Railways are 200 years old this year, and one of the highlights of the anniversary celebrations is the Inspiration Train.
It's a four-carriage exhibition on wheels, knocked together in conjunction with the National Railway Museum, and is spending twelve months rocking up to 60 locations on a nationwide tour. Everyone's invited to come aboard for free, walk through various themed zones and hopefully leave more inspired about the railways. Officially you're supposed to pre-book but I chanced my luck at Waterloo station yesterday while the rest of the station was in total signalling meltdown, smiled sweetly and got lucky.
No that's fine, we're not that busy at the moment.
Sorry I need to ask you to enter some personal details on this tablet.
The Inspiration Train was tucked away on platform 19, the station's favoured hideaway for exclusive events. A proper steam train occupied the buffer end and was drawing an appreciative crowd - we'd get a chance to see that on the way out. The exhibition train is freight-hauled so remained unmobbed, although the exterior has been beautifullydecorated by the graphic geniuses who design loco liveries so was also well worthy of admiration. Alas the access point for the exhibition was down a long section of platform fully open to an ongoing deluge, so I was duly whisked past most of the exterior art by a kind gentleman with a large brolly.
You're welcome.
Yes the train was here yesterday and at Liverpool Street earlier in the week.
Margate tomorrow but it's all sold out.
Up you step.
A train is ideal as an exhibition space, and not just because it's mobile. It has a large amount of wall space for display purposes, a flat surface amenable to step-free access and an obvious path of travel from one end to the other. What it's lacking is a large amount of space so it's all too easy for an engrossed family at one particular exhibit to create a temporary bottleneck mid-carriage. It's also ideal for train-themed gimmicks, in this case a lovely thick souvenir ticket you're supposed to punch in every carriage to show you've been. Alas I must have inserted mine in the machine wrong because in carriage 1 it punched out '4' instead, and not all the way through either, then machine 2 didn't work so I stopped trying after that.
This way please.
Carriage 1: Railway Firsts
I imagine a lot of brainstorming went on at Railway 200 HQ to try to work out how best to fill four railway carriages. They got carriage 1 right, a series of firsts to echo the fact that public railways first emerged 200 years ago. Here then we find the first railway photo (Linlithgow station 1845), the first Real Time Passenger Information (Dina St Johnston 1974) and the first use of Hi Vis in Britain (Glasgow 1964). Some firsts are truly world-changing (Railway Time leading to Greenwich Mean Time in 1880) or rightly thought-provoking (the first fish and chip shop was enabled by rail connections in 1860), but others are quite frankly a bit contrived (the First Use of Railway Language, the First FA Cup Final At Wembley Stadium). A tad sparse in places but a good start.
Carriage 2: Wonderlab in Motion
Ooh a hands-on science exhibit. First that age-old favourite where you try to use blocks to build a safe span across a valley. Second that fun one where you try to create an axled thing that'll roll down a curved slope. And third a sandpit with roads and railways projected onto it which chop and change as you run your hand through the sand or try to build up an embankment. I still have no idea what that last one was trying to prove but it was fun, and I couldn't get near the other two because they were being used by children. As content it's clearly perfect for an Inspiration train because the next tranche of rail engineers has to come from the younger generation. But really all that's here are three interactives lifted from the Wonderlab gallery at the NRM in York, and perhaps its true purpose is as inspiration that you might like to take your offspring there instead (day tickets from £9.90).
Carriage 3: Your Railway Future
This is where the target audience for the Inspiration train becomes obvious, it's attempting to encourage rail-obsessed youngsters to consider a career in the industry. Ten different career paths are suggested, none of them driver, guard or gateline jockey, more science-based and professionally focused. Have you ever thought of being a Weather Analyst, a Freight Manager or an IT Apprentice, maybe even a drone pilot or ecologist? A complex set-up with a railway layout mid-carriage was totally absorbing one young lad who might one day become a coder, although the other displays weren't so grabby. I walked off with a card suggesting that if I liked planning parties I might want to become a timetable planner for Network Rail, intrigued but not inspired because my career path lies way behind me.
Carriage 4: The Partner Zone
And this is where the Railway 200 brainstorming failed, or maybe someone on the Marketing Manager career path put their foot down and insisted on space for a synergistic brand collab. Essentially it's an empty carriage populated by whoever's turned up to promote themselves, which is fair enough but very much not inspiring. I dodged the lady who wanted to talk about Alzheimers and was instead invited to try my hand at SWR Guard Training by working through several screens on a tablet. As I tried hard to press all the circles that appeared on the screen, each highlighting an increasingly unlikely customer interaction, my determined focus meant I learned absolutely bugger all about the role of the guard. I did however score over 30000 points so have been entered into a prize draw for something, hopefully not a fortnight's course in Basingstoke, and what was the dinosaur all about anyway?
We hope you enjoyed your time on the Inspiration Train.
And that was it, I was off the train. I'd been aboard 25 minutes so it hadn't been a wasted walkthrough, although after the first carriage the engagement level dropped off somewhat. Don't travel a long distance to see the Inspiration Train I think is what I'm saying, although given it's likely travelling to you there's every reason to drop in. Take a look at Geoff's video if you'd like to see what you're missing, or could perhaps enjoy.
Further along the platform the departing crowd were being wowed by 35028 Clan Line, a perfectly preserved Pullman operated by the Merchant Navy Locomotive Preservation Society and normally based in Battersea. There was even the opportunity to clamber up onto the footplate for a closer look at the gauges, injectors and cock levers, all beautifully buffed, three visitors at a time. I didn't wait, I've seen coal-shovelling at first hand before, and here they weren't even allowed to blow the whistle. But as a smiling 10-year old took his place beside the gleaming engine for a beaming selfie I overheard his parents talking to the staff.
No we're not interested in trains at all but he is, and he's loved it.
If you're target audience, prepare to be Inspired at a station near you soon.
