A Teesside college graduate is working hard to keep a steam collection on track.
Paul Middleton is a key member of the maintenance crew with the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, and thanks to Middlesbrough College on Teesside and the Engineering and Marine Training Authority Awards, he has just completed an advanced modern apprenticeship in engineering.
"The college was brilliant,'' said Paul who has two National Vocational Qualifications.
"I learnt a lot of basics there and the courses gave me good background knowledge and theory to set me up for the future.
"But you have to learn what we do here by doing the job. I do just about anything and everything -which gives me a lot of variety and experience and it's very enjoyable.''
Depot manager Alan Worden commented: "The average age of people who work here is around 50. If we didn't do this type of training, steam trains would die out, as there wouldn't be young people with the skills to maintain them coming through."
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