Warwickshire's Industrial Railways

Avon Bridge Power Station

Avon Bridge Power Station was originally promoted and owned by the Leicestershire& Warwickshire Electric Power Company, which was later headquartered at Hinckley. This undertaking was owned by Balfour Beatty, through the Tramways Light and Power Company and the new power station replaced the Emscote tramway DC power plant which had been built adjacent to the tram depot in 1904. The Emscote site was retained as an AC/DC convertor substation to maintain supplies to the tramways.

The power station was opened in 1920 with two 3.0MW turbines ordered from British Thompson Hudson (BTH), Rugby in April 1919. The associated coal fired boilers were manufactured by Babcock and Wilcox of Glasgow. After three years, the Power Station was extended and generation capacity doubled with the installation of a third turbine (rated at 6.5MW), also manufactured by BTH and two more boilers manufactured by Babcock and Wilcox. A fourth identical turbine and two more boilers were installed in 1925. To supply the increasing demand, two 15.0MW turbines were ordered from BTH in 1939, but due to the start of WW2 these were not delivered until December 1941. Two new high pressure boilers provided steam at 400psi to these turbines and also to the original turbines through a pressure reducing valve. At this time an electrical connection was made to the 132kV national grid-iron system.

The Power Station passed to the British Electricity Authority at nationalisation in 1948 and was subsequently transferred to the Central Electricity Generating Board when this was created in 1957. From 1963 the Power Station was downgraded to reserve capacity status only operating when more efficient power stations were unavailable. The Power Station was finally closed in 1973.

The exchange sidings and brick built Signal Box at Avon Bridge were constructed by the Great Western Railway and opened on 30th September 1920. The three parallel sidings on the up side of the main line were connected via trailing switches to both the up and down main lines. The exchange sidings had a head shunt spur at each end and was linked by a standard gauge private siding to the Power Station coaling plant. The power station employed two electric 0-2-2-0 locomotives to move coal wagons on this private line, which had an overhead wire electric system erected by Brecknell, Munro and Rogers. Details of the two standard gauge electric locomotives and a narrow gauge battery powered locomotive, are given below:

The Great Western Railway Service Time Tables identify that each weekday there was a local trip from Leamington Spa to Avon Bridge Exchange Sidings, which returned shortly after. The trip journey took five minutes each way. The full coal wagons and brake van were backed from the down main line via the trailing connection into the exchange sidings. After placing the brake van in the siding with the empty wagons, the full coal wagons were deposited in the reception siding. There was a falling 1 in 45 gradient requiring some of the wagon brakes to be pinned. The locomotive then steamed to the other end of the exchange sidings via a clear siding road to collect the empty wagons waiting in the third siding for the return trip to Leamington. The whole operation taking about 20 minutes. The times of the trip varied over the years and details of some of these are given below:

The crossover and link from the down main line to the northern end of the exchange sidings were taken out of use on 30th October 1960 and removed in July 1961. The link to the up main line to the southern end of the exchange sidings was taken out of use and removed in September 1965. Warwick Avon Bridge Signal Box was closed on 16th October 1966. After the exchange sidings had been taken out of use, coal supplies for the power station were brought by road. Today, the site of the exchange sidings is now a Tesco supermarket.

An article on Avon Bridge Power Station by Chris Capewell, whose father, Gorden Capewell worked there as an Engineer between 1945 and 1952 can be found at www.warwickshireias.org.

On the GWR mainline

Ref: gwr_abps2249 Anon Ex-GWR 4-6-0 60xx 'King' class locomotive No 6006 'King George I' sweeps past Avon Bridge Power Station

Ref: misc_abps171 C Capewell A Great Western Railway 30xx class 2-8-0 locomotive crosses a swollen river Avon during the 1947 floods

Ref: misc_abps170 C Capewell Another photograph showing the extent of the 1947 floods at the Avon Bridge Power Station

Ref: misc_abps2171 C West Schematic plan of Avon Bridge exchange sidings showing the three parallel sidings on the up side of the main line

Ref: misc_abps191 Ordnance Survey Ordnance survey Map dated 1925, showing the Avon Bridge Power Station beside the River

Ref: misc_abps192 Ordnance Survey Ordnance Survey Map dated 1953, showing the extensions to the Power Station when the rotary tipper was installed

Views of Avon Bridge Power Station and locomotives

Ref: misc_abps153 C West Publicity photograph showing the Avon Bridge Power Station's battery powered narrow gauge locomotive

Ref: misc_abps154 C West View of the Power Station's first overhead electric locomotive standing on the private standard gauge siding

Ref: misc_abps155a C Capewell The first of four photographs showing the aftermath of a shunting incident at the Power Station's rotary coal tippler

Ref: misc_abps155b C Capewell Second of four photographs showing the aftermath of a shunting incident at the Power Station's rotary coal tippler

Ref: misc_abps155c C Capewell The third of four photographs showing the aftermath of a shunting incident at the Power Station's rotary coal tippler

Ref: misc_abps155d C Capewell The final photograph showing the aftermath of a shunting incident at the Power Station's rotary coal tippler

Ref: misc_abps156 GR Capewell This photograph taken when the River Avon was in flood during 1947, shows the Power Station in its final form

Ref: misc_abps157 H Jones This photograph taken from the River Avon, shows the Power Station in its second phase of development

Ref: misc_abps172 Anon A photograph and diagram showing a similar rotary tipper discharging slack coal at another location