This is Logan. He loves trains, always has. And now, he’s one of the youngest licensed train drivers in the whole of the UK.

For some children, the question “what do you want to be when you grow up” is mulled over in a fit of anxious uncertainty. For others, it’s as easy as responding with their name and age. So it always was for Logan Smallwood.

Reported recently by the BBC, Smallwood’s journey from boyhood model train collector to heritage railway line driver is as straight as the standard-gauge cargo line through the Mojave.

“I’ve always loved trains… I’ve always said when I grow up, I want to be a train driver,” Smallwood told the BBC. “My great-grandad worked in the mines and he was always fascinated by trains. He gave me a coal model of a Silver Link [a kind of train] and I think that might have been what set me off.”

Born in Lanchester, County Durham in England’s far northeast, it’s the most typical thing to say that one’s grandfather worked in “the mines.” It’s somewhat quaint, somewhat depressing—reminiscent of a time when working conditions for the middle and lower classes were dirty and dangerous.

But Smallwood wears that quaintness and heritage well—as well as the tweed knit jacket he sports behind the controls of a Sentinel shunter, a 17-mph locomotive typically used to position cargo cars in train yards, but which also pulls pleasure carriages along the 18-mile Weardale Railway Line, a heritage train service that passes through an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the near equivalent to a US National Monument.

Logan began working at the Weardale line as a volunteer last April, having graduated from Newcastle College Rail Academy with honors and with a diploma in Engineering Technologies. The BBC spoke to the young man after he completed his first solo shift behind the wheel.

“Weardale runs trains that I adore and it has got little steam locomotives for the bigger diesels, which is one of the attractions for me, I love working there,” he said.

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There’s a shortage of train drivers in the UK, and the transportation secretary recently lowered the required age from 20 to 18, legislation that Smallwood jumped at the opportunity to take advantage of.

His mother cried tears of pride when her son received the driver’s certificate on the Sentinel shunter, and believes he’s close to fulfilling his childhood dreams.

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When not driving trains, Smallwood, who’s always maintained a mountainous collection of model train sets, spends his free time at the Blackhill model club where he is one of the few members who designs the large wooden and aluminum railway layouts.

SHOW Some Love To The BBC And Logan And Share His Passion On Social Media…