#4-6: (
Satellite)
#7: (
Satellite)
These are Locks 4, 5, 6 and 7 of the
Welland Canal.
We are looking upbound (South) on the
Welland Canal and from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie. Lock 4 is the one nearest to us and Lock 7 is the one "on top of the mountain" near the center.
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Bruce Jackson posted
The Welland Canal Flight Locks 4, 5 and 6 and Lock 7 in Thorold, Ontario, Canada. |
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Brian Calley posted
An aerial view of the Welland Canal locks cutting across the Niagara Peninsula. Credit:U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Public domain. Via Wikimedia Commons. |
A closeup of the flight of locks, #4-#6.
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Bruce Jackson posted
LOCKS OF LOVE - Locks 4, 5 and 6, the Flight Locks of the Welland Canal from the air. |
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Bruce Jackson posted
Two-Ship Tuesday Two down bound ships in the Flight Locks in Thorold on the Welland Canal. This photo was taken from an airplane not from a drone. The only drone we knew about at this time was our principal's voice on the morning announcements. |
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| 1 of 10 photos shared by Cathy Roy |
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Brenda Crac posted
The flight locks in the Welland Canal provide a look at leading engineering and vessel traffic efficiency. Locks have hands free technology to guide the ship, real time monitoring and traffic management and are a wonder to view from the Lock 3 museum.
HIGHWAY H2O
John Duguid: The flight locks raise or lower ships to the height of the Niagara Escarpment, the same geological formation Niagara Falls flows over a few miles to the east. |
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Bill Augerman posted
Flight Locks Thorold, ON 2022 |
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Heddle Shipyards posted
Today [Apr 28, 2021] on #nationaldayofmourning we pay tribute to all those who have been killed, injured or suffered illness at work including the 137 Men who died building the Welland Canal. Today we renew our commitment to safety on the job. |
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John R Whitt posted
Dancing Hare - 'in flight' in lock 4 awaiting lift. |
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Amy Daggett posted
The Welland Canal Flight Locks are an engineering marvel. I always have a sense of accomplishment when I am able to capture it loaded with 4 vessels. Why not 5 or 6 since there are 3 upbound locks on the west side and 3 downbound locks on the east side of the canal? This is because leaving an empty lock between ships allows for a smoother and faster flow of traffic. Instead of waiting for a lock to be completely filled or drained, the next ship can enter as soon as the previous one has cleared and the lock is in the appropriate water level for its direction of travel. This also conserves water. Seen here upbound in Lock 6 is JOHN D LEITCH and in Lock 4 is SEA EAGLE II with her barge ST MARYS CEMENT II. On the downbound side in Lock 6 is FEDERAL MICHIGAN and in Lock 4 ALGOMA NIAGARA. July 13, 2025 |
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GreatLakes-Seaway
[This reference has maps of all four canals and some more pictures of today's canal.] |
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Screenshot from video posted by Mohamed Seghir Lahdiri
Welland Canal
How far ahead do you have your loading schedule ?
Two weeks ahead |
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Port of Thunder Bay posted
While the Seaway Locks are shutdown, they are inspected, repaired and any worn parts are replaced. The locks usually reopen around the last week of March, allowing ships to resume travel between Lake Superior and other Great Lake. |
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Clarence Vautier posted
[There were no informative comments. It appears to be entering the downstream lock of the two-flight locks. I wonder how often they do "left-hand" running.]
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This view is downbound.
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One of fifteen photos posted by Bubby Dzz
Three Algoma’s (Transport, Niagara and Captain. Henry Jackman) in the Welland Canal flight locks 4, 5, and 6.
[Captain Henry Jackman is upbound in Lock 6, but I can't read the name on the ship that is downbound. Another upbound ship is going from Lock 4 to Lock 5.] |
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Marine Historical Society of Detroit posted
The view from an unknown vessel downbound in Lock 6 (the twined-flight locks) in the Welland Canal. Unknown date but appears to be the 1950's. Peter Vander Linden photo/MHSD. |
I wondered why both sets of miter gates are closed in the above photo. I checked, that is not standard practice now.
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Terry Doyon posted
SEAWAY QUEEN inbound in Canal leaving Lock #6 - 1st trip of the season. Towed to India for scrap in 2004. ALGOPORT outbound in Lock #6 - broke in half and went down in the East China Sea in September, 2009 while being towed to a Chinese shipyard to receive a new forebody. Photo taken on Sept. 27, 1997. Terry Doyon photo.
