This article describes the power station simulator project which ran between 1981 and 1986 at St. Leonard's RC Comprehensive School, Durham. It arose from a chance remark by Mike Gardiner, a civil engineer with Durham County Council Highways Department, to Dennis Harrington, the Head of Science at the school. In an effort to demonstrate a ‘real-world’ application of A-level physics to pupils, it was suggested that an extra-curricular project be initiated involving the design and construction of an electronic simulation of a coal-fired power station. A power station was chosen because it encapsulates many of the aspects of A-level physics: AC theory, rotational dynamics, kinetic theory and thermodynamics.