The Midland Railway Society were today involved with our partners, Derby Museums, in an imaginative collaboration with Sinfonia Viva — the Orchestra of the East Midlands.
Students from Firs Primary School, Becket Primary School, The Bemrose School, and Derby College — together covering a wide range of age groups — were given the challenge of learning about a science topic then using that new knowledge to create a piece of music and lyrics, inspired by their learning. As the subject chosen this year was Mechanical Advantage, it was quickly realised that there are fewer better practical examples of pivots, fulcrums, levers, pulleys and even Archimedes Screws, than good “old fashioned” mechanical railway signalling.
Midland Railway Study Centre Coordinator Dave Harris said; “Because what we showed these pupils is all based on longstanding scientific principles, it remains entirely relevant to modern engineering as much as it did for the Victorians. Seeing this resonate with such a young audience was wonderful and is another strand to the Society’s commitment to its charitable objectives of educating the public about the Midland Railway“.
Central to the practical demonstration of Mechanical Advantage was the six-lever Midland Railway tappet lever frame on display in the Museum of Making’s Assemblage. The presentation explained how the levers allowed a signalman (a term that in itself had to be sensitively explained to a modern generation) to be able to move the arm of a semaphore signal, often over a mile away, with efficiency-of-effort. Then how point rodding worked, with a demonstration of how a push can be changed to a pull using cranks. The culmination of each talk was an illustration of an Archimedes Screw in the form of a gate wheel, so allowing a set of four heavy wooden level crossing gates to be swung across a roadway in synchronisation. Minds Blown!
With the opportunity to try their hand at working the levers (something regular visitors to the Museum are unable to do for fear of trapped fingers and the like), most of the children and young artists went away happy and, hopefully, inspired to write their songs for Sinfonia Viva. Who knows, maybe one or two of them may end up working in the rail industry following this small taste of that world?
At its core is an Archimedes Screw.
