IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Markfield Road, LONDON, N15 4RB

Grade II listed pumping station building described http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1358862

Unveiled in July 2011, the steel sculpture is the work of Jack Gardner. http://www.tottenhamjournal.co.uk/news/picasso_style_steel_bull_unveiled_in_tottenham_s_markfield_park_1_976904. In the background, the Markfield Pumping Station.

Looking north-northwest.

Looking north-northeast.

In the basement under the beam pumping engine is this air vessel on the pumping main. Reciprocating pumps need a 'shock absorber' to prevent the pressure of pumping from fracturing the pipes, especially unpleasant with a sewage pump. The air vessel has liquid at the bottom and compressed air at the top. The air is compressible and acts like a spring to store energy while the pump delivers and return it on the suction stroke, thus smoothing the flow in the pipes.

This is the wrought iron riveted box girder beam of this 1886 Woolf compound beam engine by Wood Brothers of Sowerby Bridge. This is at the 'crank end' with the connecting rod closest to the camera and one of the sewage pump connected to the next boss on the beam. The engine is now fully restored and can be run on steam several times a year. That this was achieved over many years was a testament to the small group battling to save the site

Markfield Road Pumping Station has an 8 column Woolf compound rotative beam pumping engine. This drives two single acting plunger pumps for pumping the sewage. The pumps are 26" bore by 51" stroke and could each move 2 million gallons per day. One pump is operated from the crank half of the beam by two rods passing either side of the crank's arc of rotation, the other pump is driven from the high pressure cylinder's piston tail rod. This is the pump at the crank end of the engine. Having pumps either side of the beam's transverse centreline makes for a smoother delivery as when one pump is on the suction stroke the other is on the discharge stroke. On an earlier visit I had photographed the other pump but had missed this one out.

The engine is an 8 column Woolf compound rotative beam pumping engine built in 1886 by Wood Bros of Sowerby Bridge. This shows the governor. It is a centre weighted or Porter type governor driven by a shaft and gearing from the crankshaft. It operates a throttle valve upstream of the high pressure valve chest. On a pumping engine like this that runs at constant load its real purpose is to act as an overspeed governor rather than a speed regulator. The speed is adjusted to the load by manually adjusting the high pressure cut-off. If load was to be lost the engine would speed up and the governor would hopefully act to stop a dangerous increase in speed.

This is an 1886 built 8 column Woolf compound beam engine. This is a view on the crank and flywheel. The latter is 27' (some sources say 28') diameter and weighs about 17 tons. It is built up with 10 spokes. Immediately in front of the boss are the two eccentrics to drive the piston valves. Then there are two sets of unequal bevel gears - one for the high pressure expansion gear and the other for the governor drive. On the extreme left are the two rods driving one of the sewage pumps.

Home to a beam pumping engine that should have been in steam but wasn't due to boiler problems. There was all sorts of other family fun going on around the site.