THE Mid-Hants Watercress Line – through its Heritage Lottery Fund-supported restoration of its flagship steam locomotive Canadian Pacific (CanPac) – is once more working in partnership with Southampton Solent University on a short film production project.

The films will be created by students in their first year of a BA Hons media programme and this opportunity will give the students a unique experience of real-life media production. After last year’s successful participation by 30 students, this year many more young people are taking part – 58 in total. The initiative is just one of several undertaken by the Watercress Line’s Canadian Pacific project to involve and interest people who wouldn’t normally visit the railway.

Dr Becky Peacock, the outreach and interpretation officer for the CanPac project, said of the experience: “We all learned a lot from the experiences of our first filming project with the students last year and so we are making a few changes for 2018. This year, we will give them more guidance and plenty of constructive feedback and information.

“We will also be giving them a tighter remit in terms of topics to film. Our focus this year is on the production of a range of different films that will have an educational purpose. We are very much looking forward to welcoming them all and seeing the results of their work.”

The 58 young people, who will be working on the project as part of their first-year unit – Video production: craft and processes – will be given different work packages to enable them to produce films on various different topics. These will include such themes as The Role of the Driver and Fireman, aimed at a broad audience; Evacuees, aimed at schools, but also enabling the Watercress Line to capture memories from staff and volunteers who have experience of being an evacuee; The History of the Watercress Line; How the Railway is Run Today; Stories of the Engines; and Delivering the Goods.

Filming will take place on March 2 and March 9. The finished films will this year be actively promoted and used for a variety of educational purposes.

Roy Hanney, from Southampton Solent University, said: “The students’ experience last year was a transformative one and they really benefited from it, learning a lot about the real world of media production and gaining valuable practical experience. We are delighted at being able to give the students – and many more of them – this amazing opportunity once again.”

The partnership between the university and the railway has been made possible thanks to the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund.