Metro safety training has given a life sized replica cab a new job. The cab once helped drivers prepare for real trains. Now it helps children understand that a railway is not a playground with ambitious lighting.
Nexus says the cab has a permanent home at SafetyWorks in Newcastle. It previously helped familiarise Metro drivers with the new cab before the real fleet arrived. Now the replica supports railway safety lessons for schools and youth groups. It has moved from driver preparation to public education without once asking for a career review.
Metro safety training gives a cab a very convincing role
SafetyWorks recreates a railway environment for its lessons. The replica gives children a realistic setting for warnings about trespassing and high voltage overhead lines. The message remains serious. The cab nevertheless has the expression of a train that has been asked to lead a workshop about personal boundaries.
In the fictional Office of Demonstration Transport, officials have greeted the cab as their most dependable member of staff. It never misses a meeting, never asks for a lanyard and never sends a calendar invitation called quick catch up that becomes a two hour consultation about seating.
“The cab understands the brief,” laughed fictional coordinator Vera Platform. “It stays still, looks serious and lets us explain why standing near the railway is not a personality test.” The cab declined to comment. Officials had already given it a badge reading experiential infrastructure.
A train cab learns public engagement
Metro safety training now gives the replica a second career. It began as a driver training tool and has become part of a classroom. The cab has traded technical preparation for public engagement, which is how an object designed to move ends up spending its working life standing still.
Meanwhile, the fictional office has added the cab to a risk register and invited it to review a laminated map of responsibilities. The replica has asked whether a life sized training prop can claim mileage for moving absolutely nowhere. Officials praised the question and scheduled a follow up meeting.
The cab now carries the public warning while the real trains get on with being trains. It is preparing a presentation about boundaries, beginning with the boundary people should not cross near a railway.
Source: Nexus.
