I have been asked to tell you a bit about school party visits to Heritage Railways. What do I know about the subject? Well, among other duties, I am a steam train Guard on 'my' railway. So I am one of the people in uniform who greets you at the railway. I am the one who consults the pocket watch, waves the green flag and blows the whistle. My basic responsibility as Guard is the safety of the train and its passengers.
I see quite a lot of school parties every year and I hope we continue to give them an enjoyable and educational day out. Oh yes, educational – the importance of the National Curriculum has even penetrated to the world of the steam train Guard! I will give you some specific ideas later.
Our umbrella organisation is the Heritage Railway Association (HRA). Visit the HRA website at http://www.heritagerailways.com and you will find a map of well over 100 locations spread throughout the British Isles. For most of them there are links giving direct access to individual websites. Many of those websites include an Education section. These railways are not like the multiple branches of a superstore. Each is an independent entity with its own distinctive character.
Basic Mathematics could start with the number of wheels on an engine and move on to the number of seats in a passenger coach. Then develop into the sort of practical problem I meet from time to time – how to find an extra 50 seats for an unexpected party!
The working of a steam locomotive is one of the earliest appliances of science; if I may borrow a slogan.
Railways are intimately bound up with the social history of the places they serve. When the railways were built they were the motorways of their time. They enabled manufacturers to get goods to a wide market at a reasonable price. Whole communities grew up around this exciting new mode of transport. Perhaps unexpectedly the railways allowed ordinary people to travel extensively for the first time.
Railways interact with the Geography of their territory. Many follow river valleys and sometimes they have to carve through hillsides revealing the strata below ground.
Please don’t assume that a Heritage Railway is a 'toy' railway. Our engines weigh many tons and will win any argument with a human being. So stick to the public access areas unless you have special permission to go elsewhere.
Most of us use traditional 'slam' doors. Please be very careful that these are not closed on small fingers – or even on your own rather larger fingers.
Be very sure that children don’t sit with their legs dangling over platform edges. We don’t want to give extra work to the manufacturers of artificial limbs!
As you probably know coal is mucky stuff. Once this was common knowledge but few of today’s children have coal fires at home. Perhaps you can scrounge a lump of coal to take back to your class?
Last Updated 16 March 2007 by Mark Dewell.