Cameron James Stephenson, St Helens College Engineering alumni and Connecting Classroom to Career ambassador, has recently featured in a five-part Channel 4 series, The Biggest Little Railway in the World.
Alongside a group of model steam train enthusiasts, led by Dick Strawbridge, Cameron participated in the building of a 74-mile track from Fort William to Inverness along the Great Glen Way, to carry a 7lb miniature steam engine named, ‘The Silver Lady.’ For 12 days, the team camped by the track, devising engineering solutions to ensure that the track was strong enough to hold the steam train across rivers, busy town centres and steep inclines.
Cameron, from Wigan, has always been an avid steam train enthusiast, captivated by road, rail and stationary motive power. This passion combined with the knowledge and skills that he has developed from his level 3 Advanced Diploma in Engineering at St Helens College, has enabled him to launch his own successful heritage engineering restoration business, C.J.S Engineering.
Speaking of the success of the project and Cameron’s involvement, Love Productions Producer, Charlotte Armstrong, said, “Cameron was a key part of this project, combining great engineering know-how with loveable cheeriness. His determination and commitment to the project was unwavering and he was great fun to film with.”
Cameron thoroughly enjoyed being a part of the programme and described his experience as “once in a lifetime”. Talking of the challenges that he had to overcome, Cameron, said, “Physically getting to grips with the track and laying it down took quite a while and on the first day we were still getting to know each other and exploring how we could work together to make the project a success.”
He added, “It’s a fantastic feeling to be selected above other applicants and I am proud to have been a part of it.”
