The Balloch Steam Slipway consists of a ramp, carriage and steam powered winch located on the shores of

Loch Lomond Loch Lomond (; gd, Loch Laomainn - 'Lake of the Elms'Richens, R. J. (1984) ''Elm'', Cambridge University Press.) is a freshwater Scottish loch which crosses the Highland Boundary Fault, often considered the boundary between the lowlands of Ce ...

by which ships or boats can be moved in and out of the loch, usually for repairs and general maintenance. It is owned and operated by the Loch Lomond Steamship Company. It is thought to be Europe's last steam operated winch and it is contained within a railway-style winch house that is

category A listed This is a list of Category A listed buildings in Scotland, which are among the listed buildings of the United Kingdom. For a fuller list, see the pages linked on List of listed buildings in Scotland. Key The organization of the lists in th ...

Infrastructure

The complex includes a

slipway A slipway, also known as boat ramp or launch or boat deployer, is a ramp on the shore by which ships or boats can be moved to and from the water. They are used for building and repairing ships and boats, and for launching and retrieving small ...

, carriage, boiler, steam engine and hauling gear and winch house.

History

The slipway construction started in 1900 and it was opened by the Dunbarton & Balloch Joint Line Committee in 1902 and finally fell out of use circa 1989. The railway-style winch house is a category A listed building. Following a £620,000 restoration project the Balloch slipway complex was officially reopened by

the Princess Royal Princess Royal is a style customarily (but not automatically) awarded by a British monarch to their eldest daughter. Although purely honorary, it is the highest honour that may be given to a female member of the royal family. There have been sev ...

in 2006. George Halliday Ltd. of

Rothesay Rothesay ( ; gd, Baile Bhòid ) is the principal town on the Isle of Bute, in the council area of Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It lies along the coast of the Firth of Clyde. It can be reached by ferry from Wemyss Bay, which offers an onward rail ...

and John Bennie of

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

were the original contractors. The was re-assembled on the slipway in 1953 following its construction, disassembly and transport by rail to a siding lying parallel to the slipway and launched on 25 May 1953. The ''Maid'' was taken onto the slip on 27 June 2006 after 25 years berthed at Balloch Pier.

Workings details

The boiler

The present reconditioned vertical water-tube boiler was taken from a steam crane built in 1953 that had been converted to diesel. To reduce smoke nuisance was converted to burn light oil by McEwen Ltd. of

Keighley Keighley ( ) is a market town and a civil parish in the City of Bradford Borough of West Yorkshire, England. It is the second largest settlement in the borough, after Bradford. Keighley is north-west of Bradford city centre, north-west of Bi ...

in Yorkshire. It was built by Cowans, Sheldon of

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern England, Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers River Eden, Cumbria, Eden, River C ...

and is a Spencer-Hopwood pattern, with has an operating pressure of .

The steam engine

The steam engine installed is a twin horizontal single-expansion design built in 1902 by John Bennie of Glasgow with a rated power of and an actual or shaft power output of . The length of the piston stroke is . On the last few occasions that the winch was used prior to restoration the steam engine was powered by compressed air to save buying a new boiler.

The winch

Three sets of gears on the winch create a gear ratio of approximately 1:113 so that 113 turns of the steam engine are required to turn the winding drum with its steel cable just one full rotation, however this gives enough force to pull even a ship the size of the ''

Maid of the Loch PS ''Maid of the Loch'' is the last paddle steamer built in the United Kingdom. She operated on Loch Lomond for 29 years and is being restored near Balloch, West Dunbartonshire, Balloch pier. While under restoration, The ''Maid of the Loch'' ...

'' slowly out of the water.

The carriage or cradle

The carriage was badly damaged when the was broken up on the slipway in 1999 and a new deck was made from

Douglas Fir The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Oregon pine, and Columbian pine. There are three va ...

Bellshill Bellshill (pronounced "Bells hill") is a town in North Lanarkshire in Scotland, southeast of Glasgow city centre and west of Edinburgh. Other nearby localities are Motherwell to the south, Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Hamilton to the south ...

Lanarkshire Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark ( gd, Siorrachd Lannraig; sco, Lanrikshire), is a historic county, lieutenancy area and registration county in the central Lowlands of Scotland. Lanarkshire is the most populous county in Scotlan ...

. As many components as possible of the old carriage were re-used. Twenty-four two-wheeled bogies run on either side of the central rails that have 41 four-wheeled bogies and the whole carriage structure runs upon these. The four cast iron rails run over 300 feet into the waters of the loch and this section was badly corroded. Two central rails have a locking rack between them so that pawls on the central bogies can drop down and lock the carriage or cradle firmly in position as required. The gradient of the slip is 1 in 18 and the total length of the rails is 560 feet or 171 metres. The angle on the carriage, combined with the angle of the slip gives the suitable overall gradient of 1 in 44.5 for a ship.

The site today

The £620,000 restoration means that the can be removed from the water whenever required and other Loch Lomond ships can also use this facility. The winch house was never previously open to the public however it now has frequently open days and has regular 'in steam' open days. The paddlesteamer is berthed at the nearby Balloch Pier. The Loch Lomond Shores visitor attractions and retail outlets are located nearby.

Micro-history

A slipway once existed at

Luss Luss (''Lus'', 'herb' in Gaelic) is a village in Argyll and Bute, Scotland, on the west bank of Loch Lomond. The village is within the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park. History Historically in the County of Dunbarton, its origina ...

and work even started on a dry dock at the Garabal Basin on the

Inverarnan Canal The Inverarnan Canal was a short length of canal terminating at Garbal, close to the hamlet of Inverarnan, Scotland. This waterway once linked the old coaching inn, now the Drovers Inn, at Inverarnan, on the Allt Arnan Burn (a tributary of the Fa ...

References

Bibliography

* * Hume, John R. (1976). ''The Industrial Archaeology of Scotland. 1. The Lowlands and Borders.'' London : B.T.Batsford Ltd. .

External links

Video footage of the Balloch Steam Slipway
* http://paddlesteamers.info/MaidoftheLoch1953.htm {{DEFAULTSORT:Balloch Steam Slipway History of West Dunbartonshire Tourist attractions in Scotland Loch Lomond Vale of Leven