Years ago, I was on a rare passenger working through Toton. The ranks of stored wagons and locomotives made it feel like an elephants' graveyard,
As Our History Underfoot – the new name for the old Trekking Exploration account – discovers here, the vast yards and loco depot Toton are largely derelict today. This was to have been the site of the East Midlands Hub for HS2, but that won't happen now.
Besides Toton, we see the River Erewash and some of the tangle of lines that makes Long Eaton a railway labyrinth.
In the 1950s my father and my uncle often went to Toton sidings to photograph the trains. My father penned the following poem which captures the atmosphere of the place then
ReplyDeleteThe Reverend Colquhoun began his crusade
Beside a tarry and black pallisade
At the end of Toton sidings.
And lo! As he sang his glad tidings
He was unexpectedly knocked down and martyred
By a great black train which the devil had chartered.
Thank you!
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