Coal Tippler

In the early 1950s, East Perth Power Station undertook a major upgrade to improve how coal was delivered to the boilers. Up until then, unloading coal from rail wagons was a slow and labour-intensive job, requiring a team of workers to shovel it out by hand. To modernise the process, the power station installed a Strachan & Henshaw Rotaside Automatic Wagon Tippler, an engineering design that was highly automated for its time, to unload entire wagons of coal quickly and efficiently.

 

The Contract and Construction

In December 1951, International Combustion Ltd was awarded a £135,000 contract to supply and install the tippler, along with the network of conveyors, crushers, screens, and supporting structures.

 

The new facility was designed to handle up to 100 tons of coal per day, drastically cutting down the need for manual handling. Construction was expected to take two to three years, but the system wasn't fully commissioned until 1955.