Nederland - Medemblik, Vier Noorder Koggen

Vier Noorder Koggen is pumping station, which was built in 1869 to support the existing windmills in draining the water out of the land. As the land in this part of the country is about three meters lower than the average sealevel. When it was no longer possible to drain the land at low tide, the Dutch started to use windmills. But WINDmills need wind, which is not always available.

Around 1850 steam power became affordable and soon steam power turned out to be cheaper than maintaining a mill. From 1869 on the auxiliary pumping station was built; just to pump when the mills could not. In 1897 the paddle wheels and archimedean screw pumps were replaced by four centrifugal pumps (two of those are still present in the building), which were replaced by two electric motors, in 1940.
In 1907 the building was enlarged and a big pump was installed, driven by a gas engine. This made 15 windmills redundant. This gas engine did not satisfy and was replaced by a steam engine in 1924. The big pump still functions and can drain 450.000 liters of water a minute. The steam engines operated until the completion of an electric pumping station at Wervershoof in 1975.

Nowadays the Vier Noorder Koggen houses theNederlands Stoommachine Museum, a steam engine museum, which opened its doors in 1985. The museum features a large collection of steam engines, indoors as well as outdoors. During our visit some of the engines worked (on steam).