In reply to Barry, I mentioned the Calcutta engine simply to give a
comparison; it being of similar size, layout and age.
The Calcutta pit was one of the Whitwick collieries near Swannington in
Leicestershire and was served by the Leicester and Swannington Railway.
Being in a valley the railway had to go down an incline and a small
stationary steam engine was erected at the top to haul up the coal output.
In due course it was decided to cease coal-drawing at the pit and convert it
to a centralised pumping station; a very large single cylinder horizontal
steam engine with flywheel, built by Robert Stephenson & Co., was installed
in 1877 to operate the pumps in the shaft. This meant that wagons of coal
were brought by rail and lowered down the incline to the Calcutta pit until
it went off steam about 1948. The small incline hauler was preserved and is
now in the National Rail Museum, York. The big engine at the Calcutta pit
was scrapped but the huge engine house still stands, Listed I think, and a
steel headgear still stands over the pumping shaft (see Adrian's list).
For an illustration of the Calcutta engine, and therefore an idea of the
possible arrangement of the Keld Heads engine see The Steam Engine in
Industry -2 by George Watkins, pub. Moorland 1979, plates 51-2.
Regards, Simon.
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