IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Mornington Road, BOLTON, BL1 4EN

A closer look at Image This is the most typical type of Lancashire mill engine of which many thousands were made. Originally built by J & W McNaught Ltd of Rochdale in 1902 for the Barchant Spinning Company in 1902, it was later used at Wasp Mill from 1917 until 1967. The engine is named "Elsie"; many textile mill engines were named, often after members of the mill-owners family.

From one of the exhibits at the Bolton Steam Museum at Atlas Mill.

A close up of the governor which maintains a regular steam pressure in Image] when it is operating.

The Northern Mill Engine Society's museum getting closer to a finished state. I'm stood on top of the roof over the workshop that suports a new starage area and a very nice air compressor. Bottom right is the front of a Lancashire boiler with assorted feed pumps. The big lump in the left middle distance is the inverted vertical compound from Diamond Ropeworks, Royton. The big red vessel is on the Fern Mill firepump. This is one of the best collections of its type anywhere and an absolute must for anybody interested in stationary steam.

This little display includes a diesel engine, Tangye horizontal single cylinder steam engine and a Browett, Lindley inverted vertical compound (enclosed) steam engine driving a dynamo (DC). There is some fine period switchgear alongside, at least some of which came from the local engineering works of Hick, Hargreaves.

Looking past the Browett and Lindley electricity generating engine, towards the larger, inverted compound engine which was acquired by the NMES in 1995. Named "Lily", the engine was built by Scott and Hodgson of Guide Bridge in 1914 and supplied to Hardman and Ingham's Diamond Rope Works at Royton near Oldham. The company manufactured a wide range of ropes and twines using a trademark of two interlocking diamonds. The mill was badly damaged by fire in 1973 and the engine never ran again.

This is a view along one of the two aisles in this former cotton store. Down the left hand side from closest to furthest we have: - A collection of small engines, the 250 horsepower inverted vertical compound from Diamond Ropeworks, a J & W McNaught horizontal tandem compound and the McNaught compound beam engine from Cellarsclough Mill. Down the right hand side you can see the boiler front and feed pumps, the fire pump from Fern Mill and the vertical single cylinder from Redfearns glassworks, Barnsley. Hidden behind the vertical is a collection of barring engines and a Robey uniflow. This is without a doubt one of the finest collections of mill engines and ancillaries in the UK.

The description below draws heavily on the Northern Mill Engine Society's website. This engine represents probably the most common type of stationary steam engine with many thousands produced over the years, some manufacturers continuing into the 1970's. A number of engines like this were still at work into the 1980's and 1990's, particularly where there was already a steam supply on site for process purposes and the engine could be used to generate electric power. The smaller sizes of engine are usually a twin cylinder inverted vertical compound layout, with a fully-enclosed crankcase and high pressure oil lubrication fed to all the journals and bearings - very much like a modern car engine. Its main advantage, however, is the speed at which engines of this type can run - 500 rpm or more was common, enabling them to be directly coupled to an electric generator without the need for belts or ropes. The engine has cylinders of 7" and 11" with a 6" stroke, running at 560 rpm, developing about 45 hp. The engine has led a varied life. It was built by Browett, Lindley Ltd in 1900 and initially supplied to Thomas Nuttall's Oak and Lakefield Mills in Farnworth, near Bolton, possibly to provide electricity for the lighting in the mills. It was subsequently acquired by the De Havilland Aircraft Co, Lostock where it was later overhauled by apprentices and presented to the Bolton Technical College as a laboratory engine. It was donated to the Society in 1967. A particularly important feature is that its original 110 volt, 250 amp dc dynamo still survives, complete with open commutator and copper gauze brushes. It is believed to have been manufactured by J A Holmes of Newcastle and is probably older than the engine - possibly 1880's

Just a few of the many smaller exhibits on the walls of the museum. I have a rather tenuous connection with the engineering heritage that they represent. The plaque at the top tells us that the consulting engineer for Trafford Power Station was C S Allott - I worked at one time for Allott & Lomax as they had then become - and the pressure gauge was made by Babcock and Wilcox, and again I worked at one time for part of the Babcock group.