Caption:

A last-minute decision to visit, in one day, the vast

Traction Maintenance Depot and freight site at Toton between Christmas and New Year in 1971 was taken with no knowledge of how it would work other than a train from St Pancras to Nottingham and dmu trip to Long Eaton as recommended in the old British Locomotive Shed Directory. With limited time available due to short daylight hours, we arrived and happily walked everywhere we could with no-one demurring in any way. Our first sight was of this Sulzer Type 4 Peak Class 44 D6 ‘Whernside’, the tallest peak in Yorkshire. These first ten locos, after which the class as a whole took its name, were only of 2,300hp and ended their days on coal-hauls from the Midlands collieries to Whitemoor yard. This engine was unique at the time, in still being in its original lined Brunswick green but with full yellow ends and retaining the ‘D’ number prefix. A Toton livery speciality.