Balloch Steam Slipway

Balloch Steam Slipway
Balloch, Scotland GB grid reference NS385824
The Balloch Slipway Winchhouse
Balloch Steam Slipway
Coordinates	56°00′28″N 4°35′27″W / 56.0077°N 4.5909°W / 56.0077; -4.5909

The Balloch Steam Slipway consists of a ramp, carriage and steam powered winch located on the shores of Loch Lomond by which ships or boats can be moved in and out of the loch, usually for repairs and general maintenance. It is owned and operated by the Loch Lomond Steamship Company. It is thought to be Europe's last steam operated winch and it is contained within a railway-style winch house that is Grade A listed.

The complex includes a slipway, carriage, boiler, steam engine and hauling gear and winch house.

The slipway construction started in 1900 and it was opened by the Dunbarton & Balloch Joint Line Committee in 1902 and finally fell out of use circa 1989. The railway-style winch house is a Grade A listed building and following a £620,000 restoration project the Balloch slipway complex was officially reopened by the Princess Royal in 2006. George Halliday Ltd. of Rothesay and John Bennie of Glasgow were the original contractors.

The PS Maid of the Loch was re-assembled on the slipway in 1953 following its construction, disassembly and transport by rail to a siding lying parallel to the slipway and launched on 25 May 1953. The Maid was taken onto the slip on 27 June 2006 after 25 years berthed at Balloch Pier.

The present reconditioned vertical water-tube boiler was taken from a steam crane built in 1953 that had been converted to diesel. To reduce smoke nuisance was converted to burn light oil by McEwen Ltd. of Keighley in Yorkshire. It was built by Cowans, Sheldon of Carlisle and is a Spencer-Hopwood pattern, with has an operating pressure of 100 pounds per square inch (7 bar).

The steam engine installed is a twin horizontal single-expansion design built in 1902 by John Bennie of Glasgow with a rated power of 50 bhp (37 kW) and an actual or shaft power output of 33 brake horsepower (25 kW). The length of the piston stroke is 20 inches (51 cm). On the last few occasions that the winch was used prior to restoration the steam engine was powered by compressed air to save buying a new boiler.