Newcastle United Football Club has recently purchased an Iseki TXG237 compact tractor for their St James’ Park stadium close to the city centre, from local Ransomes Jacobsen dealer, Rickerby Ltd of Hexham.

The TXG 237 features a three-cylinder, clean burn 1123cc, 16.8 kW diesel engine with a 25 litre fuel tank and a lifting capacity of 540 kg. It has hydrostatic power steering, hydrostatic transmission, selectable two- and four-wheel drive together with EC approved lighting, mid and rear pto for implements and a choice of tyres.

The compact tractor is a shared resource between the stadium grounds staff and the facilities management team and is being used for manoeuvring the mobile lighting gantries that promote grass growth as well as for refuse and litter clearing at stadium.

Andy Tully is the deputy head groundsman responsible for the day-to-day maintenance of the stadium pitch, “Although we don’t use the TXG237 on the playing surface, we use it to tow the lighting rigs to and from the pitch-side area. We store them in the access tunnel on non-match days and on match days we have to move them to a holding area outside the stadium. Anyone who has visited St James’ Park knows that we have some steep inclines around the site and the TXG has plenty of torque to negotiate these with ease.

“The facilities management team also use it with a trailer attached foe removing refuse from the restaurants and general litter collection after games. It’s compact and manoeuvrable and does an excellent job for us.”

Mobile lighting rigs have become popular at leading sports stadia, helping to maintain grass pitches in near perfect summer conditions. They provide the ideal spectrum of light needed to grow grass, when natural daylight is limited. They aim to provide a better and more reliable surface to play and train on during winter.