Siemens Mobility together with railway industry partners recently hosted a full-day STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Maths) event for over 70 pupils from Carstairs Junction Primary School in Scotland.

The event was part of Siemens Mobility’s commitment to transforming its local communities. Eleven volunteers from Siemens Mobility, Network Rail, CK Contracts, Rail Systems Alliance and SPL Powerlines arranged and hosted a full-day event.

Nursery and primary school children from the school took part in six different STEM activities based on subjects that are already being taught as part of the curriculum, including the Titanic, safari, and solar energy.

During the event, the children engaged in different activities including designing and building wind-powered boats, battery-powered cars, solar-powered robots, a wind turbine, and a sustainable city. At the end of the event, the pupils and their teachers provided great feedback to the volunteers.

At Carstairs Junction, which is a major junction on the West Coast Main Line where the lines from Edinburgh and Glasgow Central to London Euston merge. Siemens Mobility in partnership with Network Rail and other industry partners is delivering significant work to simplify and upgrade the track layout.

It is part of a modernisation programme that will simplify the track layout, upgrade it to Siemens Mobility’s modern signalling technology, clear the existing bottleneck on the network, and enable the separation of non-stop passenger and freight trains from those stopping at the station.

At the heart of the modernisation programme is Siemens Mobility’s Trackguard Westlock and WTS digital signalling systems. WTS connects objects to interlockings and control centres via an IP-based network, which improves operational performance and management to provide safe, dependable, and future-proof travel.

Campbell Braid, Director of Operations, for Siemens Mobility, said: “Our 250+ colleagues in Scotland are passionate about keeping people and freight moving around the country, yet our impact is much wider than transport. We’re embedded in the communities in which we work, and this activity shows just that.

“While we are involved in the modernisation of Carstairs Junction on the West Coast Main Line to improve reliability and journey times we are delighted to be working with Carstairs Junction Primary School again, following the new ‘garden’ classroom we funded last year.

“I’m delighted that we’re supporting, and I think our employees enjoyed it as much as the children!”
Jill Armour, Head Teacher, at Carstairs Junction Primary school said: “We would like to thank Siemens Mobility for leading a fantastic STEM Day in February.

“The day was filled with engaging activities for all ages, stages and needs. Evidence of skills for life learning and work were in abundance, from demonstrating creativity, working with others to showing initiative and adapting skills to a different environment…the list goes on!

“The staff and pupils thought the Siemens team’s warmth and support shone through.”