Papplewick pumping station

[Dieselman]

Yesterday, as it was a dry day me and Mrs Dm took a trip out in the XM to http://www.papplewickpumpingstation.co.uk/index.htm as it was in steam.

It is a fantastic piece of Victorian architecture, especially as the building was never meant to be seen by the public. There are internal columns decorated with gilded herons and various designs, but of course the main attraction are the two beam engines.

It was still very cold outside as the cooling pond shows. Oddly enough Mrs Dm didn't want to walk on the ice, even though it was apparently 6-7" thick.





But inside was warm enough..





The ring in the centre of this picture is a piston ring.





They also have the only working colliery winding engine donated and installed by British coal on the closure of Linby pit. You only see one cylinder here, but it's twin cylinder with the cranks 90 degrees offset. This engine is 1,300 HP and wound the cable at 45' per second when lifting 4.5 tonne coal skips.





All in a good day out. I wish now I'd asked to have a go at stoking the fire, they were very accommodating and would have let me.

[Peter.N.]

I love places like that, there are a couple in Kent that were still in use when I lived there. I think Fred Dibna is responsible for a lot of the interest there is in these places now. I would like to visit some but so far have only managed Beamish, we did have a trip to Ironbridge while I was picking up a boiler in Telford, but didn't have time to look around much.

Peter

[Dean]

Thats right up my street that, i must get back over the mainland and see some of these places this year and not spend so much time diy'ing

D

[onthecut]

Fabulous, like so much of that era. Funny how they seemd to manage, generally, to get stuff in on time and on budget, whereas now, with all our computers and 'professionals' any such project is almost always late and over budget.

Mike.

[Peter.N.]

That was in the days when pride in your work was more important than the ammount of money you took home at the end of the week.

[hydroman]

Yes, a very interesting site. STW still abstract from shafts and addits on the site, I have had a couple of visits there over the last 2 years, servicing and testing some of the borehole (shaft) abstractions, although the submersible pumps in use are nowhere near as interesting as the museum pieces shown above.

Water comes from the Sherwood Sandstone and we are currently working on YW's abstractions from the same formation up near Doncaster.

Jonathan

[Peter.N.]

If I had known that I would have asked you about my well

Peter

[Dieselman]

Peter. I think you're going to struggle to get 3 Million gallons of water a day out of your well.

[Peter.N.]

I can get about 300