Pumps for Draining the Kilsby Tunnel

Lithograph, view of the London and Birmingham Railway when in course of construction by J. C. Bourne, published 1839. ‘Pumps for Draining the Kilsby Tunnel’. The right foreground area shows a two-armed mechanism balanced on bricks over a large hole in the ground. Bits of timber support the contraption in the muddy, rocky earth. To the left of this is a large cog wheel and sunken metal disc surrounded by a brick base. Beyond these items a cluster of buildings and chimneys of a pump house can be seen. Pulley systems and wooden structures continue to the horizon. To the left of this cluster another wooden structure with a system of pulleys and wheels is being turned by a horse whilst men stand around it. The pump house is connected to the mechanism at the front of the image by a long timber ‘arm’. Beyond the wooden structure in the middle of the image the grounds steeply inclines causing the fields and trees beyond this to be visible.