Shore Road Pumping Station, Birkenhead - steam engine

Image: © Chris Allen Taken: 19 Oct 2023

This is the pumping station that drains the railway tunnel under the River Mersey. The job is now done by large electric pumps but was originally done by steam and this shows the surviving non-rotative grasshopper beam pumping engine. This monstrous machine was built in 1886 by Andrew Barclay Sons & Co Ltd of Kilmarnock and is a unique survivor of the type. The cylinders are arranged as a true Woolf compound with only three Cornish drop valves at each end and no receiver. The high pressure is 36" x 10' 6" and the low pressure is 55" x 13'. The pump rods are hung from the beam beyond the cylinders and descend straight down the shaft for about 200' and the pump stroke was 15' There is a balance beam to offset some of the pump rod weight and this is below the floor and parallels the main grasshopper beam. The engine stopped in 1926-9 but was on standby until 1959. It is now preserved but there is currently no public access. There are plans to re-open it as a museum in 2024. This visit was by the courtesy of Network Rail who were most helpful. This view is of the 2 arbor valve gear that is operated by the plug rod descending from the beam above. When valves operated by the top arbor are open the pistons move up and when valves operated by the lower arbor are open the pistons move down. The valves were open for the whole stroke so even though the engine is a compound the efficiency cannot have been great.

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