Photo ID: 110748 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, July 21, 2024 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Cherokee Power Station Denver, CO 56 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Yard Shots XCLX Xcel Energy's Cherokee Power Station, northeast of Denver, generates over a terawatt of electricity for the power grid. Until 2017, the station was powered by coal. Since then, however, the plant is powered by natural gas. Over a hundred Xcel Energy coal hoppers sit idle at the plant, their final disposition as yet unknown. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 110747 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, July 21, 2024 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Cherokee Power Station Denver, CO 51 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Yard Shots XCLX This blue building houses a rotary dump. When coal trains powered the power plant here, trains were pulled through this building. One car at a time, the car was secured to the track and the entire car was rotated upside down to dump out the coal. Underground conveyor belts took the coal to the plant. This rotary dump has now been silent for seven years, likely to never be active again, as the power plant is now entirely fueled by natural gas. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 110746 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, July 21, 2024 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Cherokee Power Station Denver, CO 48 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Yard Shots XCLX Echoes of the Past At Xcel Energy's Cherokee Power Station in northeast Denver, a string of Xcel Energy owned coal hoppers sit silent on slowly rusting rails. Until 2017, the plant was powered by coal from the Colorado high country. For the last seven years, the plant has been fired exclusively by natural gas. The coal trains were emptied in the rotary dump within the blue building to the left. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 105752 Date Shot Photo By Wednesday, January 27, 2016 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Simms Street Arvada, CO 1277 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) XCLX Why take a picture of a coal hopper? Because they are becoming less and less common. The hoppers that say XCLX on the side seem to be dropping off particularly fast, as Xcel Energy is refactoring many of its plants to burn natural gas rather than coal. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture.