes it takes to get from the top around to the bottom,
Not long at all
and the views are amazing, especially on a day like this.
Yeah, lovely and clear.
and it ace, because imagine how much water eleven locks used to use
and now which time.
It used to take like nearly a half a day a full day if you're an inexperienced boater to get down.
But this is like four minutes and it doesn't waste a drop of water,
because the water it brings down takes back up again.
Star!
Amazing!
Amazeballs!
Loving that.
I hope you enjoyed all the little facts and figures about the Millennium Link project
and about how they built theFalkirk Wheel.
We've been getting a lot of requests for quite a few months
to do an episode about the Falkirk Wheel,
so I hope we've lived up to your expectations.
If you have and you're not already, please subscribe to the channel
and give the video a thumbs up.
If you'd like to get notifications from YouTube every time we release a new video,
hit the notifications bell
and if you'd like to help support the channel, so we can make more of this kind of stuff,
Yeah!
especially on days like this,
Yeahhhh!
then there's a link up above Shaun's head
if you're watching on a smartphone or tablet,
or in the video description if you go to a computer
and you can join as a YouTube member,
or become a patron on our Patreon sites and get loads of behind-the-scenes exclusives, how we make stuff
and I nearly swore there.
More of this madness.
Stuff like that.
[Laughs]
So we've got 22 miles to get to Glasgow
And back.
and apparently there's a football game on by the time we get there.
Oh we're not stopping.
[Laughs]
and a drive through McDonald's.
We're stopping.
We'll see you next time, bye bye.
Ta-ra!
[Music playing]