Talk:Stourport Power Station

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On the Hartlebury page, it is stated that:

"The line as far as Stourport remained open until 1979 for coal trains serving Stourport Power Station"

Whilst it is noted on this page that the power station closed in 1984. How did the power station keep running for five years? They surely can't have stockpiled that much coal. Perhaps deliveries reverted to being by boat, but 1979-1984 seems like a very late date for any significant use of the canal system.

--Danny252 (talk) 09:08, 13 June 2016 (UTC)

I did some reading of the Railways in Worcestershire page, which has the following noteworthy statements:
  • "...the last coal delivered by canal being at the end of World War Two."
  • "The narrow gauge [...] system was completely abandoned in 1979. The canal basin where the barges of coal were unloaded was filled in" (this system was how coal moved from canal to power station)
  • "The 'B' station was scheduled to cease generating on 30 March 1984."
  • "the last standard gauge locomotive on site [was removed] in September 1981"
That really only brings up more questions - if the canal system was totally closed, and no shunting engines remained at the power station after 1981, I really don't know how coal was delivered. Maybe they did store up a huge amount, and left the station idle for long periods of time. The coal tipping trestle surely wasn't rated to hold up a BRBritish Rail or British Railways Class 25...
--Danny252 (talk) 09:28, 13 June 2016 (UTC)
Vanns gives the line closure date for coal trains as 12 January 1981, which looks more logical than the Wikipedia date of 1979, and would also be more in line with the shunting engines leaving by September of that year. I have updated the Hartlebury page accordingly. --Robin (talk) 12:38, 13 June 2016 (UTC)
More information, Mitchell & Smith confirms the line closure date as 1981 but also states that coal traffic ceased in 1979.--Robin (talk) 13:06, 13 June 2016 (UTC)
Graham passed this query over on the Stourport Past Facebook Page, and local residents have stated that by the late 1970s most deliveries were by road, which was how coal continued to arrive after the closure of the railway. --Danny252 (talk) 10:44, 14 June 2016 (UTC)