Lock keeper

The Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company in 1900 paid their lock keepers US$18 per month, with a rent free house.

They often had small stores to sell groceries to passing boats and, among their duties, made minor repairs along the canal and at locks.

[1] On the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal the lock keeper had a rent free house, an acre of land for a garden, and was paid a base of $150 a year.

They also were responsible for the level (canal pound) by their lock, to fix leaks and other minor repairs.

In June 1848, when Asa Aud had taken French leave, William Elgin the district superintendent, appointed John Boozell as tender of Lock 25 on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.

Things escalated to rock throwing, clubbing, and the lock keeper's sons returned with a shotgun and revolver, which misfired.

When the boat did resume its journey, the lock keeper followed on horseback, all the way to Cumberland (the end of the canal) with a club threatening to settle things.

[9] In England, there has been recent controversy over the Environment Agency's attempt to remove resident lock keepers on the River Thames.

Many district superintendents of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal began as lock keepers, but because of their good reputation, were promoted.

A single control centre can remotely operate several locks and moveable bridges in a wide area, overseeing the process using CCTV.

The lock keeper at the Grote Merwedesluis in Gorinchem , the Netherlands , at the southern terminus of the Merwede canal .
The lock keeper of Lock 56 (Thomas Donegan, on the left) on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal .
Man tending inclined plane 7 East on the Morris Canal