Teddington Lock free flow question.

[Teddy]

How often does Teddington Lock have gates at both ends open?

Many years ago I remember "driving" straight through at high tide. It seemed quite odd at the time.

Another question, when is the next really high tide due at Teddington, i.e. when flooding can occur?

 

[Richard Shead]

Howard (tedd lock keeper) will be on soon to answer this one but the simple answer is when the tide is high enough ie the water downstream becomes higher than the upstream.

Dont have any to hand but HW is london bridge + 1hour

 

[TrueBlue]

There was a discussion on this forum last year (?) and as far as I remember it only happens at equinoctial high (spring) tides.

Amazing to watch the water running "uphill".

Hopefully the real experts (as opposed to me as an armchair expert...) will post soon to confirm or put me right.

Happy Easter everybody (It's not snowing here yet!)

 

[Richard Shead]

Happened last year, went through it myself and also a couple of weeks ago.

Cheers

 

[teddington_lock]

Happens once or twice a month usually ...

If we are running our headwater at 4 above , it will level out when the tailwater reaches 18' 6" ...

While it is fun to watch , it is both a blessing and a pain for us. Ok, it means we don't have to cycle locks to get boats through , but it also means ( mainly in the summer ) that we are dashing up and down , as boats heading upstream can't always see boats coming downstream , so we have to watch for potential collisions .

Also , and this can be very comical to watch , as the water is forced through the lock , obviously it narrows and the water speeds up ... this has caught a few narrowboats unawares and they end up bouncing off the sides ( a few plastics too /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif )...

The biggest pain , is once we are thinking it is nearly high water , we need to man the pedestal constantly , trying to edge the gates closed , as the worst thing that could happen ( literally ) would be for the tide to turn and us not notice it .

Then there would be a huge problem as the rams on the gates wouldn't be powerful enough to do a controlled close on the gates and they could 'slam' shut , with predictable consequences ... i guess the only way to close them would be to get some big ropes on the gates and round a bollard and try and close them that way , but by the time you had organised that , it might be too late . Not sure if this has ever happened , but it is a possibility.