Story Notes: Mersey · 1:18am Oct 21st, 2023
We're gonna talk about canals and trains and ponies! But first!
Pre-read by the illustrious BlueBook and AlwaysDressesInStyle!
Some years ago Winter Quill sent me a link to a video of a horse pulling a barge on an English canal with a comment like 'this is right up your alley' (if you've read the fic and the comments, you know I didn't remember who'd sent me the link, so of course I don't remember what it said specifically). Fact is, all of y'all who are here know that I love working ponies and I love old-fashioned tech and combining the two is basically catnip to me. Delving into how canals work and thinking about a pony spin on it is genuinely fun, and a year or two ago I took a diversion on my route to Seaquestriafest to get a gander at what's left of the C&O canal.
It's not much, but it's also enough to get an idea what they were up against when they built it, and their thought process as they did.
See, if you want to move a bunch of stuff, the most efficient way to do so is float it on water. The problem with that concept is that the water doesn't always go where you wish it would, but then shovels are a really old invention, and with a shovel and a plan, you can have a canal. Throw in some locks if the water has to go up or down (boats hate rapids) and you're in business. Throw in lots of shovels and lots of locks and a few bridges because why not and maybe a tunnel if you're feeling frisky and all of a sudden you can connect places with cheap bulk transport.
One equine can tow a barge carrying many times what they could tow on a wagon.
While England has lots of canals (and I presume much of the rest of Europe does as well), the US hasn't got so many, and that's because locomotives were invented. While it's a well-known fact that trains don't really like hills, canals like them even less, and a train can get over a hill faster than a canal barge can (usually). The heyday of canal construction and the invention of locomotives more or less coincided in the US, and while we got some pretty awesome canals (most of them now distant memories) we also got railways, one of which imported a steam locomotive from England and only after putting it in service realized it was too heavy for the infrastructure.
That's neither here nor there. Still funny, though.
Also, it would be remiss of me to mention that some of the early railways were horse powered; the advantages of hauling one or more cars on a steel track were obvious, but how would you move it along? Same way you moved everything along at that time, hitch a horse (or several) to it.
But we're talking about canals, not the trains that would eventually replace them. And so we're gonna talk about the ponies:
Mersey is of course named for the River Mersey, which runs more or less from Stockport, UK and empties into Liverpool Bay. To those not in the UK, the river might be familiar as the titular river in the Gerry and the Pacemakers song Ferry Cross the Mersey. There is in fact, a ferry 'cross the Mersey.
Flash Lock is named for an antique type of canal lock. Most of the ones that you'll see in pictures or in real life have two gates on each end which come together in a point that faces towards the highest water level, since the more water that forces against them, the tighter they seal. Back in Ye Olde Times, locks only had one gate at each end, which was removed when boats wanted to get through, and they'd surf their way down the river in a flash.
Swanky Brook is named for the Sankey Brook canal, also known as the St. Helens Canal. It connects to Sankey Brook (which flows into the River Mersey) as well as the River Mersey itself. Opened in 1757, it is England's oldest 'modern' canal, the first of the industrial revolution.
Regarding the other named ponies, Wind Walker is the fan name for a Wonderbolt (and is the only non-OC in the story):
Cucuzza Verde is a color of paint that Sherwin Williams sells.
River Dreams is of course a nod to GroaningGreyAgony's Riverdream at Sunset, and if you haven't read that yet, why not? I'll put a link down at the very bottom where it's convenient for you. 
I also didn't pull the names of the competing companies out of nowhere. Both Treskow and Mount Carbon are named for railroads on the Anthracite coal fields in Pennsylvania (if you follow my Instagram, you'll really appreciate that they're in Pennsylvania). I don't know much about them, because I don't have access to the book that google let me preview. Mount Carbon might be the name of an actual mountain and not a railroad; on the other hand, Tresckow (I spelled it differently) was a railroad owned(?) by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company; one of the others was Mauch Chunk which, if you appreciate the history of roller coasters or watch Citation Needed, is debatably the first roller coaster in the US.
In fact, even though it's not germane to the story at all, a lot of the coal companies had 'gravity railroads' to get coal to the canal, or the railroad—gravity brings the loaded cars down, and then the empty cars are hauled back up by horses or mules or sometimes locomotives. Another railroad, also in Pennsylvania, had the first steam locomotive in the US (probably). The Stourbridge Lion was built by Foster, Rastrick, and Company in England and exported to the US in 1829, with the intent of hauling coal wagons. The Delaware & Hudson Canal Company [later a railroad with the same name] operated a gravity railroad (the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company Gravity Railroad*} who tested it out in Honsdale, PA, where they quickly determined that it was too heavy for their tracks.
