The Kempton Park steam engines (also known as the Kempton Great Engines) are two large triple-expansion steam engines, dating from 1926–1929, at the Kempton Park Waterworks in south-west London. They were ordered by the

Metropolitan Water Board The Metropolitan Water Board was a municipal body formed in 1903 to manage the water supply in London, UK. The members of the board were nominated by the local authorities within its area of supply. In 1904 it took over the water supply functi ...

and manufactured by

Worthington-Simpson Worthington-Simpson was a British pump manufacturer. Many of their pumps were used in municipal waterworks in Great Britain. The company has its roots in a steam engine workshop founded by Thomas Simpson around 1785. His sons took over the worksho ...

Newark-On-Trent Newark-on-Trent or Newark () is a market town and civil parish in the Newark and Sherwood district in Nottinghamshire, England. It is on the River Trent, and was historically a major inland port. The A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road bypasses th ...

Description

Each engine is of a similar size to that used in RMS ''Titanic'' and rated at about . Each could pump of water a day, to reservoirs at

Cricklewood Cricklewood is an area of London, England, which spans the boundaries of three London boroughs: Barnet to the east, Brent to the west and Camden to the south-east. The Crown pub, now the Clayton Crown Hotel, is a local landmark and lies north- ...

Fortis Green Fortis Green is a ward in the extreme northwestern corner of the Borough of Haringey, north London. It is also the name of the road that runs between Muswell Hill and East Finchley which forms part of the A504. The ward lies between Colney H ...

and Finsbury Park for the supply of drinking water to the north, east & west of

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. Raw water was supplied to the waterworks by the Staines and Queen Mary Reservoirs, which stored water collected from the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

. They were the last working survivors when they were finally retired from service in 1980. The engines are of an inverted vertical triple-expansion type, tall from basement to the top of the valve casings and each weighing over 800 tons. The engines are thought to be the biggest ever built in the UK. One of the engines, called The Sir William Prescott, has been restored to running order and is the largest fully operational triple-expansion steam engine in the world. It may be seen in steam on various weekends during the year. The engine house also houses two

steam turbine A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turbin ...

water pumps. One of these steam turbines has now been motorised to demonstrate its inner workings. The waterworks is adjacent to the A316 (just before it becomes the M3 motorway), between

Sunbury-on-Thames Sunbury-on-Thames (or commonly Sunbury) is a suburban town on the north bank of the River Thames in the Borough of Spelthorne, Surrey, centred southwest of central London. Historically part of the county of Middlesex, in 1965 Sunbury and other ...

and Hanworth. The same site also features a 2-foot gauge steam railway, the Kempton Steam Railway, the largest steam railway offering rides to the public on selected days, in London. The steam engines now form a museum operated by Kempton Great Engines Trust, a registered charity.

In media

* The music video for 1971 top-ten chart hit "

Tap Turns on the Water "Tap Turns on the Water" is a song and single by British band, C.C.S. Written by band leader Alexis Korner and John Cameron, it was first released in the UK in 1971. Background and chart success The song was the third chart success by C.C.S. an ...

", by British band CCS was filmed at Kempton Park. * The pumping station was used for the exterior shots of the ''Scrumptious Sweet Company'' factory in the 1968 film ''

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang ''Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'' is a 1968 musical-fantasy film directed by Ken Hughes with a screenplay co-written by Roald Dahl and Hughes, loosely based on Ian Fleming's novel '' Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car'' (1964). The film stars ...

.'' * The second series of the Channel 4 show

GamesMaster ''GamesMaster'' is a British television programme which originally aired on Channel 4 from 1992 to 1998. In 2021, it returned for a new series on YouTube and E4. It was the first UK television programme dedicated to video games. Dominik Diam ...

was filmed on location at the Kempton Park Pumping Station in 1992 and 1993. * The engines were featured in the Titanic films ''

S.O.S. Titanic ''S.O.S. Titanic'' is a British-American 1979 drama disaster television movie that depicts the doomed 1912 maiden voyage from the perspective of three distinct groups of passengers in First, Second, and Third Class. The script was written by Jam ...

'' and '' Saving the Titanic''. They were also featured in a short scene set in the Titanic's engine room in the film ''

Holmes & Watson ''Holmes & Watson'' is a 2018 American-Canadian mystery-comedy film written and directed by Etan Cohen. The film stars Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly as the eponymous characters Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, respectively; with Rebecca Hall, R ...

''. * The factory scenes of the 2000 TV adaptation of Agatha Christie's ''Poirot'' story ''

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd ''The Murder of Roger Ackroyd'' is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in June 1926 in the United Kingdom by William Collins, Sons and in the United States by Dodd, Mead and Company. It is the third no ...

'' were filmed here.

References

External links

Official website of Kempton Great Engines TrustPictures of Kempton Park Engines
{{Spelthorne Preserved stationary steam engines Museums in Surrey Industry museums in England London water infrastructure Steam museums in London History of Middlesex Middlesex

Description

In media

See also

References

External links