THIS October half term, the National Railway Museum’s biggest annual event Future Engineers returns for a third year, with a packed programme of free activities and shows to inspire the whole family.

The event is part of the Government’s Year of Engineering and runs from October 27 to November 4 in the museum’s Great Hall.

Among headlining performers this year, is award-winning science presenter, author and rapper Jon Chase who returns for a second year, to treat audiences to live hip-hop that covers everything from steam to science and space travel.

There will also be a host of other exciting activities for young people to explore, including the chance to design your own robot railway, to take part in pop-up science shows and to discover how signals work in our ‘Screwball Signals’ marble maze.

New for 2018 is ‘Izzy’s Incredible Adventure’ – an interactive live show where the audience is invited to help Izzy reach for the stars, finding out how rockets, hot air balloons and hovercrafts work.

Lynne Minett, head of learning and events at the National Railway Museum said:

“Future Engineers is back and we have an exciting line up of free shows and activities for families to enjoy over half term. We have a mix of new and returning headline acts including award-winning science rapper Jon Chase, coding workshops and your chance to build a robot railway.”

“As well as providing great entertainment, we are hoping to ignite a spark of interest in young people and to break down barriers to show that engineering and science are all around us. We especially want to reach more girls who are underrepresented in engineering, which is why half of our 100 visiting engineers this year, will be women.”

For 2018, the National Railway Museum has teamed up with the Government’s Year of Engineering campaign in a bid to show families the variety and creativity of engineering careers and to inspire more young women to develop an interest in science and engineering.

According to research, the UK needs 203,000 skilled recruits each year until 2024, yet only one third of parents know what an engineer does and only 12 per cent of engineers are women.

The National Railway Museum is inviting 100 engineers from leading organisations and firms from across the UK to take part and has set a target for 50 per cent of all engineers taking part to be women.

For the musically-minded, electronic dance music pioneer and creator of Sonic Pi, Sam Aaron, will be hosting hands-on coding workshops in the Great Hall.

The National Railway Museum is open 10am to 6pm, admission and most Future Engineers activities are free, although some activities must be booked in advance – see here for details: www.railwaymuseum.org.uk/whats-on/future-engineers.