*this is considered to be the second-oldest railroad in the US, after the Mohawk and Hudson Rail Road—they were the ones who owned the DeWitt Clinton locomotive.
The few pieces of that locomotive that are left are on display at the B&O railroad museum just down the street from Bronycon
and there's a replica of the locomotive in the Wayne County Historical Society Museum.
(I didn't find the exact page; google images gave me an image but when I tried to open the site, it wouldn't let me. Also fun fact for those who don't click on links, their steam locomotive page starts by saying "No D&H steam locomotives have been preserved with the exception of two pieces, ironically from the first and last steam on the D&H.")
I won't go too in-depth about canals (although that would be a fascinating subject for blog posts). I already did one introduction to canals for the Canal Boat arc of Field Notes from Equestria: Story Notes: Canal Boat. The basic gist is that we've been constructing canals for a very long time, since it's been obvious to humanity that you can float a lot of stuff on a boat, and if the water doesn't go where you want it to, a shovel can make it go where you want it to. Things like locks were a later invention, since water doesn't like going uphill, and water going downhill is difficult or impossible to navigate.
That having been said, in 1909 the freighter Perry G Walker rammed the downstream gates of the Soo Locks, which caused them to open; the Assiniboia and the Crescent City, both queuing for a downwards trip, set a record for lock passage which will never be equaled (hopefully). Lest other pilots think that's a convenient shortcut, the Assiniboia spend much of that day being repaired; the Perry G Walker took three days to fix, and the Crescent City sank while awaiting repair, but they were able to raise it and fix it.
I couldn't even begin to touch on the number of innovations that canals had. Some of the details in the story are based on real infrastructure on real canals (such as the tunnel), while others didn't exist as far as I know (the trip-gate so the tow ponies can cross over on the bridge). In the days before engines, windlasses were often used to pull things—including boats—into position; the windlasses were often equine-powered. Barges could be poled, too; a long pole would push along the bottom, and now you know that the barge pole you wouldn't touch a thing with is based on a real piece of equipment.
If you want another story about canals--more historically focused--check out BlueBook's Up The Ohio Canal
- MLP: FiM
- Romance
- Slice of Life
J.H. Wilkins is a prominent Cleveland businessman in 1850. He takes a trip on the canal boat Sylph to Akron. However, it turns out to be more than he bargained for when he catches the eye of the boat's captain... a lady pony!If you want to read about a historical type of boat--literally a hay-burner--check out BlueBook's Team Boat.
- MLP: FiM
- Romance
- Slice of Life
It's just another day in 1835, as a lady landscape painter takes a ferry boat across Lake Champlain. Oh, did I mention the boat’s Captain is a talking horse?Well, now I'm mentally designing a gravity railroad in which the weight of the descending full cars is used to haul back the empties.
Might not be The Stourport Lion, but Lion is the main character in a movie.
I think I read that most of it was discovered on a Liverpool dock, saved, reassembled and repaired, and now sits in the York collection by the remains of Rocket?
Happy 200th anniversary Lion, the star of the movie, The Titfield Thunderbolt.
Older than many canals?
Im not actually sure if the River Mersy in Liverpool docks is still reachable by the Leeds Liverpool canals flight of locks down the valley side as theres been so many docks filled in or enclosed for waterside apartments and leisure, but theres 126 miles to go on for exploring. Like passing under the battlements of Skipton Castle. Getting to look up at the buisiness end of the toilets.
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That would be a gravity balance cable railway, and they did exist. More common were gravity cableways; Tom Scott did a video about one that's still in operation (or at least was when he made the video).
Coincidentally, I recently visited the Liverpool maritime museum, and got a good look at the locks that separate the docks from the Mercey. There are still some of the equine-powered capstans there that were used to move the old sailing ships in, out, and around.
I asked what the harnesses that the horses used looked like. There don't seem to be any photos, but I was directed to a big bronze statue that honored the working horses of the time,* and he was in harness!
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* Properly appreciative people, those Liverpudlians!
