Internal Fire Museum of Power

The Internal Fire Museum of Power stands in Tan-y-groes, a village in Ceredigion, West Wales. It is devoted to internal combustion engines, especially large stationary diesel engines once used in power stations and pumping works. The museum occupies a site near Cardigan, surrounded by the quiet countryside of the region. The museum is worth the journey for its remarkable collection of restored engines. It holds the oldest working diesel engine in the UK, a 1912 Sulzer single-cylinder air-blast injection diesel that follows Rudolf Diesel’s original design. Over 200 tonnes of working engines fill nine halls, with a new steam hall under construction. Among them is a 1903 J & E Wood 500 hp tandem compound steam engine and an 1879 John Penn twin-cylinder oscillating paddle steamer. The museum has twice received an Engineering Heritage Award for its exhibits. Visitors find nine halls filled with running engines and machinery in working order. A Bristol Proteus gas turbine, installed as a ‘Pocket Power Station’, shows how electricity was generated for peak loads. Smaller engines include the only surviving Petter steam engine. Each engine tells part of the story of power generation across the 19th and 20th centuries.