Ballast Holes. Building the railway lines over the valley, especially the Weston on Trent line viaduct (line opened 1869), required large amounts of stone and soil. This was extracted from local ‘ballast holes’ next to the railway, which then filled with water. Some of these were backfilled with ash from steam engine fireboxes, for example the large area north of Lock Lane was filled was ash from Toton Sidings and is now part of the golf course. Other ballast holes are now fishing ponds, e.g. at the end of Mikado Road and Roosevelt Avenue. Village children were often told a steam locomotive or train had fallen into the pond and was still there, although this was probably a story to stop them playing on the marshy ground, which was railway property.