Audio Excerpt

Big Chute Marine Railway is a patent slip at lock 44 on the Trent-Severn Waterway.  Uh,..what? OK, let's start over, A patent slip works on an inclined plane to carry boats in individual cradles over a change in height.  Basically a big dock that moves on railways and carries your boat over a hill to a new body of water. 

 

The original Big Chute.. ok ok last time.. was completed in 1917 and could carry boats up to 35 feet long.  In 1923 the Big Chute was replaced with a bigger platform and could accommodate boats up to 60 feet long….hmmm although for some reason the name did not change to Bigger Chute!

 

Well if you can believe it, eventually they wanted a chute even bigger than the bigger chute but the sea lamprey...a nasty invasive species that kills other fish was making problems.

 

Thankfully they found a way to keep the lamprey from invading area lakes and in 1978 opened a… yep.. even bigger chute to carry boats up to a hundred feet long! 

 

They don't use the 1923 carriage  anymore, but it's on display so go ahead and make the quick trip to The Big Chute,...it's an amazing piece of transportation technology and the only marine railway of its kind in North America.