Rail Clips 4.( Hands-on Railway Engineering)

Hand-on railway Engineering at the Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway (2013)
The University of Edinburgh introduced the institution-wide innovative Learning Week in 2012.It provides a week when all normal classes stop and students and staff have the opportunity instead to engage in a wide variety of alternative activities.
One such activity,carried out jointly with the SRPS,is Hands-on Railway Engineering athe Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway.This is aimed primarily at civil engineering students,with the intention of exposing them to construction activity on a live site with all its potential risks including heavy components,tools and powered plant,as well as to teach them some basic details of railway permanent way.
This year 27 students attended,mainly from the civil engineering programmes but also including mechanical and electrical engineering students,The students came from all years from first to fifth of their engineering degrees, and there were also three postgraduate MSc students from the artificial intelligence course.47 student-days were worked,replacing eleven rotten timbers on the centre section of the main crossover point in Bo'ness Station throat,as well as various other re-sleepering and other tasks elsewhere.Student feedback indicted that the exercise was widely appreciated.
The event was organized by Dr Martin Crapper from the School of Engineering,The University of Edinburgh ([e-mail]) and funded jointly by the School of Engineering and a grant from central university funds to cover bus transport from Edinburgh and purchase PPE for the students.Thanks are due to James Robertson,Donald McLeish, Ian Gent and all the SRPS Civil Engineering staff for their assistance during this activity.