Abbey Pumping Station, Leicester. 28/6/14
 

Managed a few hours at Leicester, Abbey Lane Pumping Station this afternoon where all four Gimson beam engines were in steam together. A good few miniatures and one Aveling roller were in steam plus an Aveling R10 on display but out of ticket. There were a number of other displays including cars and commercials plus all the other usual displays in the museum buildings. As well as the musuem tea room there was a 1930's fish and chip van selling their produce cooked by solid fuel fryers. This event is on tomorrow starting at mid-day until 5 pm. Better not to leave it too late though as the beam engines were being run down after 4 pm. It was a pleasure to meet a few TT'ers and have a chat. Here are a few photographs.

http://www.steamscenes.org.uk/tti/14/278_0547.jpg

http://www.steamscenes.org.uk/tti/14/278_0546.jpg

http://www.steamscenes.org.uk/tti/14/278_0545.jpg

http://www.steamscenes.org.uk/tti/14/278_0544.jpg
A lovely little Foster, proud to be shown in working clothes

http://www.steamscenes.org.uk/tti/14/278_0543.jpg

http://www.steamscenes.org.uk/tti/14/278_0542.jpg

http://www.steamscenes.org.uk/tti/14/278_0541.jpg

http://www.steamscenes.org.uk/tti/14/278_0548.jpg

Still images dont really do it justice do they!
There was a slight problem with the water feed to the boiler mid afternoon and the beam bearings on number 4 had come loose so there was a slight pause in play with just 2 engines running for a while. At 5 past 4 they had all 4 running again until gone 5!
It is an amazing sight, and one which will certainly not happen again in a hurry!

Danny

Thankyou Danny, sorry if I've given the wrong impression about shutting the engines down early, I couldn't stay an longer and left just as you were having a few problems. As you say stills can't possibly give the same idea of movement and sound like video but my ancient video is very difficult to upload to you tube, it was a wonderful atmosphere of sound, smell, heat and feeling; you could feel the movement of the engines in the old building! To anyone lucky enough to be able to visit, I'd thoroughly recommend you get along today. Sorry we didn't get to meet, Danny.

You may well have seen me I was the one chasing around a very over excited toddler at several points during the afternoon! He was fascinated by the whole thing! Just a little too hands on for his own good- I think that he is aiming to model himself on Mike Sole! I think that there will be some videos going in YouTube quite soon, I will keep you informed!

Danny