The original children’s story of the same name has proved extremely popular over the past year with the families travelling on the Bentham Line and beyond. Hundreds of copies have ben given out for free on the line’s services by the LEEDS-Morecambe Community Rail Partnership, by booking office staff at stations on the route and at numerous Community Rail events, including visits to local primary schools.

The characters and story were created by Northern’s Year in Industry students and brought to life by Alastair Nicholson, a local professional artist, in the creation of the beautifully illustrated story. The story introduces ideas about rail safety, communities and railways, railway heritage, recycling and friendship, as well as the main theme of a journey along the line.

The Partnership recently asked to Alastair to look at ways of bringing the story to our stations and so to a wider audience. He produced a splendid range of bright panels, pictured right, for the platforms each based on one of the characters from the story and the friends together. Each panel carries a QR (quick response) code which, when scanned with a mobile phone or table with a suitable app), will take the person directly to a digital copy of the book on the Bentham Line website.

Copies of the book can also be obtained from the LMCRP offices at Bentham station and by post free of charge.