Toton Traction Maintenance Depot (Nottinghamshire) is one of the largest rail depots in the United Kingdom. Toton TMD is bordered by Long Eaton and Sandiacre in Derbyshire and Toton in Nottinghamshire. The official depot code for Toton TMD is TO, previously shed code 18A.
Since privatisation of the UK rail network, Toton TMD has been operated by EWS, recently rebranded as DB Schenker Rail (UK). Toton TMD has been the home of freight trains supporting many British industries, most notably coal and metals. For many years, Toton TMD was the home of Class 20, Class 56 and Class 58.
Nowadays, and mainly due to the rationalisation of rail freight by EWS the TMD is home to the Class 60 and Class 66 diesel locomotives. The older traction has been taken out of service by EWS/DBS and nearly 90% of the Class 60 fleet is in storage, many at Toton.
Changes in the maintenance of locomotives have also meant that Toton is now the only TMD within DBS where heavy maintenance is carried out on locomotives. More recently a number of locos at Toton have been modified for use in France with EWS/DBS subsidiary Euro Cargo Rail.
The associated yards at Toton (the Old/New Banks, North Yard, West Yard and Sandiacre Ballast Sidings) have declined massively over the past 50 years. At one stage Toton had the largest marshalling yards in Europe; the bulk of the traffic that was dealt with was domestic coal and iron ore, and steel from the nearby Stanton Ironworks.
Many of the yards were lifted during the 1970s and 1980s as the domestic coal traffic declined and the Stanton traffic ceased. During the 1980s the yards were rationalised to the basic shape seen today, mainly due to the workflow at the depot which now consists of coal from Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire being transported via Toton to the local power stations. As the virtual shutdown of the domestic coal industry gathered pace during the 1990s, Toton's primary coal traffic changed to mainly imports from Immingham, Avonmouth and Liverpool. However coal is still worked to Toton from Daw Mill Colliery in Warwickshire.
The changes in the coal flows have meant changes in the way the traffic is handled by the yards at Toton, primarily because the great majority of the trains now originate from south of the yards and therefore have to be propelled into either the North Yard or the Old or New Bank sidings. Following the remodelling of the 1970s and '80s there is no connection directly into Toton Yards from the south; the yards were rationalised due to the cessation of coal traffic originating from the collieries of Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire.
From 2009 both the North Yard and the New Bank sidings became accessible from the south after the whole of the Toton area was re-signalled with a certain amount of remodelling also taking place.
It is now also possible to depart south from the North Yard which, as its name would suggest, was designed for trains heading North. Nowadays, in the privatised era, the yards are a shadow of their former selves, with only a small amount of traffic actually originating here. The main flows are now rail infrastructure services for Network Rail, and weekend ballast and engineering trains. Coal is mainly long-distance traffic: either from Scotland, which arrives via Milford, or imported coal which stables in North Yard (down side) sidings for onward transit to Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station.
The traincrew depot has also declined as a result of the loss of traffic and now has a depot complement of 48 drivers (in 2010), which contrasts with the depot's complement on privatisation when around 170 drivers were based here.
As of 23:59 on 26 April 2009, Old Bank and New Bank yards on the up side of the main lines (below the bank) were closed due to the economic situation and the associated decline in freight traffic. Since then all trains have been handled on the down side in Toton North Yard. The mothballed yards will be used for storage of assets not currently in use, including locos and wagons. It is hoped that the yards will be brought back into use once the financial climate improves and freight traffic picks up.