 A pumping station was built on Portland Road; this created a vacuum in a pipe paralleling the railway tracks.A piston extended downwards from the trains into a slit in the pipe, meaning that trains were literally sucked towards the pumping station or blown away from it.The pumping station was built in a Gothic style, with a very tall ornate tower which served both as a chimney and as an exhaust vent for air pumped from the propulsion pipe.