London Northwestern Railway has announced that families and rail users can go behind the scenes this Autumn as they open their doors of Kings Heath Traincare depot.
The open day will be on Saturday 13th October and the depot, along with National Training Academy for Rail (NTAR) in Northampton, will open their doors as part of Rail Week 2018 and Government initiative ‘Year of Engineering'.
The events are hosted by Siemens and NTAR, in partnership with West Midlands Trains.
Kings Heath depot is home to the Siemens Desiro Class 350 fleets, which operates London Northwestern Railway services to and from London Euston, Birmingham and Liverpool.
Visitors to Kings Heath will be able to see a train up on jacks, take a walk underneath a train in the maintenance pit and sit in a driver's cab. =
The day will also feature rides on the ‘Hydrogen Hero'. This is the first fully operating hydrogen train in the UK, which will be on display in partnership with The University of Birmingham.
What did the officials say?
Will Wilson, Managing Director of Rolling Stock at Siemens Mobility Limited, said:
“Over the last eight years, Siemens has opened one of its train maintenance sites to the public as part of its very popular ‘Whistle Stop Tour' series, giving adults and children an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the innovative work carried out at an operational rail depot to inspire them into careers within our industry.
“This event is only possible thanks to support from our customer West Midlands Trains and partner NTAR, and we are delighted to be working with them.”
Simon Rennie, General Manager of NTAR, said:
“We are proud to be opening the doors of the National Training Academy for Rail to the public for the first time.
“This is a fantastic opportunity to not only showcase the latest rail equipment and technology involved in the training of rail apprentices, technicians and managers across the country, but provides a platform for us to engage with the next generation, ultimately helping us to attract top talent to the sector.”
Neil Bamford, Engineering Director for West Midlands Trains, said:
“We're thrilled to be partnering with Siemens to open up these facilities during this year's Rail Week.
“We want to give the local community, and particularly our younger visitors, a real insight into the technology, innovation and expertise that's involved in running a fleet of trains. With record levels of investment being made into the rail network, it's really important that we inspire the next generation of railway employees. Over the coming years will need more people than ever to deliver on the planned improvements on the railway – so it is a great time to be supporting these events.”
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Shame that London Northwestern Railway are getting rid of the Class 350/2 Desiros and ordering the Class 730 Aventra to replace the Class 350/2 and replacing the Class 323 used on West Midlands Railway which the Class 323s could be sent for scrap as they have been built in the early 1980’s.
And the Class 350/2 could be cascaded to Northern to provide better services in West Yorkshire and around the Leeds area and to operate on Leeds-Bradford Forster Square and Leeds-Doncaster that will work alongside the Class 331s.
Or perhaps cascade the Class 350/2s to South Wales and use them in the Cardiff area including operating on Cardiff Central-Swansea hence the electrification is soon to continue and is to be completed next year and/or in 2020. Which depends if it’s not to be postponed again.