This little JavaScript project presents a simple model of the English and Welsh canals as a maze. At any time, you are at a place and can see only the route to the next place along each available route. The aim is to travel from somewhere to somewhere else, or to go on a circular tour, without an overall view. This tests how good a mental picture you have of the canal map!
The model has 738 places, mostly junctions, termini or summits. Linking these are 793 pieces of waterway. Each place has a name and a grid reference; each link has a name, a length, a number of locks and a gauge (minimum width). The model does not form a continuous system. Much of it is connected, but there are separated bits, such as short bits of navigable tidal river. Many of the separated bits are just two places joined by a single link. The named direct links are guaranteed to take you to a starting place on the connected waterways.
The data for the model were taken from the classic reference "Bradshaw's Canals and Navigable Rivers", published in 1904. Canals that had gone out of use by then are not listed; those that have gone out of use since are included. Where canals still in use have changed from 1904 the new information has been used as taken from various Nicholson/OS guides, Stanfords canal maps and personal knowledge.
The game is written in JavaScript. The travel code is in included file travel.js and the canal database is in canals.js.
©2004 nib - 2004-04-09
[Game code and data compilation are my copyright; free use for any
non-commercial application, with attribution.]