The Great Train Challenge took place on May 18 at the Civil Service Training College in Ascot’s Sunningdale Park. The Railway Children is a Charity set up in 1993 to help support street children living alone and at risk on the streets. They help children from all over the world, across four continents, and their work includes UK children, many of whom live in and around railway stations.

This was a great team building exercise, testing both mental and physical agility, as well as raising much-needed funds. In total, there were 12 activities carried out throughout the day, with points awarded for each. Activities ranged from pool challenges with blindfolded teams, quad biking, stretcher carrying and construction of a trebuchet in order to fling eggs – and all based around a rail theme!

In order to add a little bit of unpredictability, local police and security made the rounds, issuing on-the-spot fines for any breaches of conduct, thus deterring any possible cheating! At the end of the day all the points were added up, giving an overall score.

Fourteen teams, all from the rail industry, raised around £30,000. The event was such a success that the Railway Children are again running the event by popular request in conjunction with Global Challenge UK (GCUK), with new and different and challenging events to test the participants.

GCUK designed, planned and implemented the event and are specialists in the planning and management of outdoor events specially designed for charity to raise funds.

“We as a team thoroughly enjoyed the fundraising before the challenge and it was topped off by a great day hosted by the Railway Children. The activities were really good and created a lot of humour that encouraged team building."
John Kennedy, Network Rail

“All the activities were very well thought out and there was good combination of physical and mental bias. As per the other Railway Children event I have taken part in, the 3 Peaks, all of the support staff involved were amazing and really make the events what they are. You are able to get on with the event and know that everything from preparation to support are taken care of excellently.”
Tim Blake, London Underground