Brian Brooks: Worked on her sister ship Frank A. Sherman. These lakers were not designed to be ocean going vessels.
[A 3:41 YouTube video about the sinking of the Algoport.] |
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Bill Jr Salton posted
Hanseatic Inspiration downbound in the Thorold Flight Locks last night, destined for Toronto. Johanna G rises on the west side headed for Port Colborne's Stone Dock.
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Amy Daggett posted
The Welland Canal Flight Locks with RT HON PAUL J MARTIN downbound and CSL ST LAURENT and FEDERAL DEE upbound.
Dougie Jay: The two jackknife bridges in the foreground is the Grimsby Sub AKA the main CN railway line that runs from Hamilton to Niagara Falls. Amy Daggett: Dougie Jay- someplace I have a pic of the Go Train going over it. |
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Amy Daggett commented on her comment
found out! |
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Doggie Jay commented on Amy's comment
CN Engines (Shaun Judge) |
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One of seven photos of Winter work in 2022
[The three excavators and a crane are out-of-frame on the bottom right where they are taking out a high spot. The other photos show that work.] |
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Steve Waller posted
***Three Ship Thursday*** Flight Locks Trio on 2012-0806 The warship is HMCS Ville de Quebec. The downbound ship is Algoma Spirit. I don't know which ship is upbound. |
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Screenshot of a chemical/petroleum tanker leaving Lock 4 east.
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1 of 13 photos posted by Michel Gosselin
Viking Octantis is approaching/entering lock 7 on May 1, 2022. These are just few pictures that I’ve taken that day. It was hard to pick a few.
[I believe the ship is entering Lock #6 from #5 and the photos was taken from #7. It was obviously taken with a long telephoto lens thus the length of the lock looks rather short.] |
Two of the six photos
posted by Bobby Dzz with the comment: "A few shots of
John J Boland and
Sveva lock 4 Welland Canal May 5, 2022"
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Janey Anderson
posted five photos with the comment:
EAST SIDE OF WELLAND CANAL REOPENED - June 8/22 4pm
A few of you noted yesterday that a number of ships were in anchorage waiting to go upbound in the Welland Canal. The reason - CN Rail is doing maintenance on
Bridge #6 closing the east side of the flight locks for a few days. The delays are continuing today as work is still in progress - will update later.
Photos taken by Captain
Alain M. Gindroz yesterday downbound on Americaborg through the Welland Canal.
Thanks Captain! Safe sailing today!
Tom Goodyer: I wonder who pays for the “waiting charges?” Charter rates for ships have gone through the roof! A 8500 TEU container ship is in excess of $100,000 per day.
Glynn R Green: Tom GoodyerThe same people who pay for delays for highway construction and for bridge crossings to US...
[The Seaway does close in the Winter. That is when maintenance is supposed to be done.]
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Bobby Michael Walton
posted five photos with the comment: "Few people get to see this. Dam in place, lock empty, workers making a start. Some rubble has collected but it's not a lot. Chance to see what a lock gate looks like in place. This is Lock #7 Thorold."
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| 1 of 3 photos and a video posted by Julie Waller Fletcher |
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Julie Waller Fletcher posted
Ken Morrison: good to see rivals Algoma and CSL can share a lock and play nice together!
[There is also a 1:41 video of the Algoma Buffalo going by in the other flight.] |
Alain M. Gindroz
posted a 1:05 video with the comment:
Lock 4 West - (15.07.22).
Ever wonder what it looks like when a lock is filling?
We will raise 14m (46’) in this lock. The total lift of the eight canal locks is 99m (325’).
The locks are filled/emptied by gravity. There are no pumps.
These are a couple of screenshots from that video.
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| @ 0:20 |
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| @ 1:03 |
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Alain M. Gindroz posted, cropped
Lock 4 West drained in the winter for maintenance.
