Enter Through the Gift Shop

GoodGymers from Ealing and Hounslow combined their engineering greatness this morning to create a huge train track for autistic and SEND children to play with and interact with each other. Not only were they "doing engineering", they were also surrounded by engineering marvels as All Aboard Club are trialling the Transport Museum Depot in Acton as a new location. That's pretty awesome 🚇

The group helped unload the last boxes from task owner Richard's car and entered the building to see where they'd be ~~playing~~ working. As they climbed the stairs, they found themselves on a mezzanine level, looking over the historic tube trains in the depot. Exciting for both the volunteers and attendees.

The mezzanine area was big, so it was good that there were 10 people to build the track. Like the children attending, they worked by themselves, then over time, they connected their islands of track to other islands and soon, the whole floor was covered.

As the loose ends were being tied up, the first children started arriving. Sevan joined Richard and the Depot staff in guiding the children and parents in through the gift shop, trying to keep them from being distracted, past the big trains, up the stairs and to the small trains for them to play with. Emmanuella, Gus, Alan and Steph stayed upstairs to help the children and parents, maybe having time to set a few tank engines puffing around the track themselves.