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[[File:BritainFromAbove StourportPS 1948.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Stourport Power Station from the air in 1948. The exchange sidings are in the top left, with the coal drops in the middle of the image. Note the smoke stacks are painted in camouflage colours. Image from [http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/eaw013590 Britain from Above]]]
Stourport Power Station was built by the Shropshire & Worcestershire Electric Power Co., commenced supplying electricity on 1 April 1926 and opened in June 1927 by the Prime Minister, and MP for Bewdley, Stanley Baldwin. Unusually the power station did not have the customary cooling towers, drawing cooling water directly from the adjacent [[River Severn]] and [[River Stour]].
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Coal was brought in by a 2ft 6in gauge railway. At the company's private wharf two jib-cranes (or derricks) were utilised to unload the barges, and they discharged into hoppers feeding conveyor belts. These took the coal above Severn Road and discharged into more hoppers situated above the 2ft 6in gauge railway tracks, upon which were waiting rows of small coal trucks.
To operate the traffic the power station obtained, in 1925, two four-wheel battery-electric locomotives from English Electric (W/Works Nos 688 and 689). They were painted in a dark green livery and were numbered 1 and 2. The lettering 'English Electric Co Ltd/Dick Kerr system' was inscribed on their controllers. They were small, low, locomotives, with outside frames almost down to track level, and unusually they were fitted with wooden block buffers. They were fitted with a very cramped end-cab and were powered by rechargeable heavy duty storage batteries. A fitting shop, with two tracks, was provided for stabling and servicing the locos, and to provide battery recharging facilities.No. 1 was scrapped in 1984.<ref name = "Booth" />
Their basic duties were twofold. They were principally used to collect coal tubs from the wharf hopper, and trundle them past the coal stocking areas to the boiler house. Normally eight tubs at a time were moved, each weighing about half a ton, although they reputedly pulled over a dozen tubs at busy times, particularly during the Second World War. The coal was offloaded, passed through hoppers and a weighing machine, and thence ran by conveyor belt to the boiler house bunkers. Any coal not immediately required was diverted to another conveyor belt and stockpiled at the storage grounds. Their second duty was ash disposal. A large quantity of waste ash was produced when coal was burned in the boilers, and this was deposited into storage bunkers outside the boiler house. From there it was dropped into purchasers' lorries, or into narrow gauge wagons. The English Electric locos then transferred the tubs to the tip, or to the wharf for loading the ash into purchasers' water-borne transport.
[[File:StourportPowerStationShunters.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Two CEGB steam locomotives at the power station circa 1968. The small shed can just be seen behind the second engine.]]Andrew Barclay 0-4-0ST works number 2088/1940 "Sir Thomas Royden" was ordered for the station and delivered new on 28th May 1940. This [http://www.miac.org.uk/stourportps.html article by Adrian Booth] suggests that the delivery was initially to Little Barford Power Station in Bedfordshire, with a transfer to Stourport in 1941 when the standard gauge facilities on the power station were completed. The locomotive was named after the Chairman of the Edmundsons Electricity Corporation which operated the power station at the time. It remained in service until 1977, and is now preserved at Rocks by Rail, formerly known as the Rutland Railway Museum.<ref>[http://www.rocks-by-rail.org/exhibit/ab-2088-sir-thomas-royden/ Rocks by Rail] (Retrieved 13 June 2016)</ref>
A second locomotive, WG Bagnall 0-4-0ST works number 2665 "General Wade Hayes", arrived in 1942. These two locomotives were the mainstay of shunting operations for some years, although by January 1958 a third locomotive had arrived, Peckett 0-4-0ST 1893/1936, which had begun life at [[Ironbridge power station]] as Ironbridge No 2. Bagnall 2665 was scrapped in 1968, and by 1975 the other locomotives were retained as spare, their work having been assumed by diesel shunters. Peckett 1893 was also preserved and is now at the Coleford Railway Museum in the Forest of Dean.<ref name = "Booth">Adrian Booth article</ref>
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