Note the filling ports along the bottom of the lock. |
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Steve Waller posted
***Three Ship Thursday*** Flight Locks Trio on 2012-0806 The warship is HMCS Ville de Quebec. The downbound ship is Algoma Spirit. I don't know which ship is upbound. |
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Richard Jenkins posted
Three ships in the flight locks at Thorold, September 15, 2007, with the Canadian Provider and Algontario downbound, and Algoisle upbound. |
Bryan Hayter
posted three photos with the comment: "Woke up at 6:30 this morning at the Inn on Lock Seven to see this bright yellow beauty getting ready to be lowered for transit into Lake Ontario! She is the Happy Ranger and her cargo on this journey was containers. She soon was lowered and then motored off into the sunrise.......lovely event to begin my day!"
[Container ports on the Great Lakes is a rather recent development. I wonder which port this is headed to. Or will it off load the containers at multiple ports?]
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Two interesting lockages in just a few days.
Wendy Vetter
posted three photos with the comment: "Yeah, got to see the second lock gate coming thru lock 7 , very impressive, what a feat that must be, got to love those tugs. I was told they were spares, stored underwater by lock 2 if my memory serves me correctly."
Andrew Carr: Its also hooked up to an air compressor and gets purged out every few hours incase any water has been taken on.
Ryan Ransom: Lock gates are generally hollow and float to a degree as otherwise the load on the hinge pivots would be too great.
Frank Kar: The lock gates are stored at the drydock just south of the wall. They are flooded and submerged to help preserve them. When needed they are partially filled with compressed air to float them to transport. There is a special crane in the St. Lawrence/ Montreal area to lift them into place for a change.
http://carlzboats.blogspot.com/.../gate-lifter-vms... |
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Bobby Dzz
posted 13 photos with the comment: "Spinning the blades at the flight locks now that the strike is over. I bet Canada Steamship Lines is happy." [The strike of the Seaway Lock workers lasted one week.]
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Brian Page
posted two photos with the comment: "Thought someone might like to see the bottom of the Welland canal. Here is a couple of pictures that came up from a memory from a job I worked on."
Jason Redding
shared with the comment: "Saw this in another group. The depth is impressive. When u think how big that crane is."
Todd Santos: When you motor into it and can see that your 55ft tall masthead is below the height of the lock doors, it really gives a sense of scale. The whole thing is an engineering marvel.
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Tim Shafley posted
USS Little Rock in a Big Lock ,,, Lock 4 of the Welland Canal |
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Jeff Scott posted
Mark Robinson: That’s quite a way to make Lock 7.
[Given the size of the lift, I assume this is #7 on the Welland Canal.] |
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Amy Daggett posted
Big boat, little boat - ALGOTITAN up in Lock 6 with a smaller craft waiting to enter Lock 4 in the Welland Canal. June 19, 2024 |
A timelapse of the Octantis coming down while the Isadora goes up.
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Amy Daggett posted
The Welland Canal was constructed to carry ships from Port Weller on Lake Ontario up over the escarpment to Port Colborne on Lake Erie. In fact this is the 4th canal because as ships got bigger, they had to make bigger canals to accommodate them. Locks 4, 5 and 6 in the current canal are twin locks and are an impressive engineering feat. Today John set up his tripod and was able to capture ISADORA "climbing the mountain" as well as OCTANTIS coming downbound. Be sure to watch OCTANTIS slide at the end to line herself up for her next maneuver! This is 2 hours compacted into a little over 2 minutes so don't blink or you will miss the Go Train. June 19, 2024 |
Michael Gosselin
posted seven photos with the comment: "They’re located at lock 4 in the Welland canal. Taken on December 28, 2024. This crane( is called a Stiffleg Derick)is use to lift the stop logs into place just below lock 4 to keep the lock dry in the winter, so they can do some maintenance work in the lock. I’ve seen this derrick in use just once. The last 2 pictures were taken on March 21, 2018."
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Rory Dempsey commented on the 7th photo, cropped
I operated the Stiffleg Derrick from 1979 until 2014. |
Ben Hardie: Great shots 🙂 Why does lock 7 have 2 sets of gates at each end? And what is the reasoning behind what looks to be unnecessarily complex, curved gates?
Frank Kar: Ben Hardie The curved gate were developed for use in ice. Ice can't get behind them so they don't jam up as easy. The double regular gates are a back up system. Should 1 set fail they are still able to control the water and move ships. There used to be an emergency gate south of lock 7 galled the "guard gate" but was removed to speed up movement when the double gates at lock 7 were finished. The section of canal between lock 8 and 7 is full year round because it supplies water to many industries and the drinking water for St Satharines, Thorold area.
