Day 64- Brewer's Lock 45 to Kingston, ON

As mentioned in yesterday's blog, we didn't make it to Kingston. There was one more set of locks, Kingston Mills, that was ten miles away and it was already 3:30, so no go. After a quiet night at Lower Brewer's Lock, and a nice morning walk, we shoved off at 0800 to be at the Kingston Mills lock when they opened up for the day.

Along the way we saw much of the same things as on the way north.

This swan finally showed off his feathers for me.

It was obviously a morning for the birds.

Told you it was a morning for the birds.

Someone spent some time building this miniature mill. The water wasn't flowing this morning, but I bet the wheel turns when the water is running.

Who did we find at the Kingston Mills lock? It's Jeff, with the scooter!. When we asked about him leaving Brewer's last night, he allowed as how he was not an early riser, so he came down here last night.

How many times have I moaned about the leisurely pace of the 1000 opening time? Not today! We got a rare treat. The Kingston Mills locks are a set of four locks. The upper one is detached. It opens up into a small 'reach' and then there is a flight of three locks that lower us about 35 feet.

Today, there was a delay because there were workers in the middle lock of the flight. That meant that the upper detached lock was empty, the 'reach' was empty and the first two locks of the flight were empty. This was our first opportunity to really see the mechanisms of the locks. As luck would have it, the Kingston Mills flight has an example of every variation in locking mechanisms on the entire canal system.

In the photo above, taken from the gate of the upper lock, you can see across the reach to the upper gate of the top lock in the flight (arrow).

Walking around the now empty reach, the lower gate of the

top lock is visible to the left (arrow).

Inside the top lock, we can see the sluice gates that are mounted on the lock gates. They open like louvers. There is only about a foot of water in the chamber. The grey steel that you see at the top of the picture is actually a swing bridge that crosses the middle of the upper lock. The have to open that bridge to let us in. You can also see one of the black cables fixed to the lock wall, that is how we attach ourselves while in the lock.

Often, the lock have sluice gates built into the side walls, in the recess where the lock gate will fit when opened. Most often, the sluice gates on the 'upper' side of a lock will have these side channels. Many of the lower gates will have the sluice gates in the lock gate itself, as seen earlier.

This is a really cool shot. You can clearly see the gent who was down inside the chamber wrapping up a chore. You can also clearly see the open louvers

of the sluice gate in the side wall.

Unique to this picture, and unique to every other lock in the system, is the arc track on the chamber floor. Due to the proximity of the rock cliff beside the lock there isn't enough room for either the push-bar or the swing bar method for opening or shutting the gate. This one uses a chain to pull the gate along the arc track in the chamber floor. The winch by the gent in the boonie hat opens the gate. This is the hardest gate to crank open.

This shot shows the more common push bar, the long beam that is used with a chain winch to pull the gate open or push the gate shut. In the foreground, the winch you see operates the sluice gate on this side of the chamber. To the right of the far sluice gate mechanism, you can just make out the chains coming up from the bottom of the lock to the winch that opens and shuts the actual gate.

The water rushing into the chamber here comes from one of the sluice gates built into the side of the chamber above. Above the lock door, you can see the winch that controls the gate. They paint the top of the ratcheted bar white so they can see the status of the sluice gates. We never get to see the sluice gates in action, we can only see the roiling water on the surface. Here, they are in the process of refilling all of the locks and the reach to put the locks back into service.

The sluice gates in the lower doors of the top lock, which you saw open earlier, are now flooding the reach and the lower locks. The locktenders had opened the sluice gates at the upper end of this lock to let river water in and refill the whole system.

This was a fascinating opportunity to see the 19th century engineering still in use today.

The blockhouse built to defend the lock against the Americans. Note the horizontal slits in the walls. Those are loopholes allowing a wide arc of musket fire. Good thing we didn't come this way!