Special needs school sees train carriage pull up for community cafe

What was destined for scrap will now support children at a special educational needs school in Maidstone.

Transcript

00:00 A nervous wait.

00:08 Pulling in to its final destination.

00:11 This carriage set to terminate at this special educational needs school.

00:16 But it seems all things railway related come with a delay.

00:20 The railway carriage got stuck by a bin at the top of the school entrance so they had

00:25 to take that out and we had about three different countdowns waiting for it to come but yeah

00:30 it's finally here now.

00:32 It's certainly not the sight you expect to see flying over a school playground.

00:37 Pretty amazing because a lot of people have decided to bring this carriage in for the

00:45 kids to look and the adults.

00:47 And it's taken months of planning to figure out how exactly to put it into place.

00:53 Now the train itself weighs 25 tonnes and they've lifted that separately to the bogies

00:58 there the wheels because they weigh 5 tonnes each.

01:02 If they were to lift it up in one go it would simply snap apart.

01:07 Five Acre Woods School will turn it into a community cafe.

01:11 But why a train?

01:13 We're all about doing things differently and enabling new possibles for our children and

01:18 rather than have a little kiosk and serve tea and coffee we're going to have a big audacious

01:22 dream and we've got that in our 4 Inter Express, our former buffet train carriage.

01:27 I guess you're going to make some money from this.

01:29 Is that going to be a financial help?

01:31 Anything that we do make will be ploughed back into it but that's not the driver.

01:35 The impact of this initiative is going to be measured by how many people we get back

01:38 into employment.

01:39 The school specialises in helping young people with severe and complex learning difficulties.

01:45 It's hoped the hospitality skills students will learn in this carriage will take their

01:49 education to new heights.

01:52 And why are you looking forward to working on it?

01:54 To make a drink.

01:56 Amy's mother hopes the skills she'll learn will set her on the right track for when she

02:00 leaves.

02:01 It's going to be very hard but at the same time it's going to be very rewarding for her.

02:08 Then Amy can come here and start learning horticultural stuff and serving customers

02:14 and for her ability to be out there in the outside world.

02:20 With the train now in situ, the wheels are in motion and workers on board to renovate

02:25 the carriage.

02:26 It should open early next year.

02:28 Gabriel Morris for Keen TV in Maidstone.