This article and photographs are courtesy of Dave Davies and Chris Allen. The article is about Robey Class E single cylinder fixed engine fitted with Robey patent drop valve gear, No. 24462. built in 1905.
Thursday 26th February 2009 was a red-
Its existence first came to my notice in an article in the Stationary Engine Research Group Bulletin Vol. 6, No. 2, Summer 1984, which explained that at Fairfield Hospital, Stotfold, Hitchin, Hertfordshire, there was a disused Robey horizontal single cylinder engine of 1905, No. 24462. The cylinder, 11¾” bore by 2’ stroke is cast integral with the pedestal on which it sits, bolted at floor level to a huge block of stone for a foundation, and continued forward to the main crankshaft bearing that also has its own pedestal.
The engine is fitted with Robey’s patent drop valve gear, described in detail in literature of the period. The flywheel is cast in one piece and is 8’ diameter on a 5” diameter crankshaft. The drive was taken by a 9” wide belt running on a 5’ diameter pulley to an overhead lineshaft, where further belts drove two sets of pumps and laundry machinery. One set of pumps remains. The hospital needs to expand its laundry facilities and so the engine, last run 5 or 6 years ago, had to go.
I wrote to the hospital requesting that the engine be donated to The Robey Trust. At first the hospital administrators were reluctant to let it leave the area but as, after several months, no suitable home could be found locally, it was offered to us.
Mr. Nigel Bowman, proprietor of the Launceston Steam Railway and myself made our first visit to Fairfield Hospital on Wednesday 17th April, 1985 (calling in on Kempton Park Pumping Station on the way, a most impressive installation of steam pumping power) to photograph, measure, plan the dismantling and removal procedure, and to unscrew all brass parts, lubricators and name-
The second visit was a three-
The third day was spent in removing the overhead pulleys and line shafting, and making the pump ready for lifting as a unit, an attractive 3-
The next visit to Fairfield was made by Nigel on his own, in his Unipower timber tractor with winch and crane, as I could not absent myself from work. The loading was not without incident. While pulling the flywheel across the floor, the floor gave way and the flywheel settled into an underground cavern that no one knew was there. Fortunately, it was a brick-
I must conclude this article by thanking Mr R. G. Hunt, the Hospital Administrator, for his generosity in donating the engine to us, and to Mr. Shepherd, Hospital Engineer, for all the help and assistance rendered to us by himself and his staff. We must also thank Nigel Bowman for the superhuman efforts expended to secure this beautiful engine for The Robey Trust and for his museum.
That’s what I wrote in 1985, all but a quarter of a century ago. Interesting thought, that.
The rescue of the engine left us with many memories: finding the place and seeing the massive, high-
The engine is now at the Robey Trust at Tavistock, Devon and is fully re-
The Robey engine in its original engine house at Fairfield Hospital:
These stunning photos of the fully restored and now fully working Three Counties Hospital Robey engine are courtesy of Barrie Woods. Barrie visited the Robey Trust at Tavistock in late August 2014 to see, amongst other things, the hospital Robey engine. The engine runs on compressed air, but is plumbed and ready for steam. The trust have done a fantastic job with the restoration: