Here's a power plant im building from scratch. This is the walthers Allied Rail Rebuilders kit. I got this kit like 20 years ago and was one of the first cornerstone kits I assembled when I was an early teenager. I broke it apart and doubled its length by combining everything on one side.
I recently bought a bunch of DPM wall sections to build the tall structure that houses the 2 boiler units of this coal fired plant. The Allied Rail Rebuilders houses the 2 generators. The one thing I really dislike with modellers doing power plants is they just have the Walthers power plant kit and all that kit portrays is the generator room. Coal is crushed in pulverizers, stored in giant hoppers which feed the giant boilers. Most boilers are as tall as sky scrapers. Lucky for me I did contractor work in coal fired plants for several years, so I have a good understanding how they work and too accurately model one.
In the coal conveyor building above, coal is received originally from coal hopper cars, gravity dumped into a chute, which is transferred to a conveyor. its carried to this first building, where two things can happen. First its dumped into a large storage hopper hidden inside this building. the Hopper can route the coal to the final conveyor taking it into the plant OR it can be routed down to the coal yard , where earthmovers are loaded with coal and dump it in a large coal yard for storage. When coal is used from the coal yard, the earthmovers scoop it up and then unload into a chute located in the same place it was loaded, it can then travel up the final conveyor to the plant. When it gets in the plants, it again is stored in giant hoppers. The coal is not directly thrown into the boiler, it is crushed into a fine powder in a pulverizer room. I don't have pictures of pulverizers, but imagine a giant concrete or metal ball rotating around crushing and compacting the coal.
its coming along nicely, im about 75 % complete. I have also made two tall concrete smokestacks, with flashing redlights on top. I will be installing those today, so stay tuned for something really sweet