Moorings on the Engine Arm

The Engine Arm is a 1.4-kilometre branch of the Birmingham Canal Navigations at Smethwick, built in 1789 to feed water from Rotton Park Reservoir to the summit level of the old Birmingham Canal. Its defining feature is the Engine Arm Aqueduct of 1825, a fine Thomas Telford cast-iron structure carrying the arm over the New Main Line below — one of the most photographed pieces of engineering on the BCN.

The arm is a dead-end, which makes it quiet water in the middle of an otherwise busy urban network. It terminates near the site of the Smethwick Engine, the oldest working steam engine in the world, now preserved at Thinktank in Birmingham.

For boat owners the Engine Arm is chiefly of interest as sheltered, out-of-the-way mooring space within a few minutes' cruise of central Birmingham. There are no marinas on the arm itself; long-stay berths in this part of the BCN are found at Sherborne Wharf and the basins around Brindleyplace and Gas Street, a short cruise east. Boaters using the arm are typically exploring the BCN Challenge routes or seeking a quieter overnight spot away from the Main Line. Smethwick Rolfe Street and Galton Bridge stations give quick access to Birmingham New Street.