Train manufacturer Siemens Mobility has donated a redundant carriage from the Heathrow Express to Humberside Fire and Rescue Service to improve its training facilities for emergency service training.
The carriage will facilitate crucial multi-agency training and help the emergency services to prepare for major incidents and civil emergencies. It will also be used as part of educational programmes for cadets and young people.
Representatives from Siemens Mobility and Humberside Fire and Rescue Service in front of the donated carriage. // Credit: Siemens Mobility
The carriage, from a former Class 332 train, comprises the driver’s cab and passenger section, and operated between London Paddington and Heathrow Airport between 1998 and 2019. When it was withdrawn from service, the carriage moved to Siemens Mobility’s site at Goole Rail Village in East Yorkshire. It is now at the Humberside Fire and Rescue Service’s Central Training Section in Immingham, where it allows realistic scenarios to be developed for firefighters to deal with derailments, road traffic collisions, and terrorist attacks, as well as managing casualties in confined spaces.
Although the carriage had been used in various ways whilst at Goole, Siemens was actively looking to put it to a new and useful purpose. Now that it has been donated to the Humberside Fire and Rescue Service, it will have a much longer lifespan and be beneficial to society for years to come.
David Harris, Siemens Mobility Construction Project Manager, commented that the company is delighted to have teamed up with Humberside Fire and Rescue Service on this project. Moving a 23-metre-long train carriage was not a simple task and required close collaboration with the fire service. Once a suitable location within the training centre site had been identified, Siemens supported the installation of sleepers, rails and ballast, and arranged for a haulage company to transport and site the carriage around the fire service’s busy training schedule.
Firefighter training on a former Heathrow Express carriage. // Credit: Siemens Mobility
At the Goole Rail Village, Siemens provides support for young people with disabilities and special educational needs to enter the workplace. It has also teamed up with the charity, Primary Engineer, to deliver a training programme for schools in the local area.
“We are incredibly grateful to Siemens Mobility for this generous donation. The addition of a real train carriage at our training site is a rare and valuable asset. It will significantly enhance the realism of our training scenarios and better prepare our firefighters for emergencies involving rail transport. This is not something that’s often available to fire and rescue services, and it will make a real difference in our ability to protect the communities we serve.”
Phil Shillito, Chief Fire Officer, Humberside Fire and Rescue Service
