The occasion of the Chester and Holyhead Centenary in July 1948. No.790 HARDWICKE stands in front of the engine shed with the carriage shed in the background. The hydraulic pump house and tower can clearly be seen (does anyone have enough information to make an article on the Crewe water hydraulic system?). As far as I’m aware the station lift and the engine shed wheel drop were powered from here.
(Photo by J.M. Dunn, my father J.E. Robinson and daughter Ann on the footplate).

The scene in June 2001, taken from the station.

Photos taken in July 1997, when the shed had been out of regular use for at least ten years.

The roof had given way at the rear, diesel fuel tanks still stand at the right hand side of the entrance and the Foreman’s office is still extant but there is no sign of the hydraulic pump house! A coat of paint seems to have been applied not too many years previously.