As you may be aware, one of our missions is to encourage young people from all backgrounds and abilities to take an interest in “Heritage” – we want them to experience the thrill of visiting a Heritage Railway, to ride behind a steam loco, learn a little about the history of railways especially relating to the development of steam locomotives and see some of what is involved in maintaining and restoring steam locomotives, not least the  heritage engineering aspects.  The National Lottery Heritage Fund has included a considerable amount within our current grant to help us meet this objective.

In September 2026 we had , as part of a visit to the railway , 2 groups from Birmingham University BSC course in Railway engineeering. Students were from countries far and wide China to Romania and Saudi .

In July 2026 we welcomed a  group of fleet engineers from Porterbrook Leasing 

 A big “Thank You” to Lottery Players for making the following  possible. 

A weekend of enjoyment centering around a visit by Chris Vine author of Peter’s Railway series of books . Chris ran two one day events which saw potential young engineers and their adult assistants learn the principles of steam locomotion with additional visit to Toddington signal box and a train trip along the GWSR . Each went away with a Goody back that included a Peter’s Railway Book , a Young Engineers baseball hat and courtesy of our friends at Dapol a Kitmaster plastic kit . One young man is reported to have said on the way home  ‘Dad that is the best day I have ever had “

( testimony indeed) 

Over the past few weeks we have work towards that objective by welcoming a number of parties of young people to the GWSR .

 Most of these amazing youngsters had not travelled on a train before, let alone one hauled by a steam locomotive, the response was as you can read below, overwhelming.

 Their excitement and enjoyment was rewarding in itself and many of them appeared to be wanting to return with siblings and parents in the near future, some even to get involved.

 Watching them as they looked out of the windows, many asking incredibly thoughtful questions (age being no barrier to the depth of their enquiry)  has proven our mission is one of value and rewarding for all concerned.

We have also now modified our presentation based on some of the feedback and questions we have been asked.

 See below the feedback from one of the groups.