Rail event proves a huge success

Direct Rail Services’ (DRS) open day saw over 1,500 people gather for a family fun day, while raising thousands of pounds for deserving causes.

Nuclear Transport Solutions’ (NTS) rail division, DRS, once again opened its gates to families and enthusiasts from across the country at its Carlisle depot.

This year’s event took place on Saturday 6 July at the Kingmoor rail depot.

The day raised over £65,000 for DRS’s sponsorship and donations fund, one of the highest figures in the open day’s history, which will be donated to charities and good causes across the UK.

The day had plenty to keep the whole family entertained with the opportunity to sit in a real locomotive cab, get up close to working engines, a nameplate auction, kids’ activities and much more.

There were also two very important locomotive namings at the event. The first saw “Charlie Birse” unveiled on Class 66 locomotive 66429. Charlie worked as an Engineering Team Leader and TSSA union representative, dedicating 23 years of his life to DRS until his sad death last year.

Seth Kybird, NTS CEO, gave a personal account of Charlie before revealing the new nameplate. Charlie’s family attended the event and were presented with a commemorative nameplate in his honour.

The second naming was for locomotive 66431 “Kingmoor TMD” which was unveiled by Gottfried Eymer, NTS Managing Director for Rail; and David Peattie, Nuclear Decommissioning Authority CEO.

Gottfried said: “It was such a great day for all of our guests, it’s a rare opportunity to show people how a rail depot works and get up close to the fantastic locomotives we have.

“We’re really proud of the work we do and to be able to share that with so many enthusiastic people was fantastic to see.

“I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who came along and all of our staff volunteers for making the event such a special day.”