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Established | October 2004 |
---|---|
Coordinates | 51°25′33″N0°24′18″W / 51.4259°N 0.4050°W |
Owner | Kempton Great Engines Trust |
Public transit access | Kempton Park |
Website | www |
The Kempton Park steam engines (also known as the Kempton Great Engines) are two large triple-expansion steam engines, dating from 1926–1929, at the Kempton Park Waterworks in south-west London. They were ordered by the Metropolitan Water Board and manufactured by Worthington-Simpson in Newark-On-Trent.
Each engine is of a similar size to that used in RMS Titanic and rated at about 1,008 horsepower (752 kW). [1] Each could pump nineteen million imperial gallons (86,000 m3) of water a day, to reservoirs at Cricklewood, Fortis Green and Finsbury Park for the supply of drinking water to the north, east & west of London. Raw water was supplied to the waterworks by the Staines and Queen Mary Reservoirs, which stored water collected from the River Thames. They were the last working survivors when they were finally retired from service in 1980. [2] The engines are of an inverted vertical triple-expansion type, 62 feet (19 m) tall from basement to the top of the valve casings and each weighing over 800 tons. The engines are thought to be the biggest ever built in the UK. [3]
Engine No 6, also called The Sir William Prescott, has been restored to running order and is the largest fully operational triple-expansion steam engine in the world. [4] It may be seen in steam on various weekends throughout the year, and as a static display every Sunday between March and November. [5] The other engine, Engine No 7, is named Bessie after Sir Prescott's wife. [4] The engine house also houses two steam turbine water pumps. One of these steam turbines has now been motorised to demonstrate its inner workings. [6]
The waterworks is adjacent to the A316 (just before it becomes the M3 motorway), between Sunbury-on-Thames and Hanworth. The same site also features a 2-foot gauge steam railway, the Kempton Steam Railway, [7] the largest steam railway offering rides to the public on selected days, [8] in London.
The steam engines now form a museum operated by Kempton Great Engines Trust, a registered charity. [9]
This section needs additional citations for verification .(May 2024) |
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be transformed, by a connecting rod and crank, into rotational force for work. The term "steam engine" is most commonly applied to reciprocating engines as just described, although some authorities have also referred to the steam turbine and devices such as Hero's aeolipile as "steam engines". The essential feature of steam engines is that they are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separated from the combustion products. The ideal thermodynamic cycle used to analyze this process is called the Rankine cycle. In general usage, the term steam engine can refer to either complete steam plants, such as railway steam locomotives and portable engines, or may refer to the piston or turbine machinery alone, as in the beam engine and stationary steam engine.
Pumping stations, also called pumphouses, are public utility buildings containing pumps and equipment for pumping fluids from one place to another. They are critical in a variety of infrastructure systems, such as water supply, drainage of low-lying land, canals and removal of sewage to processing sites. A pumping station is an integral part of a pumped-storage hydroelectricity installation.
Kempton Park may refer to:
The Crossness Pumping Station is a former sewage pumping station designed by the Metropolitan Board of Works's chief engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette and architect Charles Henry Driver. It is located at Crossness Sewage Treatment Works, at the eastern end of the Southern Outfall Sewer and the Ridgeway path in the London Borough of Bexley. Constructed between 1859 and 1865 by William Webster, as part of Bazalgette's redevelopment of the London sewerage system, it features spectacular ornamental cast ironwork, that Nikolaus Pevsner described as "a masterpiece of engineering – a Victorian cathedral of ironwork".
A condensing steam locomotive is a type of locomotive designed to recover exhaust steam, either in order to improve range between taking on boiler water, or to reduce emission of steam inside enclosed spaces. The apparatus takes the exhaust steam that would normally be used to produce a draft for the firebox, and routes it through a heat exchanger, into the boiler water tanks. Installations vary depending on the purpose, design and the type of locomotive to which it is fitted. It differs from the usual closed cycle condensing steam engine, in that the function of the condenser is primarily either to recover water, or to avoid excessive emissions to the atmosphere, rather than maintaining a vacuum to improve both efficiency and power.
London Museum of Water & Steam is an independent museum founded in 1975 as the Kew Bridge Steam Museum. It was rebranded in early 2014 following a major investment project.
The Museum of Power is located in the former Southend Waterworks Langford Pumping Station in Langford, Essex, England. It is on the B1019, on the main road from Maldon to Hatfield Peverel.
Papplewick Pumping Station, situated in open agricultural land approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) by road from the Nottinghamshire village of Papplewick, was built by Nottingham Corporation Water Department between 1881 and 1884 to pump water from the Bunter sandstone to provide drinking water to the City of Nottingham, in England. Two beam engines, supplied with steam by six Lancashire boilers, were housed in Gothic Revival buildings. Apart from changes to the boiler grates, the equipment remained in its original form until the station was decommissioned in 1969, when it was replaced by four submersible electric pumps.
The Metropolitan Water Board Railway was a 2 ft narrow gauge industrial railway built to serve the Metropolitan Water Board's pumping station at Kempton Park near London. The line was opened in 1916 to deliver coal to the pumping engines and closed shortly after the Second World War. A short part is operating once again to give rides to the public, under a new name, the Kempton Steam Railway
The Staines Reservoirs are two large pumped storage reservoirs sitting to the east of the King George VI Reservoir near Heathrow airport in Surrey within the Colne Valley regional park. The village of Stanwell is mainly to the north east, and the town of Staines is to the south.
The Knight Reservoir is a large pumped storage reservoir located in the Borough of Elmbridge in Surrey. It was inaugurated in 1907 and stores up to 2,180 million litres of raw water abstracted from the River Thames prior to its treatment and supply to London and north Surrey. It is located south of the River Thames, west of West Molesey, and between Hurst Road (A3050) and Walton Road (B369). It is adjacent to, and west of, its twin Bessborough Reservoir.
London's water supply infrastructure has developed over the centuries in line with the expansion of London.
Kempton Park Reservoirs are a Site of Special Scientific Interest in the London Borough of Hounslow and Kempton Park in Surrey. It is owned by Thames Water. It is part of South West London Waterbodies Ramsar site and Special Protection Area Kempton Park East reservoir is also a local nature reserve.
Cricklewood Pumping Station was built in 1905 to supply water to London's north west suburbs. It is situated at the eastern extremity of Gladstone Park, Cricklewood and is a locally listed building.
Worthington-Simpson was a British pump manufacturer. Many of their pumps were used in municipal waterworks in Great Britain.
The Hampton Kempton Waterworks Railway is a 2 ft gauge narrow gauge steam railway that opened in 2013, giving rides to paying visitors on a restored steam locomotive, with two back-up diesel locomotives. It is based on the site of an industrial railway that served Kempton Waterworks.
The Waterworks Museum is a museum in the Chestnut Hill Waterworks building, originally a high-service pumping station of the Boston Metropolitan Waterworks. It contains well-preserved mechanical engineering devices in a Richardsonian Romanesque building.
Twyford Waterworks is a preserved pumping station and waterworks situated close to the village of Twyford and the city of Winchester in Hampshire, England. It is a scheduled monument and now operates as a museum. The site is leased by the Twyford Waterworks Trust and is open on selected days during the year.
Hampton Water Treatment Works are water treatment works located on the River Thames in Hampton, London. Built in the second half of the 19th Century to supply London with fresh water, the Waterworks was in the past a significant local employer, and its brick pumphouses dominate the local landscape. The Waterworks are currently owned and operated by Thames Water, occupying a 66 ha site located between the Upper Sunbury Road (A308) and the River Thames. The Waterworks currently has a maximum output of 700 megalitres a day, and supplies ~30% of London's fresh water.