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Kempton Steam Museum

Animedragon

Entry posted by Animedragon in General

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he Kempton Steam Museum is the home of the world’s largest working triple-expansion steam engine.
The engine sits amongst two steam turbines and opposite an identical twin which is currently being restored.
The machines stand 62 feet high, which is as high as four stacked London double-decker buses, and weigh 800 tons. They are similar in design and size to the RMS Titanic’s engines. The two engines and two steam turbines provided huge volumes of London’s drinking water from 1929. In 1980 they were replaced by electric pumps in an adjacent building.  

The museum is located at the Kempton Park Pumping Station in southwest London which continues to supply water to London. The museum and its engines are housed in a Grade II* listed building, which is also a Scheduled Monument, and constructed from Portland stone and glazed bricks. The engine house is crowned at the rear by two tall brick chimneys which stand as a landmark for miles around. The powerful triple-expansion steam engines and turbine pumps have been preserved since 1995 by volunteers of the Kempton Great Engines Trust to ensure their engineering magnificence is preserved for people to enjoy and marvel at now and in the future.

The museum holds regular open days when the huge engine is in steam and when running it is a magnificent sight. As the museum is not far from where I live I have visited it several times and on one occasion I was invited by one of the volunteers to climb to the top of the second, non-working, engine. I accepted this offer, but when I reached the top and stood on the top platform 62 feet above the ground I regretted my decision as I really have no head for heights! I did take the opportunity to take some photos from up there, holding the camera in my right hand while my left hand maintained a vice-like grip on the single guard rail. I have to admit that the climb down from the top was not the most enjoyable of experiences!

* A photo of the outside of the building.

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* The triple expansion engine. The visitors and staff give an idea of how huge the engine is.

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* A closer view of the engine.

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* A photo of the very top level of the engine.

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* The view from the top of the second engine across to the working one. It's a long way down from up there.

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Thank you for reading my blog and I hope you enjoyed reading about these impressive engines.

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Zeref

Judging from that third picture being up there on that I wouldn't have wanted to be either and be ready to get down 😆

I think I understood correctly but they still run them from time to time for visitors to see? That seems interesting to see if they do that. Somehow I imagine these are very loud lol. 

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Animedragon
2 hours ago, Zeref said:

Judging from that third picture being up there on that I wouldn't have wanted to be either and be ready to get down 😆

I think I understood correctly but they still run them from time to time for visitors to see? That seems interesting to see if they do that. Somehow I imagine these are very loud lol. 

Yes, it was certainly scary up on the top of the engine. I only did it once and once was more than enough!

Yes, they have Open Days when they have the engine in steam and running. It's a big machine but it's not as noisy as you might think, there's a low rumble as the huge shafts rotate and the pistons rise and fall and the soft clatter of the gear cogs but it runs quite slowly and there's the regular hiss of steam with each revolution.

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Sarada

Nope, nope. nope. @what Pessi said too high for me :V Is anyone actually a heights person? Does anyone enjoy being up high? I don't know a single person that enjoys heights now that I've thought about it.... 

I feel almost stupid now because I didn't know they had drinking water that came into houses in the 1920's :V I feel like it's a "duh" moment for me now but for some reason I always associated that with more the 1940's - 1950's era. 

Cool photos for sure 🫶 I like that you captured the entire thing in one picture despite how huge it is. 

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Animedragon

I think when water was delivered to houses depended on where you were. The pumping engines in this blog were replacements for earlier beam engines which I think were operating around 1900. The Kew Bridge pumping station, which I might cover in the later entry, dates from around 1840.

And while the view from the top of the engine was impressive, it was also VERY scary being that high up.

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Sakura

God looking at that picture with the railing at the top it just looks so unstable like it could snap if you lean on it @.@ I'm sure it's not but I feel like I need more than a railing like that between me and falling all that way down lmfao I used to like heights but now they scare me a bit ._. That's some really cool pictures though and it seems like a neat place to visit~ 💜 

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Animedragon

The railings are actually quite sturdy, they built things to LAST back then, but yes I would have preferred something more substantial. I'm glad I went up the top, but I wouldn't do it again and I doubt I'd even make it up there now because my legs don't do well on stairs and even if I did get up there I'd have serious difficulty getting back down.

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