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spitfire
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

17 years ago

The beam engine at the above pit is now in the last stages of being removed to be put into storage. Rumour has it that it will latter go to Hayle to be put on display, Albeit in dismantled form!

spitfire

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Tezarchaeon
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

17 years ago

You aren't serious about the engine not being re-assmbled are you?

If so then thats a really sad way to end the engines life.

Peter Burgess
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Newbie

17 years ago

Yes, very sad. I'm glad I live close to Kew Bridge. I might not visit more than once in a blue moon, but the sight and smell of the place is unforgettable. Silent power is so much more awe-inspiring than a mega-horsepower infernal combustion engine. So what steam power sites are there in Cornwall? Levant? Anywhere else?

carnkie
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

17 years ago

Regarding metal mines there are two at East Pool and Agar, Taylor's pump and Michell's whim, And the Robinson pumping engine at South Crofty. Spitfire can probably add to the list.

The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.

Peter Burgess
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Newbie

17 years ago

Sorry, I didn't make myself clear. I meant live steam.

carnkie
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Newbie

17 years ago

Right. I was just about to give a link to the Cruquius engine in Holland that was the biggest ever built and has been restored to working order although they now don't use steam to drive it. I'll give it anyway as it's an interesting site.

http://www.cruquiusmuseum.nl/framesenglish.htm

The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.

spitfire
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

17 years ago

There are now ( or will be ) three beam engines in bits. the Rostowrack rotary and the Carpalla pumping engine. The only one under steam is at Levant plus Parkandillack on air and Greensplat worked by hydraulic ram and East Pool winder by electric motor

spitfire

Peter Burgess
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

17 years ago

How lucky that Kew Bridge wasn't developed into a Tesco or Homebase store then.

MineRover
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

17 years ago

I think the Rostowrack engine was formally displayed at the Holman Museum until it closed. It is now at the King Edward Mine and there are plans to re-erect the engine in the former winding engine house there.

All they need no doubt is a hefty input of cash, and unless we can turn beam engine erection into a sport before 2012 I guess a lottery grant is out of the question! 😉

There is at least one Cornish engine stored in a dismantled state at the Science Museum, Wroughton Nr Swindon this is the 1863 Harvey’s of Hayle engine from the Carpalla clay works.

This engine would fit nicely into the pumping engine house at Levant, in my daydreams if I won the lottery that is where it would end up!
::)

Alan.
MineRover.

GolowDydh
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

17 years ago

#10

There have been a number of expressions of interest in the goonvean engine in recent years most have been thwawted by cost or lack of a suitable available alternative engine house. In the meantime it has continued to deteriorate in situ. I believe Hayle has some funding and together with the Prince's Trust the ambitious plan is to rebuild the whole (credit crunch permitting)

The past actually happened but history is only what someone wrote down

Roy Morton
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

17 years ago

#11

The Harvey's horizontal winder at Robinson's Shaft South Crofty is up for running on steam again from what one of the Heartlands project team told me. I just hope that their finances can match the size of their ideas. It would be a damned shame to let this perfectly good engine sit and fester. whether the 90" pumping engine will be activated I don't know but two steam live steam engines on the one site would be a real crowd puller. :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

"You Chinese think of everything!"
"But I''m not Chinese!"
"Then you must have forgotten something!"

Knocker
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

17 years ago

#12

The heartlands project team cerrtainly don't have a shortage of funds, with a bare minimum of £25 million. Just seen kerrier district council have put in a planning application to restore historic mining machinery on the Wheal Harriet Shaft site. The Goonvean engine may look a bit small in that engine house, but would certainly be interesting to see it.

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