Aire and Calder Navigation - Traffic

Traffic

A 20th century modification of the compartment boat system was used to feed the coal-fired Ferrybridge "C" power station. Starting in 1967, Cawoods Hargreaves used trains of three tubs or coal pans, which were rigidly connected, and pushed by a tug when loaded. The trains were filled with coal using canalside chutes at the colliery and pushed to the power station, where a hoist lifted each pan from the canal and upturned it to drop it contents onto a conveyor belt. Nine tugs and 35 pans were employed, with each pan holding around 170 tonnes. By the time the final load left Astley colliery in December 2002, 43 million tonnes had been delivered to Ferrybridge in this way. Experiments were made with trains of four pans, which allowed copper pipes to be carried on top of the coal for delivery to Goole, but this was short-lived. Coal carrying came to an abrupt halt during the late 20th century when the St Aidens opencast mine was exhausted and the coal from Kellingley colliery was found to have levels of sulphur content way above the acceptable limit. During 2008, three of the trains were used on the River Don, to transport 250,000 tonnes of limestone from a quarry at Cadeby to Hexthorpe.

British Waterways introduced a similar system in September 1974. Called BACAT, for Barges Aboard Catamaran, the system consisted of trains of barges, which were pushed by a tug, and which would be loaded between the twin hulls of a custom-built delivery ship. The ship would then transport them across the North Sea to continental waterways, without their contents having to be transshipped. The concept failed after 18 months, as the dock workers at Hull blacklisted the entire British Waterways fleet, because they believed that the system would threaten their jobs. Most of the commercial traffic using the navigation now consists of petroleum tankers and gravel barges.