Toton family tree

I WAS delighted to receive your special edition of The Railway Magazine featuring 125 years of history. I have been a reader since the late 1950s.

What caught my eye was the photograph on page 9, which shows a marshalling yard full of wagons. Whilst the caption does not say, I am sure it is a picture of Toton as the locomotive depot is in the background.

I have been associated with Toton since I was seven years old when a headline and article appeared in a local Nottingham paper ‘Philip Watches Father Playing Trains’. That was my grandfather, as my actual father was lost in the war and my grandparents adopted me.

My family association with Toton goes back to my great grandfather, who moved up from Bromsgrove to find a job at Toton in the 1890s (before your magazine was founded!). He sadly died in March 1900 aged only 32.

His mantle was taken up eventually by my grandfather, who joined the Midland Railway at Toton as a shunter on June 2, 1920. He retired in 1961.

At a railway auction in Sheffield, I was very fortunate to find a photograph of my grandfather on page 242 of your October 1939 edition, which covered the modernisation of the down yard at Toton. He is the retarder operator in the photograph.

Sadly, I did not secure a job on the railway but my company exported a vast range of engineering equipment for the Railway Technical Centre in Derby when it was operational. Having been an avid enthusiast all my life, over the last few years I have been giving talks on the history of Toton Marshalling Yard entitled ‘From Coal to HS2’. Now there’s no coal and no HS2 either – progress!

To keep the family tradition alive, my son drives for East Midlands Railways. Here’s to the next milestone. Keep up the excellent work.

Phil Burton, Toton, Nottingham