Last day of generation at Meaford B Power Station

Date:28th of September 1990

Description:This video is a record of the last day of generation at Meaford B Power Station. The video includes a short film of one of the Meaford locomotives saved for preservation and now preserved at the Foxfield Railway at Blythe Bridge. The conclusion is a few days after the last generation when staff and families were invited for a special train to commemorate the operation of Meaford B between 1955 and 1990. It shows locomotives Meaford No. 4 (AB486, commissioned in 1964) and Whiston (HE3694, dating from 1950) pulling the train. Both locomotives remain at Foxfield Railway. As of October 2019 Whiston is in full working order and Meaford No. 4 in working order but needing attention to its tyres.

Meaford ‘B’ was a 240mw capacity power station that was formally opened on the 4th October 1957 by the Lord Lieutenant of Staffordshire, H. Wallace Copeland. It comprised four "off-units” each containing a Babcock & Wilcox boiler and British Thomson Houston turbo generator. The first unit had been commissioned in December 1955.

The station continued generation for the National Grid until the September 1990. It had just a few days notice of ceasing generation which would be when the coal in each unit’s bunkers ran out, although there were many tens of thousands of tons of coal in the stock yard. At this time nunbers 2, 3 and 4 units were operational whilst number 1 unit was under refit as can be seen in the video. The honour of being the last to generate fell to number 2 unit.

The station formally closed on the 1st October 1991 although demolition of the five cooling towers (each 250 feet high) took place on the 7th September 1991. Demolition of the main building took place between January and June 1996 with the 408 feet tall chimney being felled by explosives on 9th June 1996.

Video and information supplied by Steve Turner

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Source: Miscellaneous Collection

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