h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Sunday, and a day with the .

We were unsure of what the weather was like so toyed with the idea of visiting The Music Museum, which I hadn't visited since it moved from the old Church, to the purpose-built museum close to Kew Bridge Steam Museum.

The old building leaked, was draughty and not good for. The storage of the instruments, all of which are automata, including an extended grand piano with an original roll recording of Gershwin playing Rhapsody in Blue. There is also a Wurlitzer, used to accompany old black and white films on special showings, and self-playing

http://10551.easywebsiteinabox.org/

Unfortunately I couldn't find my family membership passes, so had to go to the Kew Bridge Steam Museum to get duplicates.

Unfortunately the friend,Nigel, who normally mans the desk wasn't there, so I had to accept the and I would be resigned to visiting the Steam Museum. This was unfortunate as it is undergoing a major £18.5m major renovation, known as Operation Aquarius, taking a year to complete, so areas were closed, and only a limited number of engines were operational.
We arrived as a demonstration of the Diesel engine house was in progress. Not overly interesting, but did allow for some industrial photography.
We returned to the Portacabin that was the makeshift ticket office, so we could enter the museum via the workshop, as there was no disabled access. It did mean I got to meet the new events Manager, and the got to see the workshop, which I've had a tour of a few times, as many of the staff who work at the museum drink in my local, and so have become good friends.

Laura eventually escorted us into the main Steam Hall where the red Dancer's End engine was in steam. This engine used to work at The Lord Rothschild's Estate at Dancer's End and was moved to the Thames Water Authority's Chiltern Division Waterworks in the 1930's. It was reassembled at Kew Bridge in 1978-9. It is a very elegant engine and very photogenic.

The next engine in steam was the Easton and Amos.
This is a large cream and brown beam engine with an 18' flywheel at one end operating a rotary crank beam. It was at the Cliftonville waterworks in Northampton but had been dismantled and arrived at Kew in kit form. It was a mjor task to reinstall.

The last engine to be put under steam was the Waddon, my favourite. Engine. This is a really beautiful, elegant engine that is currently painted a dark brown but was originally painted a grey-blue and was situated atvWaddon waterworks, before being moved to Kew Bridge in 1984. It has a 16' flywheel, and multiplevgreasepoints, but once operational is so quiet and smooth.

All these engines operate for a half hour period in succession, as each needs a 'driver' to maintain the engine's operation, but there is one engine that runs continuously, being the Hathorn Davey triple-expansion engine.

Full details here:


http://www.kbsm.org/

The museum was starting to close so, after photographing the campanile in the late evening light we headed to Costa's house for a warm before the had to head home.

Then the usual food and and time for

A good day, with some good photographs taken by us both.

MMF

[Amy P]

That sounds like a fun museum. I like the sound of the music museum too, maybe you'll visit that soon and write about it