Most of the English canal tunnels (a "cut" or "adit") were only slightly larger than the barge itself. Since towlines couldn't be used, two bargemen would lie supine on the bow, across a plank or beam, and literally "leg" the boat through the tunnel—hence, the term, "legging it" ( We're gonna have to leg this one all the way!). Not for the faint of heart. Good job for earth-ponies, though. A good legger ("hoofer"?) might make good bits if he or she can leg a barge smartly through a long adit. Now that's an endurance test!
Narrowboat Legging – AtlasObscura.com
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I tell myself that the ponies are currently doing that very thing. They don't miss a trick, those ponies.
I'm still determined to go on a canal tour somewhere. A little pricy, but if I can find one without a cell signal so work can't call me....
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Not just cableways, funiculars too. A funicular is a type of railway involving two train cars that are attached on a cable pulley system. The trains don't have to be cable suspended, they can run on rails with the cable threaded underneath too. There's a water powered funicular in a seaside town local to me. It's a short set of parallel tracks set on a steep hill. There are two passenger wagons, one on each side. The wagons each have a ballast tank. The wagon at the top gets its ballast tank filled with water while the other empties at the bottom. This is used to change the weight of the cars and allows them to pull each other up.
There are other types of funicular, including ones which run on a single track, but split into two in the middle of the line for the funicular cars to pass each other. There's even a funicular tramway somewhere (I don’t know where) in which tram cars drive on a regular tram line, but its got an upper and lower portion. In order for trams to get between the two layers, there's a funicular incline where the trams couple up with a cable hauled funicular that pushes them up or lowers them down. (They still do it two at a time to balance out the weights a little.)
Sorry about the tangent, I just really like railways.
As we all know, ponies and railroads always go together well. This story shows that ponies also go well with canals!
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https://www.shirecruisers.co.uk/routes/one-way-leeds.php#:~:text=79%20miles%2079%20locks%2045%20hours&text=One%20of%20the%20great%20canal,of%20just%2Dbuilt%20waterfront%20Leeds.
For you Sir, it seems you can in fact travel to Leeds - Liverpool via canal. A quick 45 hour trip apparently
If I remember correctly the canals around Liverpool got cleaned up back in 2008 due to the capital of culture award. Much nicer then what they used to look like in the 90s, especially the Albert Dock
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I get confused easily between canals at Summits, but pretty much holds the record.
Huddersfield canals Standedge Tunnel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standedge_Tunnels
3 miles one boat legging. For a wage of 1.5 shillings.
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Boy are you in the right place!
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That does seem to be the case. Not quite the locomotive's 200th anniversary yet, but it's getting close (2037).
Surprisingly early preservation effort, too. I'm glad I looked that one up
I was skimming through preservation efforts and such on canals in that area (more just what I saw in the WIkipedia articles about them), and I do recall a few sections that got filled in over the years. I suppose that's a challenge when you're going to try and restore it, especially if something got built there.
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On my way to Seaquestriafest last year, I stopped at a gas station and on my way out noticed that they had a fiberglass horse with a proper harness on it, attached to an Amish buggy IIRC. I took a bunch of pictures of it.
From what I've seen of pictures on the internet, horses that were intended to only turn capstans or sweeps would usually only wear the front half of a harness. The breast-band or yoke, and the belly strap--they wouldn't need any other part of the harness, because they don't have to stop it from turning; when they stop it stops.
cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/879533986303606834/1165770820983992401/horse_turning_sweep.jpg
Assuming the pic loads, you can see that the horse doesn't appear to be wearing anything behind the belly band
Of course, you could also usually attach to a normal harness, and that was probably done if the horses were used for multiple tasks, which I expect they likely were. Winch a barge in, then hook up to a wagon to unload the cargo. . . .
Mersey (and Swanky) might be wearing a very similar harness, although I've also seen canal harnesses that have a component over the rump which I think is meant to deal with the sideways pull of the rope.
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I was wondering about that. I remember being inspired to include a tunnel after watching a Cruising the Cut video where he went through a very low tunnel. Obviously, his modern barge has a motor, so propulsion wasn't a problem. I couldn't see any way that they could have gotten horses through unless the horses walked in the water (which I suppose might have been done some places, depending on how deep it was)
I hadn't thought about poling it (which they could have done) and I never even would have considered legging it!
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I wouldn't be surprised at all.
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Here in the US, or overseas? I don't know of many where you can go here in the US, but there are probably some canals or sections of canals that are still navigable. Over in Europe, there's plenty of them. Don't know what can be done to keep work from calling you, though.
