Waterworks Pumping Stations with Steam Engines
| Wed, 28 Nov 2007 11:14 ChrisAllen |
At the last count there were 26 public water supply pumping stations with in situ stationary steam engines. Land drainage and sewage pumping should be considered separate topics. There is at least one external photo of all 26 on Geograph. The last one to be posted - to complete the set - was  . This is home to a 1928 horizontal side by side compound by Tangyes Ltd, Birmingham.  The pumps have been scrapped. |
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| Wed, 28 Nov 2007 13:10 ChrisAllen |
As Bromsberrow has a horizontal engine we will continue with the three other horizontal engined stations. Brindley Bank   has an all indoors 1905 Hathorn, Davey that is 105' long.Millmeece  has Hathorn, Davey  and Ashton Frost engines with the well pumps outdoors  .Littleton  has a modern uniflow design driving a centrifugal pump  . While I am here, I will include the high-speed enclosed Ashworh & Parker engine that drove a 25 kW dynamo for lights and boiler house auxiliary plant  |
| Thu, 29 Nov 2007 09:23 ChrisAllen |
To start at the beginning. The Cornish non-rotative beam engine was popular for many years and is the end of a direct line from Newcomen through Watt and Trevithick. Kew Bridge Steam Museum    has the biggest collection, oldest Waterworks Cornish engine and biggest Cornish engine in the UK. The 1820 West Cornish engine is a rebuild of a Boulton & Watt, Watt Cycle engine that was originally installed at Chelsea Waterworks. In addition to the four Cornish beam engines, there is also a unique in situ Bull engine  that has the cylinder inverted over the pump and directly coupled to it. There is a small auxiliary beam to drive the valve gear and air pump. Engines preserved off-site include examples from Dancer's End near Tring  and Waddon  .Springhead Pumping Station, Hull   has a 90" engine adapted for variable pumping heads  .Dalton Pumping Station, Cold Hesledon   has a pair built at a late date by Davy Bros, Sheffield.The Midlands is represented by Sandfields Pumping Station, Lichfield  with an engine built in Tipton   . Thus, Kew has the Cornish-built Cornish cycle engines while the others are all provincial |
| Thu, 29 Nov 2007 18:28 ChrisAllen |
The rotative beam engine is perhaps the epitome of British waterworks pumping technology and there are several fine examples preserved around the country. Turnford Pumping Station  houses the least conventional - a Boulton and Watt side lever engine  . More closely related to marine paddle wheel engines (there are two of those on open air display in Scotland).Lound Pumping station near Lowestoft  houses a pair of small grasshopper beam engines  . There are quite a few of these but these are the only in situ waterworks examples.Snarestone Pumping Station   is now a private house but contains the incomplete remains of a pair of single cylinder engines. In 1985 the interior at beam floor level looked like this  but more recently the beams have been removed and the engine house subdivided. Now only the central entablature and columns, the crankshafts and the flywheels survive. Sad really, especially as there is some degree of statutory protection on the site.Another pair of late (1884) single cylinder beam engines are preserved at Papplewick Pumping Station     . These were definitely obsolete when installed but are beautifully presented in an engine house that has been likened to a "cathedral of steam".The large Woolf compounds are the most awe-inspiring of the breed and the biggest  are to be found at Ryhope Pumping station  near SunderlandTwo very elegant London built engines are preserved at the British Engineerium in the former Goldstone Pumping Station    at Hove.Blagdon    has a pair from 1902 that are open on summer Sundays.The youngest surviving beam engine in a waterworks is the 1904 example  at Tees Cottage   . This is also known as Broken Scar. |
| Sun, 2 Dec 2007 00:46 ChrisAllen |
The inverted vertical triple expansion pumping engines are to come. As a taster, the oldest surviving example in the UK is at Broomy Hill, Hereford, now The Waterworks Museum    . These shots are before and after the new extension.Broomy Hill is also home to a unique inverted vertical duplex rotative pumping engine. This was installed in 1906 to assist the main engine and was by the same builder - Worth, Mackenzie & Co Ltd of Stockton-on-Tees.  |
| Wed, 5 Dec 2007 14:30 MalvernTrev |
And a fine museum to tour round, not to mention the model railway. I also like the water tower, which is quite a landmark. |
| Wed, 5 Dec 2007 21:44 ChrisAllen |
The Bratch Pumping Station near Wolverhampton  is home to a pair of engines that were started by James Watt & Co but finished by Thornewill & Warham of Burton on Trent when the former ceased trading  . These were built in 1896-7 and are only just younger than Broomy Hill's.Brede Pumping Station    houses a 1904 Tangye   and a 1939 Worthington Simpson   . The former boiler house contains a variety of engines  from the former museum at Upper Cherry Garden Folkestone  , now demolished. Foremost among these is one of the James Simpson horizontal duplex triple expansion, non-rotative engines seen here  in situ and here in close up at Brede  .At Walton water works  there is a 1911 Thames Ironworks inverted vertical triple expansion engine driving a large Gwynnes centrifugal pump  . This was one of four and there was a 1926 extension with a large high level triple and a turbine pump. All this other kit has been scrapped.Twyford Waterworks    is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. There is a 1913 Hathorn, Davey triple, Babcock & Wilcox water tube boilers, a Reader lighting set, several diesel pumps and a treatment plant that includes lime kilns. There are several supplementary images on the site showing plant and kilns.Also dating from 1913 is the large Galloways engine  that is preserved with three little auxiliary engines at Maple Brook Pumping Station, Staffordshire  .The largest engines of their type in the UK   were built in 1926 by Worthington Simpson of Newark and commissioned 1929. They are 1008 pump horsepower and stand 62' tall in total. They are at Kempton Park Waterworks, Sunbury  . No. 6 can now be demonstrated in steam.Cottingham Pumping Station near Hull  is home to a Worthington Simpson triple from 1930  . This is the survivor of three identical engines.Langford Pumping Station near Maldon   is now the Museum of Power. It also contains one survivor of three. This time a 1931 Lilleshall triple   .The last site is the Connaught Road Pumping Station at Dover  that is home to a Worthington Simpson of 1937 that was commissioned in 1939  . Its twin was not commissioned until 1954, making it the last reciprocating steam engine to be commissioned in a UK water works. It is now at Forncett St Mary. |
| Wed, 5 Dec 2007 21:50 ChrisAllen |
There are also many buildings left that once housed steam pumps and these would be worthy of their own threads. Indeed the South Staffordshire Water Works Co still has many very fine buildings. |
| Thu, 17 Jan 2008 09:24 spellcheque |
Crofton Steam Pumping Station supplying water to the Kennet & Avon Canal.  For more information go to: http://www.croftonbeamengines.org/about.html |
| Sat, 19 Jan 2008 08:04 spellcheque |
ChrisAllen This is not a Waterworks pumping station and it is powered by water not steam so you may want it removed, please let me know. Also the pumping station at Crofton is not a waterworks engine, same applies.  Interior view  What happens in the floods  |
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