Today was the day I had been looking forward to for months! Last December I received a message from Abi at Aquarius Rail telling me that they wanted to name one of their Road to Rail vehicles after me! I was so excited when I read the message, I remember I was in the car at the time and my mum noticed I had a smile on my face and asked me what had happened. She couldn’t believe it when I told her. The message said that Aquarius Rail were inspired by my story and my crowdfunding efforts and they wanted to do something for me. So, they decided to name one of their brand new Road2Rail D-Max vehicles after me. These vehicles are the latest innovation in Aquarius Rail’s fleet. Like most of their fleet the D-Max can travel on both road and rail and is an adaptation of a normal Isuzu D-Max. In the past all their vehicles had been named after girls so this was a first. I honestly didn’t know what to say! The vehicle was due to be “unveiled” in February 2021 but of course, like most things in the past year, COIVD put a stop to that.
Everything went very quiet during the second lockdown in January but then suddenly my mum got an email saying they were ready to show it to the public and its debut visit would be at RailLive. Sadly I couldn’t attend due to my age – being under 16. A few emails and phone calls later it was all arranged and I was to go and see the Road2Rail vehicle on Monday 21st June at Long Marston, the same place as RailLive! In the back of my mind, I was panicking about something going wrong and not being able to attend for one reason or another.
During that week I was really struggling with other stuff going on in my life, mainly school. I have been looking for another school now for a while as mainstream schools don’t work for me. I’m currently having all my education delivered at home, which is great but it is not helping me to become independent and getting me ready for the workplace. I really want to work in the railway industry but there are some things I have got to be able to do to get there, so that is kind of my goal! Having the Aquarius Rail day organised really helped me to get through the week leading up to it.
The night before, we did a lot of research about the location and where we could take Bella (our dog) for a walk. This helps me settle my anxieties as we can look on Google Street View and look at the roads we can go down and the route. Luckily, we found a lovely path which went from opposite Quinton Rail Technology Centre, where we needed to go, to Stratford-Upon-Avon. This path was called the Stratford Greenway and follows the old railway line which used to run between Stratford and Honeybourne, known as the Honeybourne Line.
The “big day” was now here! My mum made us all ham and egg pitta breads, which we would end up eating in the car on the way home. With the car engine on we were about to leave at 10am but my mum suddenly remembered I hadn’t picked up any of my business cards; so, I hopped out of the car went back in the house and picked up a handful of cards and then got back in car and we headed off. It was about a hours drive to Long Marston but it seemed to go relatively quickly. When we arrived, we were about half an hour early so we went for a little explore on the Stratford Greenway and then headed back to the car. Before we got back in the car we walked down to the entrance and could see the Road2Rail D-Max vehicle parked up in the car park; it felt very real now that I was about to see my name on the side of an actual vehicle!
One text later, they were going to be ready for me in five minutes. I was very excited and nervous at the same time as I struggle with conversations but luckily Abi and Ben made me feel at ease. We drove down to the entrance, had a chat to the lady at the gatehouse and then we were ready to go. Stepping out of the car I could now see the vehicle close up! We wandered over to Abi and she introduced me to Ben who was going to be driving today. Ben was relatively new to the company and had just learnt how to operate the D-Max on the rails. While Ben was chatting to my dad, Abi took us over to a bit of track and explained the differences between “modern” track and this track. This bit of railway track at the entrance to the Quinton Rail Technology Centre was ex-M.O.D. track (M.O.D. stands for Military of Defence base) so had some differences to modern track. One, it was still connected via fishplates, which I assume is what’s known as jointed track, now adays they tend to weld track to create a smoother experience for the passengers. Also, they had older style sleepers, I’m not sure what the difference is but visually these had concrete centres with gaps in whereas now it is solid concrete. Finally, another difference was that the clips that are used to keep the sleepers in place are the old-style ones, like bolts, whereas the newer versions are more like clips. My dad was going to leave us at the site and come and pick us up later but Abi told us it would be quite a long walk so it might be best for him to drive us round to the test track we were going to use. This track simulates a tram-way so the track is embedded into the tarmac. Abi asked me if I wanted to ride in the Road2Rail vehicle to get to the site – that was a definite yes!
Getting into the vehicle, it felt very different yet very similar to a normal car/4×4. For a start it seemed a lot higher off the ground, not sure if it is but certainly felt it, and there was a panel with the special controls for the Road2Rail vehicle. The Quinton Rail Technology Centre site is huge so it was quite a long drive from the carpark/entrance to the test site. As I stepped out of the vehicle Abi and Ben told us that they were going to try and get the D-Max onto the track. At first they struggled as they couldn’t get the rail wheels lined up onto the track but with a bit of perseverance and moving the vehicle up and down the track they were on. The steering wheel then had to be locked into place by using a not very high-tech physical pin which went through the steering wheel, it does the job though. I took quite a few videos of the process of trying to get it onto the track and then Ben asked me if I would like a little ride, of course I said yes.
Stepping into the vehicle now felt even higher because the rail wheels had lifted the D-Max off the ground even further. We were off! Granted it was only a couple hundred feet but it was certainly a once in a lifetime experience. Ben and I probably drove there and back a good dozen times, there is a very distinctive noise in the car as there is metal rubbing against metal. Ben was explaining all the statistics; one key one was that it can normally travel at 20mph on the track, 8mph in reverse and 10mph when towing of propelling. After all my trips on the vehicle I got out of the D-Max and had my photo taken by the side of the Road2Rail vehicle where my name was! It still seemed strange seeing my name on the side of an actual thing! They were telling me that all the vehicles up to now have been named after women, i.e. all of their Land Rover fleet of cars. Abi came up with the idea to start naming their new vehicles after men. This D-Max is a prototype at the moment and some of the equipment in boot/rear of the vehicle is going to be put under the boot floor.
After taking a few more photos of the vehicle I was ready to go. We headed back out to the carpark and then we were off! On the way out we saw class 350109 with class 57310 on the front running a service from 5Q91 1325 Long Marston to Northampton EMD.
I can’t thank Aquarius Rail (especially Ben & Abi) enough for not just naming one of their Road2Rail vehicles after me, but coming down from Yorkshire to Long Marston just to show me the vehicle and even get me travelling on some track. Thank you so much!
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