Kempton Great Engines
Kempton Great Engines steam museum, at Kempton Park, Hanworth, Middlesex, TW13 6XH.
Kempton Park Pumping Station houses two magnificent triple-expansion steam pumping engines made by Worthington Simpson. One of these can periodically be seen running. The other is being restored, providing an excellent opportunity to study the working arrangements of the engine (much stair-climbing involved if the full benefit is to be obtained!).
The engine room also contains two steam turbine-driven pumping sets, and an unusual back-up DC generator driven by a water turbine which takes its supply of the pumped water supply. Speed is regulated by a DC brake.
See Kempton Great Engines Trust website.
1929 Kempton Park Pumping Station was described in Engineering[1] [2]. Extracts:-
The engines' steam cylinders are: HP 29 in.; IP 54 in.; LP 86 in., stroke 5 ft. 6 in. Two flywheels 17 ft. diameter and 32 tons in weight. Maximum speed of the engine 25.4 rpm. The total height from the base of the pumps to the top of the valve spindle caps is 62 ft.
'The pumps are all single-acting, and, in accordance with the Metropolitan Water Board’s standard practice for engines that may have to pump at varying heads, each has a compound plunger. .... it may be here stated that it consists of two separate plungers arranged concentrically. These are bolted together when a large quantity of water at a low head is to be dealt with, but when a smaller quantity at a high head is to be handled, the outer plunger is bolted to the pump casing, and the smaller inner plunger only is used. The pump horse-power in either case is approximately the same. When both plungers are bolted together the effective diameter in these pumps is 30 1/2 in. When the inner plunger alone is used the effective diameter is 25 1/2 in. The stroke, of 5 ft. 6 in., remains unaltered. As an illustration of the varying duty required, the variation of the pumping capacity of each engine under different conditions should be noted. Thus, this capacity is 12,000,000 gallons per day into Fortis Green or Bishop’s Wood Reservoir, against a head of 400 ft.; 16,000,000 gallons per day into the same reservoirs against a head of 300 ft. ; and 19,000,000 gallons per day into Cricklewood Reservoir against a head of 200 ft. The heads to Fortis Green and Bishops Wood reservoir vary from 300 ft. to 400 ft., according to the quantity passing through the main.'
Incorporated in the main platform are four lamp standards composed of the preserved main links of the parallel motion of an old Boulton and Watt engine which, until 1925, was at work at the Deptford Pumping Station, having been installed in 1812.