Castle Meads Power Station

Castle Meads Power Station was a coal-fired power station situated on Alney Island in the River Severn at Gloucester.

History 
Construction of the station began in 1940, and it was opened in 1942. It was built to replace the electricity supply from Gloucester Corporation's works on Commercial Road. Castle Meads was one of two 'war emergency' stations intended to spread the risk due to war damage. The other station was at Earley near Reading. Castle Meads comprised two 20 MW turbo-alternator sets, the first was commissioned in 1942 just two years years after work started on the site. The station was nationalised in 1948 and ownership passed to the British Electricity Authority and later the Central Electricity Generating Board. 

Coal brought to the station by rail on the Great Western Railway's Docks branch from Over, and by barge. Once at the station, coal was transported toward the boilers by a fireless locomotive, one of only 162 ever built in Britain. It was built by Andrew Barclays of Kilmarnock in 1942, carrying the works number 2126. After the closure of the power station, the locomotive was preserved at the National Waterways Museum in Gloucester. 

In 1971–2 the power station had an installed generating capacity of 40.075 MW. The boilers generated 500,000 lb/h (63 kg/s) of steam at 400 psi (27.6 bar) and 427°C. The steam was used to drive turbo-alternators to generate electricity. The station used river water for condensing the steam and for cooling. The output of the station in 1971–2 was 82.083 GWh.

The station closed after 1972. The station was demolished for charity in 1978 by Gloucester Round Table.

References

Category:Demolished power stations in the United Kingdom
Category:Power stations in South West England