page_title: Cottam power stations
section_title: Coal Plant
hierarchical_section_title: Cottam power stations / Coal Plant
caption_attribution_description: English: Merry Go Round at Cottam Power Station, 1970-1995.
context_page_description: Cottam power station is a decommissioned coal-fired power station. The site extends over 620 acres of mainly arable land and is situated at the eastern edge of Nottinghamshire on the west bank of the River Trent at Cottam near Retford. The larger coal-fired station, was decommissioned by EDF Energy in 2019 in line with the UK's goal to meet its zero-coal power generation by 2025. The smaller in-use station is Cottam Development Centre, a combined cycle gas turbine plant commissioned in 1999, with a generating capacity of 400 MW. This plant is owned by Uniper.
  The site is one of a number of power stations located along the Trent valley. The West Burton power stations are 3.5 miles downstream and Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station is 52 miles upstream. The decommissioned High Marnham Power Station was 6 miles upstream. The railway to the site reopened in 1967. Under the Central Electricity Generating Board in 1981/82 Cottam power station was awarded the Christopher Hinton trophy in recognition of good housekeeping the award was presented by junior Energy Minister David Mellor. After electricity privatisation in 1990, ownership moved to Powergen.
context_section_description: The Coal Plant at Cottam Power Station was decommissioned in 2019 and ceased energy generation.
  Previous Operations
  The station consumption of coal, assuming 100% load factor, was 18,594 tonnes (18,300 tons) per day, or 5,080,235 tonnes (5,000,000 tons) per year, which was shipped in from overseas. The station was supplied with coal via a three-mile branch line off the Manchester and Cleethorpes railway line. Rail facilities included a west-facing junction on the Cleethorpes line, former oil sidings, two coal discharge lines with gross- and tare-weight weighbridges and coal hoppers. The site was capable of containing another station of comparable size, and in this case the coal input of the combined stations would approach 8,128,375 tonnes (8,000,000 tons) per year. The coal handling plant at the existing station was capable of extension to meet this requirement. All coal was delivered by rail over seven days of the week. Special 24.89 (24.5) and 32.51 tonne (32 ton) capacity wagons were developed with bottom hopper doors to suit the unloading equipment at this and other stations.
  The maximum daily intake was in the order of 25,401 tonnes (25,000 tons) and was brought in by trains of approximately 1,016 tonnes (1,000 tons) payload. The on-site rail sidings formed a continuous loop and wagons were unloaded while the train was moving at 0.8047 km/h (0.5 mph) by means of automatic lineside equipment. The coal was then  discharged into an underground hopper of approximately 609.6 tonnes (600 tons) capacity. Weighing of the fuel and empty wagons was carried out automatically while the train was moving. The time between receiving the train and its departure was less than 60 minutes.
  From the underground hopper the coal could be fed either to the bunkers in the boiler house, which had a capacity of 9,348 tonnes (9,200 tons), or to the coal stocking area. ‘Stocking Out’ was accomplished by a single radial boom conveyor feeding a working stock area of 40,642 tonnes (40,000 tons) capacity. From the working stock coal was moved by mobile plant to the permanent stock which will have a capacity of about 1,016,047 tonnes (1,000,000 tons). Reclaiming from both permanent and working stock was by mobile plant which moved the coal into an underground hopper and hence to bunkers by means of duplicate conveyor belts, each of 1,524 tonnes (1,500 tons) per hour capacity. All operations on the coal plant, including signalling for the locomotive while on site, were controlled from a central room which was situated adjacent to the unloading hopper. 
  The last coal train delivery to Cottam power station was carried out by GB Railfreight number 66735 on 19 June 2019.
caption: Merry go round train detail
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