Dear ???,

First question, and possibly the most important baseline you'll set for the project.

Are you wanting to model

- "the power plant" (IE as completely as your space permits, "selective compression mode" engaged)

or 

- only "the part of the plant that is directly relevant to plant<>railroad interface"

?

This questions speaks to
- how much room will be required
- how much you can fit in he room you have
- whether you're aiming to build "scenery" or "railroad-related" infrastructure
- whether the addition will enhance the switching/running of the layout, 
- or whether it will "look nice/nicer"

In practical terms, a coal-fired power plant can be a big sprawling thing if modelled completely.
However, by modelling (only/just):
- at least 1x Inbound coal track
- (and a possible outbound burned-coal "coke" track)
- at least 1x "heavy equipment" transfer track
- at least 1x "general equipment" transfer track
(and throwing "the rest of the plant" up as a low-relief backdrop?)

you can add
- coal inbound (whether individual cars or unit trains is dependent on era and size-of-plant)
- coke outbound (relevant if the powerplant is maybe part of a steelworks?)
- new plant equipment IN and older equipment headed for maintenance OUT
- Structural steel and assembly components
- Misc smaller equipment and chemicals

to the layout movements. This adds:
- hoppers
- Boxcars
- flatcars
- possibly "drop-deck"/6-axle heavy-haul flatcars and similar
- gons

to your regular plant-switching moves.

Just some thoughts...

Happy Modelling,
Aim to Improve,
Prof Klyzlr

Coal, oil, nuclear or natural gas power plant? All three could have trackage. I have a couple small plants here in town. One was coal and had the coal storage inside the building, but is no longer in use. Next to the coal power plant, is a gas or diesel generator building with I believe three units. There is also a peak power plant south of town, but I don't believe they have tracks.

Dover, Delaware  39.158031463623 -75.5247268676758

Do a Bing map search on the north side of town from Walker Road along the NS (ex PRR/PC) tracks and you'll see the McKee Run power plant. I always thought this would make a great model. It's not too large. The plant was converted to oil probably in the '70s due to the "oil crisis". A Bing "Bird's Eye" view will show the tracks are still there where they unloaded coal as is the car shaker and conveyers. I walked up there once and if I recall the car puller is still there next to the shaker. There is also a track that leads to a large overhead door on the opposite side to unload large equipment. The source of water for the cooling towers is from Silver Lake nestled in the trees on the northwest side.  Hope this helps.

Mike

Sorry guys, I guess I should have been a little bit more specific!  My plan is to model a small coal fired power plant.  The only part that will be modeled will be the railroad specific parts.  Everything else will presumably be off layout.  I'm not planning on running any rotary dump cars only bottom dump and rapid dump "RD4" cars.  Maybe 10 cars will be brought in at any given time, so i'm not worried about long unit trains.

I recently visited this power plant which was coal untill 2 years ago. You can see the tracks to the shed behind the trailer with the two doors, Hoppers were unloaded in this shed and coal travelled underground to the conveyor at the left which lifted the coal into the plant pretty high on the wall. I am told there was a pile somewhere behind the concrete wall to the left and a front end loader moved coal when hoppers were not being dumped. could be some interesting modeling here. This is the first time I posted an image so I hope it works. I have a few more pictures or any questions let me know  NJWG

Here in town the old coal plant still shows up: http://maps.yahoo.com/#q=Chambersburg%2C+PA+17201&conf=1&start=1&lat=39.94012764665277&lon=-77.65756040811538&zoom=19&mvt=s&trf=0

Look for two tall stacks if it is not zoomed in. The facility is to the west of the old CVRR-PRR high line and had a trestle serving it. The trackage also served the cold storage across the way and backed passenger cars down to the station south of the power plant. Coal bins were inside the building and above the boilers. It was pretty cool getting into that place. The bin was riveted steel and the boilers were brick with cast iron header plates. Pipe was cast also. They have since ripped out the internals and most of it sits empty or for storage.

This could be modeled as a half building against a backdrop. Note the chimneys are probably the opposite side of where coal comes in likely to prevent fires. You don't necessarily have to model this way.

I live on a lake in Central Georgia known as "Lake Sinclair"  Plant Branch is located right on the lake, it's a huge coal fired steam plant.  You can actually see the massive pile of coal outside the plant  when you drive by on the highway and there is a bridge across the lake that the trains roll over to get to the plant.  At one time, when I was modeling more modern day,  I thought about getting a picture of the plant and putting it on my backdrop and then leading a couple of spurs off towards it.  I've looked at on Google Earth before and it's quite interesting seeing all the trackage in behind the plant that isn't otherwise visible to the general public. Looking for a prototype for an oval? Looks almost like the track circles the coal pile!  I'd still like to pull off the side of the highway and take a few pics of it just to show folks but you have to be real careful doing that these days. People get paranoid when they see folks taking pictures of large plants and factories because of terrorism.

Michael

Looks to be about 113 car train on that loop. Didn't see any engine anywhere. And that's quite a coal pile too.

Bernd

It sounds like this might be about what you are after.  Coal fired, 600+ Mega Watt from two generation units.  Coal comes from a nearby strip mine via short line train.  Bottom dump cars on an elevated track feed the conveyor seen at lower left in front of the stack.  Ten cars in a train would be typical.

Hope this is of interest.

Here is a link to some info Poplar River Plant

Thank you everyone for all the links, pictures and information!  This has given me a good idea on what to model and how to pull it off!