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Workshop drive engine at the former Goldstone Pumping Station. This museum is in new hands and remains closed during refurbishment (2009).
©Chris Allen
Old Victorian pumping station standing over a 160 foot well. Now a museum.
©Laura
Ancient 'druidic' stone in the municipal park which gives its name to the local football ground.
©Alan Simkins
Opened in 1986 on land acquired from Brighton & Hove Stadium which lies to the south.
©Simon Carey
This is the top end of the economiser by E Green & Son Ltd. The tubes are scraped clean of soot by self-reversing scraper gear driven by belt from the small horizontal single cylinder steam engine on top. The Engineerium was in steam for the last time for a couple of years while major works are undertaken. This top class museum was closed and may have been lost to the public but a major benefactor purchased it at the last minute.
©Chris Allen
The lighting was bad, it was thronged with visitors and the engine was fairly whipping round. All factors conspiring against quality photographic results. This is the best of quite a few. you can see motion smear on the flywheel but on the whole I'm reasonably happy. The engine is a Woolf compound rotative beam pumping engine by Eastons & Anderson. The slide valve cylinders are 28" x 64.75" and 46" x 96". The flywheel is 23' 6" diameter. The engine is good for 150 horsepower at 16 rpm and shifted 125,000 gallons of water per hour. The total lift was 600'. A very pretty, well looked after and practically silent engine.
©Chris Allen
This is home to the 1866 Easton & Amos of London Woolf compound rotative beam pumping engine. The house was not open on this occasion as it contained various items in store and under dust-sheets. The ivy covered structure is a grotto made of material recovered from the wells during excavation.
©Chris Allen
An 1889 Corliss valve horizontal single cylinder steam engine by Crepelle & Garand of Lille. It was a gold medal winner at the 1889 Paris Exhibition and subsequently used in a hospital. It was moved to this site in 1975-6 and re-erected in the former coal store. The cylinder is 13" x 34", the flywheel 13' diameter and it produced 91 horsepower at 80 rpm. The valve gear is to Corliss's 1859 patent and known as the spring lever trip gear. This French firm favoured it and several examples survive. Photography was very difficult but I am reasonably pleased with this example.
©Chris Allen
©Paul Gillett
The engine is a Woolf compound rotative beam pumping engine by Eastons & Anderson. The slide valve cylinders are 28" x 64.75" and 46" x 96". The flywheel is 23' 6" diameter. The engine is good for 150 horsepower at 16 rpm and shifted 125,000 gallons of water per hour. The total lift was 600'. A very pretty, well looked after and practically silent engine. The engine was fairly whipping round and this 50:50 time and flash shot was deliberately taken at the end of the down stroke as there is relatively less movement of the beam end as the crank goes over top dead centre. It's worked - the beam shows minimal 'smear'.
©Chris Allen
An 1889 Corliss valve horizontal single cylinder steam engine by Crepelle & Garand of Lille. It was a gold medal winner at the 1889 Paris Exhibition and subsequently used in a hospital. It was moved to this site in 1975-6 and re-erected in the former coal store. The cylinder is 13" x 34", the flywheel 13' diameter and it produced 91 horsepower at 80 rpm. The valve gear is to Corliss's 1859 patent and known as the spring lever trip gear. This French firm favoured it and several examples survive. American George Henry Corliss patented the first version of his eponymous valve gear in 1849. The fully developed gear used separate valves for inlet and exhaust, typically in the four corners of the cylinders, with the steam valves provided with a rapid release (cut-off) under the control of a governor. This design allowed for both close regulation of speed and economy in the use of steam. This photograph shows the governor, inlet valve trip gear and the forward inlet (above) and exhaust valves on the cylinder. This is the only example of this particularly elegant design to be seen in the UK.
©Chris Allen
A pair of duplicated inverted vertical duplex rotative steam feed pumps by Frank Pearn of Manchester. It is customary to have more than one way of feeding the boilers with water. These are possibly the nicest pair of feed pumps in the country as many are of the less photogenic non-rotative type.
©Chris Allen
The top of four 1934 built Lancashire boilers. On the right is the edge of a deadweight safety valve. The next fitting is the standpipe with its crown valve to let the steam out of the boiler. The next fitting is the combined lever arm safety valve and low water alarm. The manhole is furthest towards the rear. The far door provides access to the 1866 built No. 1 engine, which was out of bounds on this occasion.
©Chris Allen
The boiler house originally contained six boilers but in 1934 they were replaced by these four Lancashire boilers by Yates & Thom of Blackburn. Two are now steamable and the boiler man is stoking the one that was in steam for the site's last steaming day for a couple of years. The boiler house is absolutely spotless despite the boiler being fired on that dirty old stuff - coal. The site is about to enter the last phase of a protracted revamp.
©Chris Allen
This is on the 1875 built Woolf compound rotative beam pumping engine and operated a throttle valve in the steam line. The older, 1866 engine had an unusual air governor but that is now missing. Hopefully, if the promised restoration of this engine occurs it will have a new one made and fitted.
©Chris Allen

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