Stationary Steam in Madeira 2015

In an attempt to escape November weather blues myself and my wife spent a couple of weeks in the warmth and sun of Madeira. Of course that meant getting up to date of the island's sugar mill engines. I last went in January 2002 and visited the derelict Hinton's sugar mill in Funchal which at that time had 3 large horizontal engines semi-derelict (Alan McEwen's 'Old Glory' article in November 2007 illustrates them) and also the working rum distillery at Calheta, which had four engines that were workable. Now Hinton's site is a public garden, opened in September 2004 and the site was cleared with the exception of the 1907 Harvey Engineering engine which is displayed in the open. No trace of the other engines. On the outskirts of Funchal the four steam winches continue to decay at the quayside and are now well gone. At Calheta to the north the engines have been removed and the sugar mills fitted with electric motors. In July 2014 a Museum was opened on the site (quite a lot of EU money used) and one engine plinthed as well as the original boiler. Nearby a new hotel opened in April 2015 and has engine artefacts scattered around and inside it plus a small gallery museum on the sugar industry.

Over on the north coast at Porta da Cruz the sugar mill there was much as before but has also been upgraded to a working museum, with lots of funding for interactive screens, etc. The engines remain in situ and operate the sugar mills every April and May - it claims to be the last steam powered sugar mill in Europe. Nearby a new museum opened in 2014 based on a former derelict sugar mill with the original Glasgow-built engine in situ and now cleaned up (some parts missing). There is an adjacent derelict boiler but this is not part of the museum. It fed the chimney that is part of the museum.

So the island still has engines worth seeing and a visit in springtime would be rewarded with working steam.

Engenho do Norte rum distillery, Porto da Cruz:

Engenho Velho museum Porto da Cruz, (engines from Mirrlees, Tait and Watson, Glasgow, 1875):

Former Calheta horizontal engine:

Harvey milling engine:

Three duplex pumps:

Duplex pump on the waterfront at Calheta

Jones Burton Co Liverpool c1895 duplex pump at Engenhos da Calheta rum distillery

Duplex pump, Jones Burton Co Liverpool at the Engenho Velho museum

Finally at the museum of Electricity, Funchal there is an inverted single cylinder high speed engine, Jones Burton Co Liverpool No 7638/ 1926.