Trencherfield Mill Steam Engine (Wigan)

The Mill Engine at Trencherfield Mill, Wigan. A horizontal, twin tandem, 2500hp, triple expansion compound, condensing steam engine, seen at work.

The two sides of the engine are named Helen and Rina. It was built by John and Edward Wood of Bolton in 1907. The engine drove the flywheel which in turn drives ropes by friction to the pulleys in the rope race which powered line shafting which in turn drove leather belts and to power the cotton manufacturing machines on each of the mill's 5 floors.

It currently runs at a speed of 34 rpm, but originally ran at twice that speed in its working life. The speed has been reduced because of the smaller load on the flywheel (12 ropes now rather than the 54 it originally had) and the flywheel momentum at 68rpm would mean it would take a long time to stop with that momentum. So reducing the speed makes it stop more easily when wanted to with the lighter load on the flywheel.

The condenser uses water from the adjacent Leeds and Liverpool Canal and is worked by two condensing pumps worked off the engine's crossheads.

Open every Sunday for demonstration runs at 11am and 1pm, and free to view. Also cotton spinning machinery is demonstrated.

Seen in sequence are;

Governor
Pressure Gauges
Helen Side Condenser Pump
Rev Counter
Rina Side HP Cylinder
Rina Side LP Cylinder
Rina Side Con Rod
Rina Side Condensing Pump
Rina Side Big End
Flywheel and Rina Side Eccentrics
Rope Race (Unique survivor)

The engine powered the mill until 1968 and it was rescued by Wigan Council in the 1980s. It was returned to running order by the Northern Mill Engine Society in 1984, and ran for 18 years before it was again worn out. The engine was recently restored with Heritage Lottery money as it is a unique survivor of a cotton mill engine, still in its original setting with the mill building around it and the rope race area intact. Unfortunately the six Lancashire Boilers that originally powered the engine were lost to scrap in 1968, but steam is now supplied by a modern bio-diesel fuelled automatic steam boiler, which is needed due to the adjacent residential developments to keep the emmisions down.

It is the largest surviving mill engine in the world. It is one engine as opposed to two because the pipework under the engine is interconnected between each side via the compounding.

If you enjoyed it come and visit us on Sundays at 11am and 1pm for free, at Trencherfield Mill, Wigan!!

Also see barring engine and whistle videos.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Trencherfield
• Mill
• Engine
• Wigan
• Cotton
• Steam

[dward45110]

It aint all housing- engine house is still there as always and runs on sundays

[eatmypies]

go there i recommend .two lovely blokes cant recall their names will welcome you and show you all the details very good day we had .we went sunday 1 pm enjoy

[JimTLonW6]

Very impressive piece of Victorian machinery.

[antwigan]

Its not housing. Its still there

[RofloI3east]

A shame this was all turned into housing =(

[silver760]

You would think that they would use it to generate electricity when it is running and pipe it into the grid,it would atleast generate some revnue that way and steam engine hate running without a load especially ones that size,with 2.5KHP you could run a huge generator and it doesnt even have to be a modern one.

[gtronan]

good ole hellen and rina