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I was misled by wikipedia
I did know about funiculars, but the way the article was written implied that funiculars were powered by a motor and usually the top pulley for the cable, with the two trains more or less counterbalancing each other, and the motor making up the difference for slightly different loads in the two trains. I didn't know if anybody has ever built a purely gravity-operated funicular with rails where loaded cars go down and empty cars go up, although that is certainly a thing which could be built (although I suspect in the few cases where it would be practical, an aerial cableway would be more practical and cheaper to construct).
That is really, really clever, and I never knew that was a thing. You'd have to be sure that you had a good supply of water at the top of the hill, but so long as you did, you'd be good.
The single track with the passing loop in the middle is the type I'm most familiar with.
I haven't heard of the tram line with a funicular section.
I've got a few railway-themed stories you might be interested in! Buttons and Destination Unknown, and another to be published SoonTM <__shameless self-promotion.
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Ponies go well with everything, and that's an actual fact.
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Yikes.
Probably still better than being in the mines, though.
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Neat! I can see that the harness is only the front parts... makes sense.
I looked up my photos, and the statue is of a cart horse, specifically, so he's got the full rig. Interesting chain bits, though.
i.ibb.co/VqYkb1M/IMG-2256.jpg
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Yeah, I'd guess that they had standard harnesses so every horse could be used wherever needed.
I am curious about that chain. That seems like an odd way to do it, and on the statue it's slack enough it doesn't seem like it would provide any benefit. I'm sure that whoever made that statue was working from actual photos/drawings/interviews with dock workers, so I'm sure it's accurate, just not something I've ever seen before.
I'd be interested in learning more about that style of harness.
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Second reply, 'cause I did some more digging!
According to Judy Boyt, the sculptor of that statue: "I discovered that Liverpool horses had their own unique design of gear (harness). The wagons were pulled by two horses in tandem, but the horse here is the shaft horse."
What I'm guessing from that context is that they pulled in line, rather than in tandem.
(here's the link to Judy Boyt's article about the statue)
An article from the Liverpool Echo mentions the docks, and that they were still using horsepower in WWII, and it has a picture of a shire horse in a modern parade hauling a wason with that harness; the chains hook to the wagon shafts and a third chain comes down from the saddle (the middle bit).
Culture Liverpool has an article about them with some historical photographs, although none are closeups of the harness. There is a closeup of the blinders, which is of interest because Judy Boyt said that the blinders were 'based on shells' (which I take to mean that they originally were shells) and the blinders have a seashell embossment in them.
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That is so sweet about the carters coming in to approve the statue before casting and getting emotional about it!
That's some champion research, there!
The pic with the horse between the shafts is really intriguing. The front-to-back chains do seem to have a lot of slack in them. She must be slowing down or going downhill.
And that timber wagon on the third site... Whoa! That must have been a beast to pull even without the load!
I particularly like the scallop shell decoration on the blinders. Originally using the actual item, and then making the replacement resemble that item... it happens quite a lot, it seems. That's why the original Formica furniture pieces all had to be printed with woodgrain, I guess. Also, incredibly obscure trivia: the first pottery in North America was patterned to resemble basketwork!
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I feel like a lot of workers are more sentimental than they let on, and of course to the men working the horses, it wasn't just a machine, it was a literal coworker. Back when I drove wrecker, I kind of personified my truck, but at the end of the day it was just a truck . . . the horses would have had real personality.
I'm guessing by that pic she's going downhill, but it's hard to say for sure. I'd expect that the trade-off of the presumably quick fastening and unfastening of carts led to coat damage, which is something to consider when our little ponies are wearing the harnesses. Some of them care and some of them don't, I'd wager. Some jobs it's probably a badge of honor to have strap scars.
Yeah, I have to imagine it would be. I don't know why they used wheels that big, but I'm sure there was a reason why--you wouldn't build them like that if you didn't have to. That's something where I'd have to do a lot more research--I'm sure someone knows.
Huh, I didn't know that about the Formica . . . learn something new every day!
Kinda along those same lines, my dad told me about some traditional rowboat that had a little step in the middle along the keel. When someone asked about it, all the boatmakers said it was because they were always built that way . . . well, that someone got curious, and it turned out that the boats used to be fitted with masts, and the little step was what was left of a mast step.
I didn't know that, either, but I can see the logic.