Spondon Power Station locomotive

[Steve (Spondon Online)]

We've received this appeal from the Electric Railway Museum. If anyone can help, please email [e-mail] or post your thoughts and memories here on the message board...

Hello, I represent the Electric Railway Museum and one of our projects is the restoration to full working order of one of the battery locomotives that used to work at the old Spondon Power Station.

We are keen to learn more about the locomotive and the nature of the rail workings at the power station and wonder if Spondon Online would be kind enough to run an appeal on our behalf for any former employees or local residents with memories and possibly photographs that they would be willing to share to get in touch with me at the email address provided. Many Thanks."

[melidenlad]

These Locomotives had a center cab and ran on batteries picking up there power to charge the batteries from an over head pantograph they also had very low gearing to make unloading easer. Back in the late fifty's early sixty's the Spondon power station would work two of these locomotives at a time, they would take the coal wagons into the power station and then on to the unloading bins to be loaded into the power station's boilers. The coal was of a powdery nature and carried in large wagons called rail hoppers. That were loaded from the top, and unloaded from the bottom. the coal dust then fell into the unloading bin where it was taken by a conveyor belt into larger storage hoppers on the top of the boilers to be blown into the boiler when required. Depending on demand for electricity, each day except Sunday a coal train would arrive at spondon station, some times two trains a day. From Nottingham way, and I don't know why, but British Rail always seemed to send it over the level crossing, between 1-30pm & 2pm this would cause the maximum disruption to Celanese office staff returning to work after their lunch and shift workers going in for the 2pm-10pm shift. The road entrance to Spondon power station was via station road in Borrowash.