Big Chute

The trip from Orillia to the Georgian Bay includes the last four locks on the Trent Severn Waterway. One of these, Swift Rapids, was built in the 1960s and is the deepest, single standard lock on the waterway at 47 feet. We were going down and it takes eight minutes just to let the water out of the lock. But the highlight of the waterway is Big Chute, a railway lock that connects two bodies of water by carrying boats over a 57 foot hill on a railway car. That's right - a railway car.

Railway car

I was standing on the road as the car passed me heading down to pick up a boat when I took this picture. If you look very closely, you can see two people standing next to the ranger station in the middle of the picture at the bottom. That gives you some perspective on how big this thing is.

The reason they built this type of connector was to contain an invasive species of sea lampreys that had spawned in the Georgian Bay. They didn't want them to get into the lakes of the waterway. Since fish can and do lock through with boats in a conventional lock, they decided to drive over the hill rather than cut through it.

Hill that Big Chute traverses

The way this works is that the rail car drives into the water, then boats drive into the car. 

Headed down to pick up boats

Boats entering submerged rail car

Small, flat bottom boats and jet skis just sit on the bottom of the car and the riders hold on to the sides. Larger boats are held in place by straps that the lock staff adjust as the boats drive into the car.

Rear boat held by straps

Because Down Time is a catamaran, a boat with two hulls, they sat her on the bottom of the car resting on her hulls. We have metal struts protecting the propellers at the back of the boat that can't take the load of the boat, so they put us in the back of the car and actually left the last eight feet of the boat hanging off the back to protect the struts.

Once the car is loaded, they just drive it over the hill, into the water on the other side, and the boats re-float and drive away.

Up with a full load

At the top of the hill

Re-entering the water on the other side

Driving away from the submerged car

This is the way it looks from inside your boat while you are crossing.

As I said, we were at the back of the car, so we didn't get the really great views. But that was fine, I found it nerve-wracking enough from the back. The rail car rumbles along, bouncing and rocking a bit and I found every little twitch scary. I was convinced that we were going to fall off the back although, of course, they do this six times an hour, all day long, many times with boats bigger than ours and don't drop them.

The mechanism that pulls the car over the hill is a series of cables. The car is built with two sets of wheels that run on independent tracks. This keeps the car level as it climbs and descends the hill.

Cables inside the lock house

Cables running into the tracks

It was an interesting experience. I'm glad it was a one time adventure, although plenty of local boats go through it multiple times every summer. I guess experience makes it easier. Even the lock tenders admitted they see so few boats like ours they are not as familiar with how to load and carry them as they are with the Sea Rays and Rinkers and other boats that the Canadians typically own in this part of the world.