One Step Beyond

Toton sidings at Sandiacre, just south of Nottingham might seem a slightly incongruous setting for the key hub of a major UK aggregates producer. But the narrow 800 metre long site deals with 1.5 million tonnes of granite railway ballast every year. Not only does the site handle the 1,700 tonne capacity trains delivering new ballast, but it has to deal with 750,000 tonnes per annum of used ballast.

The new ballast comes from the huge Lafarge Mountsorrell quarry in Leicester, the second largest in England, and is unloaded at Toton. From here it is reloaded onto smaller trains and distributed as far afield as Doncaster, Birmingham and Melton Mowbray.

Previously the used ballast simply went to landfill, but this had proved environmentally unacceptable and prohibitively expensive. “We invested in a crushing, screening, and recycling programme that has conserved massive amounts of material,” says site manager Dave Flower. “We’re currently processing just over 95% of all the ballast but it is our stated aim to increase that to 100% within the next few years.”

Flower admits that that mammoth operation is “lean and mean”, involving the minimum amount of men and machines. “On customer demand we can have our machines working 24/7, 365 days a year. This means that if any one of the excavators or wheel loaders goes down unexpectedly, we need an emergency service, instantly,” he says. “For the past 14 years Pirtek Nottingham has provided that service.”

Flower readily admits that he is extremely demanding, a fact that speaks volumes for the relationship he has with Pirtek Nottingham. "I can't afford to have bad contractors on site, and they soon get removed if they don't come up to standard. Pirtek not only provides the right service, they have the right gear and the right attitude,” Dave Flower concludes. “Ian Rigley, our MSST, is one of the old school. If it isn't on the van, he'll make it from scratch. He’s a really good bloke who'll go that one step beyond.”