All Aboard the Inspiration Train!

On Thursday 3rd July, Platform and Worcestershire CRP had the pleasure of accompanying the Year 7 cohort from Abbey Park Middle School in Pershore to Severn Valley Railway in Kidderminster to experience Railway 200’s ‘Inspiration Train‘.

The first carriage, ‘Railway Firsts’, took the group on a journey through time to discover the ways in which railways have helped shape our lives.

As part of his introduction to this section of their visit, one of the SVR volunteers shared a letter that a child had written to their sibling 200 years ago describing what it was like seeing a train for the first time.

“I enjoyed today, mostly about the facts basically. I loved looking at the letter and the picture of the artist. It was really beautiful. And also it showed a lot about it. It was really nice.” Year 7 student, Abbey Park Middle School

The second carriage, ‘Wonderlab on Wheels’, challenged the students with the question: Think you’ve got what it takes to make the railways run smoothly? As they made their way through the carriage, there were various interactive stations where they were able to put their skills to the test. Not surprisingly, they loved this.

For example, at the ‘Bridge Builder’ station, they had to use blocks to create a unique bridge structure across a valley, with three different building points to consider along the route.

“I loved the challenge of building bridges.” Year 7 student, Abbey Park Middle School

For ‘Wheels on the Track’, they had to work out which wheel shape worked best on a track by making and testing their own set of wheels. They discovered that train wheels aren’t cylindrical like car wheels, they’re conical. This allows them to move from side to side so the rail vehicle stays on both straight and curved tracks.

A recurring highlight was the sand feature. Here’s what some of the students had to say about it:

“I liked the sand bit. You moved the sand and the geography moved with it.”

“I quite enjoyed the sand bit where you have to move the sand and the projector makes this railway where you have to safely get the train all the way to the other side.”

“I loved playing with the sand. We had to make hills to make the train track go forward. If you didn’t put sand on the land, it would be all water and flood and the train won’t go past. It was really fun and everyone joined in, and it was very, very cool.”

In the third carriage, ‘Your Railway Future’, the students were presented with a sample of the wealth of interesting jobs available to them (freight manager, engineer, timetable planner, camera operator, ecologist, I.T. apprentice, railway teacher, coder, weather analyst and project manager), should they choose to shape the railway’s next 200 years with a career in rail. The overarching message in this carriage was that there is a job for everyone, whether you’re passionate about saving the planet, love creating awesome videos, or are a gaming whizz. Each career was broken down into its responsibilities and skills, along with fun, interactive challenges. For example, budding rail engineers were challenged to help find the best solution to get a town’s new rail route up and running.

“I really liked the part with the test for the railway engineer cause I got a 90. We had to design a railway on this like interactive whiteboard thing and I just made a really good one and I got a 90. You were scored on cost, environment and community.” Year 7 student, Abbey Park Middle School

Meanwhile, students curious about a career as a railway coder – described here as the industry’s digital tracklayers – were challenged to use snaps (coloured tiles) to program the train to follow given schedules. “I really liked the coding part where you could make it fast or slow on the track – with the little plastic things. The order of the colours was the code and that made it go fast or slow.” Year 7 student, Abbey Park Middle School
Having waited patiently for any interested students to have a go at this, Fiona Saxon (Worcestershire CRP Officer) was finally able to get stuck in herself.

The final carriage was called ‘The Partner Zone’. For Abbey Park School’s visit, this had been set up as a careers challenge, requiring the students to see if they could identify the most suitable career in rail for someone by considering the individual’s personality, skills and education.“Such a fantastic day on the Inspiration train at SVR with Abbey Park Middle School and Ellie from Platform. The students were brilliant (and stylish!) and their enthusiasm was incredible.” Fiona Saxon, Worcestershire Community Rail Partnership Officer“For the Year 7 students, this was not only about exploring the wonders of the Inspiration Train, but also a chance to put their rail safety and confidence training from Platform into practice, with return train travel from Pershore Station to Kidderminster, involving a change at Worcester Foregate Street. They were a delight to spend the day with and I was extremely impressed by how much knowledge they’d retained from their workshop with Tom several weeks before their trip.” Ellie Swain, Senior Learning Development Officer, Platform

Here are a few of the students’ takeaways from the train journey to Kidderminster:

“I enjoyed changing trains and sitting with all my friends.”

“I enjoyed spotting things at the stations.”

“I loved the view out the window. I saw lots of fields and windmills – and even another train.”

Platform would like to extend their thanks to all involved in curating and overseeing this incredible project, to Severn Valley Railway for hosting the students and staff from Abbey Park School, and to GWR and WMR for the complimentary rail travel.