The Breakroom > The Water Cooler
Todays Visit to Ellen Road Steam Museum
raynerd:
I had a trip out today along with my wife`s grandad to Ellen Road Steam Museum in Milnrow, Oldham, Manchester.
I pass this engine house EVERY day on the way to work and never realised it was a running steam home! The big twin-tandem compound engine "Alexandra and Victoria" are massive, I mean massive!! The flywheel is 28 feet in diameter and is some 80 tons in weight with a 44 groved rope race!
Along with the main compound engine there is also a lovely beam engine but what impressed me most was the Marsden horizontal single cylinder steam engine. It was lovely and only stopped running in 1988 and restored by the Ellen Rd group in 2009. I`m far from an expert when it comes to engines but I was really impressed with this valve mechanism and would love to build a model of this engine one day. It is the blue engine on the video.
I did this video to show my wifes grandad as a memory of the day but I thought I`d share it here as well as it may be of interest to some of you. It is well well worth a visit and although it is on my door step it is certainly worth a long drive for the experience!
andyf:
Great vid, Chris! The girl who appears at around 4.14 needs to put a hairnet over that ponytail, though.
I'd never heard of the place,despite being only 40 mins away. I assume they only fire up at weekends; do you know if it's both Sat. and Sun?
Andy
John Rudd:
Chris,
A great place, one of 'the things to do before......' I'd love to go pretty soon( to visit the museum of course... :doh:)
Have you been here?...not far from you..
http://www.nmes.org/
I went last October when visiting Manchester ( to see Cliff and the Shads.. :D) and was a great place to see many a machine...
John Rudd:
Andy,
Here's a link...http://www.ellenroad.org.uk/
They are not far from RDG...a good day out maybe? :D
raynerd:
AndyF - sadly only steam on the first Sunday of each month although I think they are open for viewing on Tuesday and weekends. Although I was amazed when I got there at 11am pre-steaming, you don`t get the full experience until it starts running. Regarding RDG - would have been a good day out to hit the two If they did steam on a Saturday but sadly RDG don`t open weekends anymore :( I now have to pop out each day occasionally on my lunch hour.
John - regarding Bolton Steam Museum, the answer is yes but in actual fact it was years and years ago. Bolton is nearer to me than Milnrow and so my grandparents would occasionally take us as kids (this is years ago!!) when they were looking after us during school holidays. I believe the site has changed since and they have aquired many more engines so I`d love to go. The answer of course really is no!
There is also this one in Burnley which I believe is very good. I understand it is quite small but also has some of the original weaving machines in there running.
http://www.lancashire.gov.uk/acs/sites/museums/venues/qsm/?siteid=3771&pageid=12932&e=e
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