Coal Fired Power Plants


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dthurman

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I know a lot of folks are modeling coal mines and of course that coal has to go somewhere. Let's see if we can build up a large file of information on power plants, the buildings, transmission lines, coal dumping facilities, how they operate etc. I have one on my layout. I want to do as prototypical a model as I can, since most plants are tightly guarded, getting upclose shots to model is tough.
 
There are two mega-sized power plants in the Washington DC area, one of them is right beside US-301 - and I'm talking about the rail yards and facilities. I could photograph them from the shoulder of 301 if I planned things right [let a partner drive slowly while I snap the pictures]. As of 6 months ago, they had an old F-unit in what looked like Great Northern paint - maybe it's still there?
 
There is a big coal fired plant in Boardman, OR, out in the middle of nowhere eastern Oregon, just south of the Columbia River. PGE (Portland General Electric) actually has coal gons (PGEX) to keep it supplied.
 
We have about 3 power plants in our area, Cilco has 2, one is off the highway, I have been able to snap some shots of the balloon track and fuzzy pictures of the rotary dumper (I really want some shots of that) and the other plant is about 1-2 miles inside of a large field so any pictures of it are impossible, though when I was an account rep for Labor Ready (they paid well, just our temps didn't smell to well) we had guys working at the plant cleaning out the boilers. I was able to be there and was all over the plant, saw the boilers up close, I could even hug and lick them, that was how close I was, everything was covered in black dust, also saw the turbine room. Back then I wasn't railfanning or modeling :( or I would have asked permission to take lots of pictures. We also have a ConEd plant south of Pekin that sends power back to Chicago, it's off the IM line and gets 1 coal train a day or every other. It sits right off the highway also. I think I will make a trip this week or next and see if I can get some shots to post.
 
Going to be a busy weekend but yes I can get some photos of a coal fired plant and will do it next week. I believe it is just about the right size to model in HO or N some selective compression would be required for larger scales
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Willis
 
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Here's a pic of the local plant from a ways back.

3707selinsgroveppl.jpg


I may have more...I'll have to look.
 
I have been informed I am going to "Canton IL" to visit the other halfs relatives. This will just so happen to pass 2 plants in my area. I will be doing some digital recollections for sure ;)

Post what you can Nate, I do have a link to a whole slew of industries, it was some EPA/GreenPeace type of web site, I can't remember what I named the bookmark. The pictures are excellent, as these folks wanted to show all the pollution :)
 
Here's a few more. Sorry about the quality...these were taken about a year ago when the only digi I had access to was el-crapo freebie. Sorry the buildings are so chopped off...I actually took these for a school project (I made a plastic injection mold for a coal load), so I was concentrating on the loads instead of the plant.
 
A good kitbash of a Walthers more modern plant will give you a good representation of a modern facility. I'd increase the footprint of it by buying 3 kits and blending them. Here is a distant shot of one such shot TransAlta's plant in Centralia, WA. This plant ( http://www.electrician.com/articles/acentralia_steam.jpg )is fired on coal mined at the facility and coal shipped in by BNSF from Wyoming. The plant consumes 5 million tons of coal a year.
 
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NWR #200 said:
A good kitbash of a Walthers more modern plant will give you a good representation of a modern facility. I'd increase the footprint of it by buying 3 kits and blending them.
Click to expand...

Good point, most of the kits out are really small. I am doing a power plant that is growing, old buildings mixed with newer buildings that are much bigger. Also for the power plants, a large transformer farm is a must as well as those large power line towers. I made a scratch build rotary car dumper. I will have to dig up the links I had on the one I used as the model.
 
I found some shots I had of our local power plant CILCO.

They are a little blurry as I was a ways back :(
 
Here are some shots of transformers I took over in East Peoria, this was the old site of CILCO's Wallace street station
 
Here are some more shots, I found these really spaceage looking transformers ;)
 
Not sure if this will help, but here's a satellite view of the Fayette Power Project:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=la+gr...76,-96.747944&spn=0.006484,0.010784&t=h&hl=en

Fayette Power Project uses coal gons with the reporting marks FPPX and is located near La Grange, Texas (that little Texas town ZZ Top talked about where they "got a lot of nice girls" ;) ). Anyway, I grew up seeing this train which is where my interest in it lies.

If you know the address or just the rough location of any power plant, as long as it's near an urban center, you can get reasonably high resolution aerials/satellite images from maps.google.com.

Here's an example of what it looks like when you're too far away from town:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=whitesburg,+ga&ll=33.461485,-84.895005&spn=0.049930,0.086268&t=h&hl=en

Yuk!
 
dthurman said:
Here are some more shots, I found these really spaceage looking transformers ;)
Click to expand...

I remember seeing some of those in a Calvin & Hobbes cartoon... :p

Seriously though, those are great shots Dave, I especially liked the ones at the top showing the CNW train of Bethgons rolling into the plant - really gets the point across! :cool:
 
The big Detroit Edison plant down in Monroe, MI takes in coal multiple times a week. They stage the trains down in Toledo, at the Ottawa (CN) Yd; you can see them from I-75. DE has about 5 unit train sets, DEEX or DETX; there's 2-3 more from leasers. These are split between Powder River (BNSF Power) and Kentucky/WV, I think.

Their operation brings the unit trains in, then they run them through the rotary dumper. I think it was said that they burn a unit train's worth every day and a half or so.

Kennedy
 
Does anyone have any shots of a settling pond, maybe the piping and supporting structures that deliver the slurry? Also, when plants ship out their fly ash, would it be possible it could go out in regular hoppers, or would it be to light and need to be in a covered hopper? I am modeling a settling/slag lake for my power plant, want to get that detail of the lake if I can.
 
I don't have time for a proper reply just now, but I worked in a coal fired plant for several years and did every aspect of the job, right down to running the train. The plant had quite the track plan, and switching was complicated at times, well at least to the non modellers who worked there. ;)
I'd be happy to answer any questions and post some photos if I can find them.
BTW... the plant is now fired on natural gas.
Rico
 
Those are neat pics Dave. We need to work on the details of our powerplant. It's, of course, a different era but your pics are still helpful to detail it. Thanks for posting them.
 
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