Winter 2025:
Bill Salton
posted two photos with the comment: "Pretty common sight for us locals, but those not used to seeing the Welland Canal out of season may be interested to see how much of the lock is hidden even at low pool. For reference, ships can be at maximum of 26 feet of draught in the canal, and there is usually a few additional feet below that. The zoomed in photo shows more clearly where the water level usually sits."
Russell McGrath: We drain them every year excavators are sent in by crane and work the bottom of locks clearing debris loaded up into bins and hauled out by crane to acting trucks. Workers also inspect locks for damage and scaffold is erect to make repairs to sides and doors
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Amy Daggett posted
BEST BUTT Personally, I think this lock makes my butt look small 😉 Upbound in Lock 4 in the Welland Canal. [And St. Laurent is in Lock 6.] |
The little boat allows us to see the sill under the gate between Locks #4 and #5. Of course, the big boat is in Lock #6.
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Amy Daggett posted
𝗕𝗜𝗚 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲 I love seeing a BIG commercial vessels with a much smaller boats. Today let's see those odd pairings of size discrepancies. This is one of my favorite and shows Algotitan upbound in the Flight Locks with Debra Huslage and her family on their pleasure craft waiting to enter Lock 4. Patricia Franz: Even though the folks on the small boat are perfectly safe, looking up & seeing that would terrify me 😳😜 |
In response to Patricia's comment, Debra Huslage uploaded a couple of photos and videos as comments of that little boat going upstream on the canal. I changed the order to chronological order.
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| Debra's photo |
%20Ship%20Junkies%20-%20Lakes,%20Locks%20&%20Rivers%20(LL&R)%20_%20%F0%9D%97%95%F0%9D%97%9C%F0%9D%97%9A%20%F0%9D%98%84%F0%9D%97%B6%F0%9D%98%81%F0%9D%97%B5%20%F0%9D%97%B9%F0%9D%97%B6%F0%9D%98%81%F0%9D%98%81%F0%9D%97%B9%F0%9D%97%B2%20_.png) |
| Debra's 0:39 video @ 0:08 |
This was Debra's first comment because it provides the view that Patricia mentioned.
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| Debra's photo |
A couple of screenshots from a video of the opening of the gates between Locks #4 and #5.
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| Debra's 1:12 video @ 0:02 |
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| Debra's 1:12 video @ 0:58 |
Some photos and screenshots from Michel Gosselin's
post of
Coastal Titan removing a gate in Lock #6.
Michel's comment: "They have remove a gate at lock 6 east in Thorold on March 17, 2025. These gate were built in the late 1920s and weigh 454 metric tonnes. The barge Coastal Titan is lifting the gate with Salvage Monarch at the stern. M.R.Kane and Radium Yellowknife waiting above lock 6."
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Mar 30, 2026:
Janey Anderson
posted six photos with the comment:
UPDATE ON TRAIN DERAILMENT 1600 - SHIPS ARE UNDERWAY- They have brought in equipment very quickly - 2 "re-railers" and 2 "pipelayers" - and they already have the first car half off the tracks. MORE PICTURES ADDED by Michel Gosselin
BREAKING NEWS March 30 - 9am - WELLAND CANAL CLOSED DUE TO TRAIN DERAILMENT - SHIPS TYING UP AT EITHER END
A train derailed in St. Catharines, Ont., East of Glendale Avenue this morning, at Lock 4. Preliminary reports indicate that several cars are derailed; no injuries or fires have been reported. A non-dangerous good called polyethylene, a product used in the manufacturing of household plastics, has spilled from one of the cars. There is no danger to the public. CN crews and local responders are on-site
The Welland Canal is closed at this time - ALGONOVA is tied up at 7, CSL ST. LAURENT at Lock 1, ALGOTITAN coming in from Lake Ontario.
Spectacular photos - Michel Gosselin
[According to some comments, they disconnected the train from the derailed cars and pulled it off the bridge. That opened the Seaway back up. I guess it took a few hours to inspect the tracks to OK moving the train.]
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This must have been in one of the flight locks.
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Riesty Yolanda Paliama posted
An unusual view of the 4th Welland canal, all the way at the bottom! Taken in the winter in the 1930's, you can see the massive hight ( or depth ) against people in the image Credit : thorold_museum on IG |
Instead of
sidewinders, they used cranes with a special boom.
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