Rail Safety Session and Try A Train Trip, 8th Sheppey Cubs

Scout badge, Platforms for Change. Featuring an image of a train approaching on a track, a Scouting logo appears in the cab, there is a British Railways double arrow logo at the foot of the badge.

On the evening of Monday 14th September, the 8th Sheppey Cubs visited Sheerness-on-Sea train station to learn about rail safety and have an adventure travelling by train to Sittingbourne and back. Led by Kelly Strudwick (Akela), nineteen cubs along with five Scout Leaders and Assistants, arrived at Sheerness-on-Sea station at 6:30pm.

A rail safety quiz sheet with seven multiple choice questions. An outline picture of an elephant with ggogly eyes. An outline picture of a football pitch

We began with a fun quiz on the station forecourt, aimed at helping our cubs understand why they should Keep Off The Tracks and what the dangers of misbehaving on the railway can be.

 

As all the cubs now know, Rail Safety is all about elephants and football pitches. Trains weigh as much as a lot of elephants, and because they go really fast they take the length of a lot of football pitches to stop. It takes a lot of electricity to make them go.

 

This makes the tracks a dangerous place to be. It’s really easy to stay safe, always Keep Off The Tracks.

Two blank rail tickets with steam engine shaped holes punched through them, two tickets for a Kids for a Quid return ticket between Sittingbourne and Sheerness. A set of three stickers, "I Love Trains", "Trains are Fun", "I Travelled by Train Today". A word search puzzle with eight station names.

After reminders to always walk around stations, never run, we made our way through the station, taking care to stay behind the yellow line. Our train arrived, we waited at the back of the platform so everyone could get off easily and safely first. Then we stepped onboard, taking care to mind the gap between the platform and the train.

 

Once settled into their seats, the cubs were given pens and paper to draw pictures or write notes about things they could see out of the window. As we reached the Kingsferry bridge, they were given a history sheet with pictures of the previous Queen’s Bridge, the Kingsferry bridge under construction and the old Swale halt station. 

Three A4 sheets detailing the history of Kingsferry bridge. Images include a map, Queens Bridge, Kingsferry Bridge during construction and Swale Halt alongside Swale Station.

On arrival at Sittingbourne we all stepped off the train and onto the platform. Taking care to stay safely behind the yellow lines we lined up for a photo with our train in the background.

Once back onboard, we swapped seats for a change of view gave out wordsearch sheets to keep everyone busy on the trip back to Sheerness-on-Sea. Scout leaders gave out stickers at the end of our trip.

We would like to thank the cubs and their leaders for joining us to “Try A Train” and learn the important “Keep Off The Tracks” safety messages. 

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