I managed to get myself and Deathspell on one of the very popular tours of Crossness Pumping Station, which I’d been on the waiting list for for some time.
They’re trying to raise enough money to turn Crossness into a bit of a tourist attraction and want to restore the old train line from Plumstead, along with the steam trains. Lovely bunch of people they are.
We went round a few of the workshops where they’re restoring trains and pumping engines and then to the main attraction: the engine house.
Quite hard to get good photos with everyone’s heads in the way but here’s my 2 cents.
Before that, some history:
The Crossness Pumping Station was built by Sir Joseph Bazalgette as part of Victorian London's urgently needed main sewerage system. It was officially opened by the Prince of Wales in April 1865.
The Beam Engine House is a Grade 1 Listed Industrial Building constructed in the Romanesque style and features some of the most spectacular ornamental Victorian cast ironwork to be found today. It also contains the four original pumping engines (although the cylinders were upgraded in 1901), which are possibly the largest remaining rotative beam engines in the world, with 52 ton flywheels and 47 ton beams. Although modern diesel engines were subsequently introduced, the old beam engines remained in service until work on a new sewerage treatment plant commenced in 1956. Following abandonment in the mid 1950's, the engine house and engines were systematically vandalised and left to decay, which greatly impeded the Trust's restoration/conservation programme.
View attachment 527814
They’re trying to raise enough money to turn Crossness into a bit of a tourist attraction and want to restore the old train line from Plumstead, along with the steam trains. Lovely bunch of people they are.
We went round a few of the workshops where they’re restoring trains and pumping engines and then to the main attraction: the engine house.
Quite hard to get good photos with everyone’s heads in the way but here’s my 2 cents.
Before that, some history:
The Crossness Pumping Station was built by Sir Joseph Bazalgette as part of Victorian London's urgently needed main sewerage system. It was officially opened by the Prince of Wales in April 1865.
The Beam Engine House is a Grade 1 Listed Industrial Building constructed in the Romanesque style and features some of the most spectacular ornamental Victorian cast ironwork to be found today. It also contains the four original pumping engines (although the cylinders were upgraded in 1901), which are possibly the largest remaining rotative beam engines in the world, with 52 ton flywheels and 47 ton beams. Although modern diesel engines were subsequently introduced, the old beam engines remained in service until work on a new sewerage treatment plant commenced in 1956. Following abandonment in the mid 1950's, the engine house and engines were systematically vandalised and left to decay, which greatly impeded the Trust's restoration/conservation programme.
View attachment 527814
