A RAILWAY MISSION calendar sent out by the national chaplaincy team has inspired a member of staff at Margate station to embark on a railway pilgrimage of her own: a journey to all 12 of its iconic locations during 2025 because the UK railway system marks its 2 hundredth anniversary.
Kudakwashe Osoba, who’s one in every of the Southeastern Railway platform team at Margate, describes herself because the travelling public’s “go-to person” for help and data, “and hopefully, a source of comfort as well”.
“It was the little spark I needed to get me moving and doing something adventurous,” Mrs Osoba says. “I looked in any respect the beautiful pictures and thought, ‘Wouldn’t it’s nice. . . ?’”
She enthused relations, especially her daughter, Dani, a musician and community artist. They are longstanding worshippers at Sittingbourne Baptist Church, where Dani is a worship leader and “who had been getting the railway bug and is seriously being bitten by it now”.
They are trying to breed each of the photos, putting themselves within the frame at each station. The Osoba children were well used to sending home pictures as proof of their location and a secure arrival, and had initially attempted to match the journey to the calendar month. The constraints of daylight led them as an alternative to go for visiting each station at the most effective opportunity throughout the yr.
Along the best way, they jot down overheard conversations, spiritual reflections, and observations — some in the shape of poetry, perhaps later to be become song. They are hoping to finance travel to the costlier locations via GoFundMe, with all additional funds going to the Railway Mission — “a cause near my heart”, Mrs Osoba says.
“They’ve brought their deep Christian faith, their gift for music and their heart for service to each stop,” the manager director of Railway Mission, Liam Johnston, said, speaking of the mother-and-daughter team. “It’s a rare mix of worship and wanderlust, family and faith, creativity and calling.”
At the start of the yr, Southeastern’s Wellbeing Lead, Lee Woolcott-Ellis, who was awarded a British Empire Medal for establishing a mental-health charter for the industry, gave his colleagues a calendar. It incorporates a wide selection of locations and locomotives, accompanied by a Bible verse.
The image for February is of the Docklands Light Railway, accompanied by Psalm 118.24 — “This is the day that the Lord has made: allow us to rejoice and be glad in it.” June’s location is the coastal St Bees, which has Proverbs 22.4 — “By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honour and life.” Llangollen features in July with Proverbs 21.21 — “He who follows righteousness and mercy finds life, righteousness and honour.”
The Railway Mission provides chaplaincy support across the UK rail industry. In 2024, it recorded 9814 situations through which chaplains assisted rail staff through personal crises, bereavement, workplace stress, and trauma from railway incidents, besides offering general well-being support. Chaplains also support the railway community when fatalities occur, resembling the derailment of a passenger train from Shrewsbury to Aberystwyth in October, through which one person was killed and 15 were injured.
The charity teamed up with Railway 200 to create the anniversary calendar. A series of events this yr culminates within the commemoration, on 27 September, of the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825, considered to mark the birth of the railway in Britain.
“I’ve told them, ‘Don’t send me your international calendar,’” Mrs Osoba said. “That’ll give me even larger ideas.”
