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The History channel is launching a new series about the history and importance of trains in America, and PPL’s Montour power plant and coal train will be part of the premiere episode at 10 p.m. Tuesday (11/11).

“Extreme Trains” is hosted by Matt Bown, a train conductor who reveals the incredible inner workings and past lives of the powerful locomotives that haul huge loads across the nation and deliver passengers to their destinations. The eight-part series shows the part these trains have played in shaping American history and how vital trains are to American life today.

In spring, Bown and his film crew followed one of PPL’s coal trains from the Bailey mine in southwestern Pennsylvania, across the famous Horseshoe Curve west of Altoona and into its final destination at Montour. The crew spent an entire day touring the plant and interviewing plant employees and plant manager Michael Munroe.

“On behalf of all the employees at the Montour plant, we’re honored that we were chosen to be part of this program and to share our story about the important role trains play in the energy industry,” Munroe said.

The film crew heard about how PPL was one of the power companies to pioneer the idea of owning coal cars. Since 1964, PPL-owned railroad cars have been delivering coal to the company’s Pennsylvania coal-powered plants.

“By owning its own trains, PPL reduces fuel transportation costs and provides greater certainty of fuel supply — important considerations for a plant such as Montour, which generates enough electricity each year to power more than a million homes,” Munroe said.

Over the years, train locomotives operated by such rail giants as Norfolk Southern, Conrail and Penn Central have been used to pull the coal cars. But PPL owns the individual hopper cars that carry the coal from southwestern and central Pennsylvania.

One train with 115 cars carries 14,000 tons of coal. It takes about 2 minutes per car to unload the coal. The coal is then transferred on conveyers at the plants and used to produce reliable energy.

“Extreme Trains” celebrates the men and women who work on the railroads, often doing tough, gritty jobs in extreme conditions just to keep America moving. Future episodes will cover the use of freight and high-speed trains, Union Pacific refrigeration train, the steam train, Amtrak’s Empire Builder, the Ringling Bros. Circus train and the Transcontinental.

For more information, visit www.history.com/extreme-trains.

Located about one mile northeast of Washingtonville, Pa., the Montour power plant has a total generating capacity of 1,552 megawatts and environmental control technologies that minimize emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, mercury and fine particles.

PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL), headquartered in Allentown, Pa., controls more than 11,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the United States, sells energy in key U.S. markets and delivers electricity to about 4 million customers in Pennsylvania and the United Kingdom.