Toton & Rugby 24th February 2006
Part of the Hentis Rail 2006 on tour took me this month to Toton and Rugby as well as a quick visit to Daventry International RailFreight Terminal or DIRFT for short. Its the first time that I had been to Toton for a good 10 - 12 years. So over the next 2 pages is the story. I went with my brother Jamie who decided to be my chauffeur for the day. Bear in mind the temperatures were below freezing and an early start around 03:45 in the morning. This was a good excuse to take my Sony R1 camera, bearing in mind the hill we were situated on was muddy and slippery as hell and I nearly came a cropper with the camera. All pictures unless otherwise stated have been taken with the Sony DSC R1 camera. To be honest it was a successful day with 3 Class 66 kops, 4 Class 60 Kops as well as a few shunter's, 37's and 56's and a couple of 58's. Clearing the Pendolino's and a Class 90. In total I took 135 photos totaling about 512 megabyte's worth on the 1 gig card. The best photography day I have had in a few years.
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Situated between the cities of Derby and Nottingham lies a small town called Long Eaton and this is where EWS's main depot called Toton is situated.A large collection of wagons, coaches and locomotives are stored and readied for use. A class 58 that has seen better days lies "abandoned" and savaged by the extremity of the weather in Toton's Training compound. This was about 07:14 in the morning.
Reaching the top of the hill in the atrocious weather conditions we came across GBRF's 66704 Colchester Power Signalbox sitting switched off in the Depot sidings. Just what it was doing there was unclear.
A shunter climbs down from 66071's cab to change a set of points whilst 66248 heads off to the mainline a consist of flat wagons carrying concrete sleepers.
A zoomed in shot utilizing the Sony R1's digital zoom capabilities showing 47741 looking in a rather shabby condition as well s being at a weird angle in the Training Compound.
66090 & 66071 at the front of their respective Coal trains. I beleive but am not certain, that these were heading for Ratcliffe Power station a few miles south of our location.
2 more shots of 66071 on its rake of MGR hoppers waiting to leave.
With a back drop of snow topped houses and disused 47's, 37's and 58s an 08 is busy pottering around whilst 66704 is parked up.
66248 trundles through the yard with its rake of sleeper wagons as 66045, 67003,60081 sit awaiting attention at Toton.
A closer shot of 66045, 67003,60081.
An even closer shot of 66045 and 60081 Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Note the side door missing from 60081's side. Apparently 60001 is rumored to have also followed in the footsteps of 60081 a few days ago and blew its engine.
60081
Toton Yard showing 37's, 60's, 66's and 67's and the odd wagon thrown in.
67015 prepares to leave the confines of Toton Depot.
Another shot of Toton Yard.
67015 again.
A few hours later we were down at Dirft. Daventry International Railfreight Terminal. Here 66408 and 92013 as well as an unidentified 08 shunter.
About 10 minutes after our arrival at Rugby 92013 Puccini "blows" past us on a north bound intermodal working.
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