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There are several themes running this week in celebration of not only Community Rail Week 2025 but also Railway200, celebrating the crucial role community rail plays in bringing people together, supporting local economic wellbeing and promoting sustainable travel locally and nationally.

This Thursdays theme is Heritage (along with culture and tourism) and we’ve been long term supporters of local rail heritage sites. We have an amazing  working relationship with East Kent Railway in Shepherdswell supplying them with a huge array of materials to help them maintain their rolling stock, buildings and grounds.

Waste materials and surplus stock have gone a long way into helping sites like this, mainly run by volunteers, to maintain the railways past for the future. Not only have we supplied building materials but have been able to donate track trolleys for educational training at the rail training centre on site, training the next generation of railway workers.

The East Kent Railway (EKR) is a heritage railway in Kent, England. It is located at Shepherdswell station on the London and Chatham to Dover mainline. The line was constructed between 1911 and 1917 to serve the Kent Coalfields.

On the line there is Golgotha Tunnel (situated between Shepherdswell and Eythorne), 477 yards (436 m) long, making it the eighth longest tunnel on a UK Heritage Railway in Preservation. The tunnel was built in typical Colonel Stephens style by building double track portals but only excavating a single track internally to save money.

At Shepherdswell, there is a large cafe, a large 15-acre woodland area with walking routes, a 5-inch gauge miniature railway, a 7+1⁄4-inch  gauge woodland miniature railway, a model railway and a small museum. Shepherdswell is where the railway undertakes it maintenance and overhaul works and is very much a working railway yard.

The railway holds special events throughout the year, ranging from railway enthusiast events to beer festivals along with family fun weekends.

Community Rail Week runs from Monday 19^th to Sunday 25^th May so if you are at a loose end this weekend, look up a local rail heritage site (or indeed any historical site), jump on a train and visit a location rather than driving. There are several events taking place to support Community Rail Week across the UK.

There are some amazing community rail partnerships which cover an incredible amount of Britain’s railways supported by an army of thousands of volunteers tending to stations and their environs.

Collaboration plays a vital part in promoting Railway200 and Community Rail Week and we’ve been exceptionally lucky to have the support of SEC Works (Contact Leigh-Anne Eason for all your signage needs) who made our small AW Rail replica station sign and the students of EKC Folkestone who renovated some surplus dagger boards from a station into our Railway200 sign celebrating 200 years of train travel. So enjoy Community Rail Week

If you’d like to know more about how we support local communities, and our recycling initiatives then do please get in touch. You can see a snapshot of the organisations, schools, colleges, men’s sheds, community gardens and more here.

AW Group is a multi-disciplined construction company providing a broad range of support and manpower across building and rail projects.

Our Fields are:

AW Construction – We offer an outstanding UK-wide fit out service, taking care of everything from scheduling rollouts & ordering materials to assistance with design and onsite delivery

AW Rail – We use the very best labour force and a proactive approach to deliver first-class construction and maintenance projects across the rail industry

AW Labour – We provide a high-calibre blue collar and white-collar workforce with a diverse range of skills, to support the construction and rail industries