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Lackenby sidings –
Corby Steelworks train on the up main line headed by a
British Rail Class 37, whilst a
British Rail Class 56 leaves the North Yard with coal empties on the second down goods line Toton Sidings was originally developed in the 1850s, but owes much of its growth to the development of the coal industry in England. Located south of the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire coalfield on the Trent-Chesterfield line, the site was ideal for sorting growing coal traffic. The
Midland Railway had developed the
Midland Main Line from the 1860s, and had a developing revenue from coal traffic from both the Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire coalfields to the power stations of the industrialised West Midlands. This traffic was added to by the fact that most towns also had their own
gasworks, with coal delivered by rail to their own private sidings, and the rapidly developing domestic use of coal for heating and cooking. With need to marshall coal traffic, a location close to the strategically located
Trent Junction became obvious, and hence the development of Toton as a railway yard from the late 19th century. The sidings had two yards: the Up yard on the eastern side of the main lines, and the Down yard on the western side. The yards were nearly two miles long. The Up yard was used for sorting coal wagons going south, west and east. The Down yard was mainly used for empty coal wagons headed back north. In 1901, the Down side was converted into a
hump yard. The intake end of the Down side was further modernized in 1939. Diesel locomotives were used to hump the wagons, which went into one of four fans and thirty-five sorting sidings, depending on their destination. An operator in the Hump Room would set the first three sets of points electronically, but the remaining points were operated from the Control Tower. The Control Tower and the Hump Room communicated through teletypewriter. Four remotely-controlled railbrakes ensured wagons did not overspeed. In 1974, the Toton Diesel Maintenance Depot serviced about 400 main line locomotives and an additional 50 shunting locomotives. There were fifteen tracks in the depot, four of which were accessible from either end, with the other eleven accessible from the north. The tracks had elevated platforms and recessed floors to allow easy access to the locomotives. Employed at the Depot were 70 clerical and supervisory workers, as well as 440 workshop staff. They had a wheel profiling bay that allowed wheels to be reprofiled without being removed from the rolling stock. By the 1970s the yard was in decline. With the introduction of
Merry-go-round trains direct from colliery to power station, and the decline in the use of domestic coal in favour of
North Sea gas, rail traffic through the yards was diminishing quickly. The Down Side ceased
hump shunting in 1978, followed by the Up Side in 1984. Many of the yards were lifted during the 1970s and 1980s, and in the late 1980s the yards were rationalised to the basic shape seen today. This was the era when Toton TMD was the home of
Class 20,
Class 56 and
Class 58. ==Present==