BIGGEST STEAM Engine In The World

The triple-expansion engines stand 62 feet tall and weigh 800 tons. They have a top speed of 25.4 revolutions per minute and generate 1008 water horsepower. Each engine has three double-acting cylinders known as the high, intermediate and low-pressure cylinders. Each measures 29, 54 and 86 inches, respectively. In service days, steam entered the high-pressure cylinder at 200 pounds per square inch.

[fibonaccisrazor]

Difficult to imagine how they machined and manufactured those gigantic parts in those days.

[robmiller]

I want to see the wrench that turns the giant nuts on those connecting arms

[Асланбек-ыз]

Eternal memory to those who calculated, designed and built this engine

[alexmcaruthur]

A mechanical engineers pilgrimage site ❤

[roderickjoyce]

The "nearby town" is London; Kempton Park is in Hanworth, South West London.

[maggs]

I can't fathom how that crankshaft alone was forged and machined to no doubt extremely precise tolerances in the 1920s. It is a piece of mechanical art ❤

[AllisonAndrew]

This machine and it's engineering is a piece of art!

[stevegorr]

In the US Navy I was a boiler technician and we had to use slam hammers in order to turn those big ass nuts. There's no other way and it worked but it took a lot of effort

[henkholdingastate]

Old technology is very reliable and easy to repair. Slow is reliable....GREAT

[EddieTheH]

Who calculated how much work a Waterhorse can do? I knew they weren't telling us the full story about Nessie...

[davegoldspink]

Absolutely beautiful piece of machinery and a real work of art. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[Jmsteam]

This engine was used in the '57 A Night To Remember. Because the engine was operating as intended, filming area was limited. This engine has been used many times in film and tv. Ex:poirot

[blackpowder]

For those who could not understand the name of the engine, it's "Sir William Prescott."

"The ‘Sir William Prescott’ and ‘Lady Bessie Prescott’ engines are inverted marine-type triple-expansion engines. They were built by Worthington Simpson in Newark-on-Trent and named after the Chairman of the Metropolitan Water Board and his wife. The engines were installed to each pump 12 to 19 million gallons of drinking water per day to reservoirs in North London for the supply of fresh water to The City, Central, East and West London.

The triple-expansion engines stand 62 feet tall and weigh 800 tons. They have a top speed of 25.4 revolutions per minute and generate 1008 water horsepower. Each engine has three double-acting cylinders known as the high, intermediate and low-pressure cylinders. Each measures 29, 54 and 86 inches, respectively. In service days, steam entered the high-pressure cylinder at 200 pounds per square inch. The pressure has been reduced to 60 psi for operation in preservation. The remaining two cylinders reuse the steam before being exhausted into a separate condenser which produces a vacuum. A bank of Coal Fired Boilers in an adjacent boiler house originally produced the steam. Steam is now generated by a small gas-fired boiler.

The crank webs are set 120 degrees apart, providing smooth, balanced operation to the engine motion and a steady discharge from the pumps into the water mains. There is no point in the engines’ rotation where no pump delivers water.

The triple-expansion engines were commissioned in 1929 by the Minister of Health, Arthur Greenwood and ceased operating in 1980 when Kempton Park became an electric pumping station.

The ‘Sir William Prescott’ (No. 6) & the Lady Bessie Prescott (No.7) triple-expansion engines are mirror images of one another."

[sheemondallasgeorgia]

While these machines were made, wrist watches were made snd perfected. All without computers. Imagine that!

[diveryeyes]

only a thousand horsepower. but the torque? yes

[justcraziii]

As a power engineer I appreciate this video

[malleusmaleficarum]

I've never seen an engine with stairs before

[SteveUcdhihifvshi]

Beautiful, have seen it many times on youtube, would love to see it one day in reality.

[Vault_warden]

Btw this is the same size engine that powered the titanic, as a matter of fact the engines of the titanic were possibly larger than this.

Also, quick fun fact, the engines are still standing on the seafloor over 110 years later, meaning the bedplates (the piece that holds the engines up) of titanic are still operating the way they were intended after a violent sinking and 100+ years of deterioration

[garneauweld]

I believe I found this machine by accident in the suburbs of London. It was operational and absolutely magnificent.