For over 200 years Crofton Beam Engines has always burnt coal as the fuel for heating water in the boiler to produce steam to drive the beam engines.

Crofton Beam Engines did another steam test earlier this year using a bio fuel made from rape seed pressings as an alternative to coal.   Could this bio fuel be a future alternative to coal?

How well did this coal alternative work?

Crofton Beam Engines will be hosting their annual Teddy Bears Picnic on Sunday 8th June. Bring a picnic lunch, your favourite stuffed animal and the family to Crofton for lawn games, stories, a teddy bear trail and crafts.

Join one of our two 20-minute Story Sessions in the Side Boiler House at either 11:30 or 12:30 for bear themed stories or come by the Craft Tent to make some bear ears, a bear mask or do some paper weaving. Story Sessions and Crafts are each £1 per child. No booking is required.

Family lawn games will be dotted around the grounds, suitable for a variety of ages. You can take part in the Teddy Bear Trail inside the station, finding our eight bears hiding around the station, or try your luck at guessing how many gummy bears are in our jar or guessing the name of our Teddy Bear. If you guess correctly you get to take it home.

Boiler Bear will be making an appearance at our Story Sessions to say hello.

Tea, coffee and cake will be available for purchase in our newly refurbished Smithy. The site is open from 10:30 – 16:00, with last entry to the station at 15:00 and last entry to the site at 15:30. This is a non-steaming day, so the engines will be stationary.

Entry to the site is free. Entry to the station is £6 for adults (16 and over). Children and carers and members of the Kennet & Avon Canal Trust are free.

The ladies have control.

During our recent Early May Steaming Weekend. Two of our Crofton lady volunteers had control of the driving platform on the Harveys of Hale 1846 beam engine. They both Demonstrated their driving skills with great confidence, and had fun at the same time.

If you missed them, they will be back for our next end of May steaming weekend. And who knows next time they could well be driving the worlds oldest working beam engine, the legendary 1812  Boulton Watt.

There was an unusually high level of excitement for four and a half days at Crofton Beam Engines last week.  On Wednesday a request for help was received from Canal and River Trust, the water level in the Summit Pound of the Kennet and Avon Canal was found to have reached an unacceptably low level in the middle of the week.  Boaters were stranded and the fish had very little water in which to survive.  Following some swift communication with Crofton Beam Engine Volunteers, by 9.00 a.m. on Thursday morning ‘warm through’, the process for warming the boiler was getting underway. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday a dedicated team of Volunteers and a member of staff leapt into action for three days of steaming to replenish the water level in the canal.

Over the four days, one day for ‘warm through’ and three days of steaming, with the help of 23 Volunteers giving a total of 364 hours of commitment the task was completed.   As a result of the effort put in over the three days of pumping, around 19.5 million litres of water (18,000 tons) were pumped over 27.9 hours, enabling the Summit Pound to be reopened earlier than expected.

“Hard work, but a lot of fun for all.  Back to do it again tomorrow” Duty Engineer after Saturday steaming

“All in all it was a hard 3 days of work. Flexible working was required each day which was carefully managed and I think all the Volunteers enjoyed the challenge.” Duty Engineer after three days steaming

“My sister and I visited Crofton last Sunday when, as good luck would have it, steam was up on both engines.  We met with volunteers who explained everything with enthusiasm.  We had a very enjoyable, and unexpected, time at Crofton Beam Engines” Richard Jackson, visitor