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The "Inclined Plane" Foxton Locks near the town of Foxton in England:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
An inclined plane is a system used on some canals for raising boats between different water levels.

Typically, such a feature consists of a slope, up which there are two sets of rail tracks, and boats are raised between different levels by sailing into giant water-filled tanks, or caissons, which have wheels on the bottom and watertight doors at each end, and which are perpendicular to the slope. These are then drawn up or down hill on the rails, usually by means of cables being pulled by a stationary engine. In almost all designs two caissons are used, one going up and one down to act as counter-weights to make the system more efficent.

When the caisson has reached the top or bottom of the slope, the doors are opened and the boat leaves.

An inclined plane is a quicker and more efficient (in terms of water loss), alternative to a flight of canal locks, but is more costly to install and run. An inclined plane can be considered a specialist type of funicular railway.

Foxton Locks
Foxton Locks are a staircase of ten Canal locks located on the Grand Union Canal about five miles west of the Leicestershire town of Market Harborough and are named after the nearby village of Foxton.
Staircase locks are used where a canal needs to climb a steep hill, and consist of groups of locks which open directly into each other. Foxton Locks are the largest flight of such staircase locks on the British canal system. Foxton locks today, are a popular tourist atraction.

In the late 19th century an inclined plane was built to the side of the locks. An inclined plane is another method of raising boats between different water levels, and works by having boats sail into large watertight "bathtub" type containers which are the dragged up or down hill on rails pulled by a stationary engine, and then when the top or bottom is reached the boats sail out at the other end.

The Foxton inclined plane proved uneconomic and was abandoned in 1909 although remains can still be seen. and there are plans to re-build it.