Building & Contents Grade II listed by English Heritage. "is a remarkably complete example of a relatively small plant"
Winners of a Listed Status Award from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
Video - History of Coleham Pumping Station by Ian Cooper. here.
The sounds of the pumping station working during 1968.
Petter Type A petrol engine.
Progress in pictures.
The Petter Type A stationary petrol engine is the next project to be tackled. The job is underway and the engine has been dismantled. Keith & Gordon are masterminding the project.
Mechanically the engine seems to be in reasonable shape but has suffered the ravages of time and floods. The engine air casings are badly pitted as is the flywheel. Corrosion made the removing of the flywheel a protracted job. An extractor for the securing pin had to be made but the situation was not helped by the pin shearing. This required the parts still in the keyway to be drilled out - very fiddly job that was too! We have since found a company that can supply a replacement part off the shelf.
We have found that the cast iron sump pan is cracked which will need to be welded up before it can be re-assembled.
We know very little about the history of this engine apart from the fact that its been sitting in the back yard, under cover, for the best part of 20 years.
Apart from repairing the sump, cleaning up and repainting the whole engine, the carburettor and magneto will be stripped, cleaned and reset to factory settings. Firstly though we are carrying out temporary repairs to enable us to check the engine runs. Then the permanent repairs will be carried out.
Whilst cleaning the petrol tank we found it has a rust hole near to the mounting bracket. This is now being repaired by Gordon.
Carburetter parts have been cleaned by immersing in kettle descaler for several hours - it works a treat!
Paul Roberts and Dave Paddock have manufactured a new trolley for the engine to sit on for demonstration purposes.
Gordon is currently working on making a new starting handle.
October 2013 and the machine runs once more. On the 29th Oct the petrol was topped up, oil added and - after changing the ignition timing by 180 degrees! - the machine runs again. Just a silencer and mounting the finished item on the trolley to finish the job and then all is complete.
Now the discussion starts - what is the next project?
