A five year old boy from Gateshead – with dreams of being a Metro driver one day – and his mother have recently created their own version of one of the new Metro trains. And after taking it out onto the network for photos they were noticed by staff and even got to meet a Metro driver.
James Whitfield, and his mum, Rebecca, worked on creating an accurate rendition of one of the new trains, made from cardboard boxes and big enough to allow James to wear it!
Rebecca said: “James is always playing with his trains and he loves the Metro, going on it with his nana and granda since he was really little. A few years ago I made him a fire engine and we went to the station and got pictures, and he kept asking us to make a new Metro train.
“When we got down to making it, we got cardboard boxes and a super glue gun and made the main shape. We then had to get the correct coloured yellow paint because James was insisting that he wanted the model to be of one of the new Metro trains.
“He made sure that everything was accurate, and his attention to detail was spot on with all of the little bits we added. We put St James on it with that being his name, and attached straps so James could wear it out, and then in mid-November, we headed to get on a Metro with it.”
When they took it out onto the network they were spotted by Nexus staff who gave him the chance to meet a current Metro driver.
Rebecca added: “We were told that the staff had seen us on our journey with the Metro model from the control room, and it was great that they took the time to make the whole day really special for James, I couldn’t have been happier with how it went.
“They also sent out a keyring and a magnet for him to keep, as a thank you for us going out of our way to do this. James goes to Oakfield Primary School, and he has been excitedly telling all of the other kids about what happened ever since, he thoroughly enjoyed himself.”