Locks were approved in July 1897, tenders were received in November, and the contract was given to J & H Gwynne & Co, based in Hammersmith. The design was by G.C. Thomas, the Grand Junction Canal's engineer, who had been assisted by his brother, and Gwynne's price was £14,130. Two counterbalanced caissons could each hold two narrow boats or one wide-beam barge, and could raise or lower them the between the top and bottom of the lock flight in twelve minutes, compared to the seventy that using the locks took. Including land purchase, the total cost was £39,224, which also included the provision of an engine house and steam engine to power the plane. The plane was completed and began operating on 10 July 1900. Thomas did not favour a second inclined plane, and so widening of the locks at Watford was authorised in early 1900, at a cost of £17,000, but was deferred in March, until the work at Foxton was completed and the inclined plane was operational. In August they complained to Fellows Morton & Clayton that through traffic of coal had continued to decline, and they rebuilt the locks at Watford between November 1901 and February 1902. The work cost £5,545, as they were not widened, and wide-beam craft were never able to use the canal. Despite the failure of the scheme, the company recommended to the Royal Commission held in 1906 that a number of other canals should be upgraded to take 80-ton barges, and suggested that several other inclined planes should be built. In November 1908, the locks at Foxton were re-opened for night-time working, and the inclined plane officially stopped working in November 1910, although it is known to have worked intermittently until at least 1912. It was dismantled in 1926 and sold for scrap in 1928. In an attempt to become more competitive, the Grand Junction company talked to the Regent's Canal company, and the idea of a much larger concern began to develop. An Act of Parliament was obtained in August 1928, which allowed the amalgamation of the Regent's Canal, the Grand Junction, the Warwick and Birmingham, the Birmingham and Warwick Junction and the Warwick and Napton Canals. As from 1 January 1929, the new company began operating, and the old Grand Union Canal became part of the (new) Grand Union Canal. Having raised £881,000 to enable the route from Birmingham to