Toton Sidings Remembered 1856 - 1984

A community project 2016 - 2018

supported by Heritage Lottery Fund

project memories

toton recordings

If you have any stories or photos of Toton Sidings up to 1984 that you would be happy to add to this community website, then

please contact Pete Wearn on 07724 148613 or email me


Pete Wearn (Project Leader)	David Farley (railway modeller)	David Hickton (ex Toton driver)	Brian Amos & Phil Burton (Consultants)
Mission:" To bring the heritage of Toton Sidings from 1856 to 1984 to the attention of the general public in Long Eaton & District"
Acknowledgements Brian Amos and Philip Burton without whose inspiring presentations this project would never have started David Farley for his unfailing support throughout the project Railwaymen David Hickton and Melvyn Rowthorne for their help on our Open Days The Heritage Lottery Fund for their generous award Bill Roys for his amazing work in 2002 recording memories of Toton railwaymen The management committee of the Long Eaton & District 50plus Forum for their support Shirish Patel for managing the accounts		Erewash Museum for their belief and encouragement and for hosting our first exhibition Library Staff at Long Eaton & Sandiacre for allowing us to use their venues for our exhibition and for Open Days Staff at Longmoor Primary School for inviting us in to spread the word about Toton Sidings	Stephen Millership for his artistry on the poster, panels and museum merchandiseNational Railway Museum for letting us use their incredible images of the yards and their help in our researches at Search Engine Erewash Sound for helping to publicise our memory events All those members of the public who came forward with items and memories to make our project a success)
The project began in 2015 with a talk at Trent College by Brian Amos and Phil Burton. This inspired the Long Eaton 50plus to run a heritage project "Toton Sidings Remembered". With the help of a generous grant of £9,600 from HLF and huge encouragement and assistance from The Erewash Museum, the project made great progress and in 2019 shared a heritage award for best partnership with the museum. The project team appealed to the local community to come forward with memories from friends and family. The response was excellent and enabled us to mount an exhibition at the museum in May 2017. The popularity of the 6 week exhibition with a footfall of over 4,000 visitors encouraged us to take the displays to the public libraries in Long Eaton, Sandiacre and Stapleford. We also held several 'Open Days' to attract more memories.
The railway poster opposite was designed for us by artist Stephen Millership from a design by Brian Amos and the rest of the team.

In 2000, a Millenium Heritage Project had been undertaken with the support of Nottingham City Council to interview a number of ex Toton employees. The interviews were conducted by Bill Roys who saved them on 6 cassette tapes which can be borrowed from Toton Library. We transferred selections from the tapes to our computer and these can be accessed elsewhere on this website. Alan Stewart (shown opposite) was one of the drivers interviewed.		During one of our first Open Days (held at Long Eaton Library) we met Mick Rhodes who had come in to see the exhibition. He told us that he had worked as an apprentice at the Toton Motive Power Depot. This important facility had replaced the old steam locomotive sheds and soon earned quite a reputation in the railway world for its expertise in maintaining and repairing the new classes of diesel locomotive on BR. Mick is a keen and talented amateur photographer and sent us on request some photos he had taken in the 70s of men at work in the shed. We chose a selection of these for display as part of our exhibition providing a nice contrast to the main body of our work. (See opposite)