luckykaa

Many years ago, when I was a wee laddie, my mother took me to the Engineerium. I liked those bit mechanical things with lots of bits whizzing round clanking and grinding.

Yesterday I went once more. Still love it!

The Engineerium was kind enough to provide us with a guide in the form of the chap who normally does the ghost walks in Brighton. And a fine guide he was too.

The Engineerium was originally a water pumping station. It was running into financial troubles and had closed down by the time I moved back to Brighton. It was about to be split up and sold off by auction until one millionaire decided to pre-empt the auction and buy the whole lot. That was four years ago. Redevelopment has been in hold for a while but they've started, and once in a while they'll open the doors for a steam day.

The central building was, when it was in use, simply a coal shed. The engine within, is a fine example of Victorian Era engineering, although something of an imposter.

They are however pleased to have the engine at the Engineerium. I suspect that when refurbishments get to the next stage, this will have its own home.

These steam engines really were huge beasts. No. 2 Engine with it's 20 ton flywheel and mahogany panelling can't fail to impress. So impressed was I with the scale of the thing that I completely failed to take a photo. Apologies for that. Hopefully

tictactoepony will have nabbed a few.

Even the spanners are of an immense scale.

Bumping into the rest of my immediate family made it feel just like old times. When I was there many years ago, my mother explained to me that the twirly thing on top of the engines was called a Governor. I remembered this. I returned the favour many years later by explaining how the thing worked. I have no idea what my 4-year old nephew thought about the place. Hope he was impressed.

And I feel that I would be remiss if I didn't mention traction engines. There were some

So, a small exhibition, but quite delightful, and so good to see these machines running after all these years. I do hope that this does get fully restored. Steam is in these days, I hear.