After arriving at a power plant, the trains usually pull over a grate between the tracks and the coal is unloaded down into a conveyer belt that takes it to a storage pile. Most power plants like to keep at least a month's supply of coal on hand.

To unload faster, some power plants pull the train through a large cylinder inside a shed, clamp each hopper car down in turn, uncouple it and then roll it upside down to dump out the coal almost instantaneously.