TERRITORIAL Army reserves from the region visited Gloucestershire last week, where they laid extensive railway sidings at a military transport depot during a major engineering project.

The work was designed to get more heavy army vehicles off the roads and on to rail, in keeping with government targets and in response to public pressure against heavy traffic in rural Gloucestershire.

The 40 reserves came from Darlington, Teesside and North Yorkshire, and were all members of the 104 pioneer squadron based at Coulby Newham.

Earlier this year, they worked on the Wensleydale railway line, at Leeming Bar. That experience proved invaluable for this larger project at Ashchurch, near Tewkesbury.

The D&S Times was invited along to meet the reserves. During the visit, the TA emphasised it was looking for more men and women who were interested in training for leadership and becoming officers.

In civilian life, TA reserves work in a variety of businesses and industries. Among Coulby Newham's squadron are professionals, industrial workers and tradesmen.

The unit's captain is an accountant, and other individuals work as newsagents, drivers and joiners. Together, they specialise in transport, construction and field work for the armed forces. By the end of the two weeks, they had laid much more line than was predicted.

Visiting high-ranking officers, including Maj Gen Adran Lyons and Col Chris Murray, praised them for their hard work.

Maj Lyons is director general of the Railway Forum, a national body which brings together rail industry, government and military representatives.

He received briefings from various TA officers, including Maj Mike Hann, a rail consultant who was at Leeming Bar and is currently involved with the Sunderland extension of the Tyne and Wear Metro.

During the inspection, North-East reserves spoke about their army and civilian lives. They said they enjoyed hard work, but also had a good social and sports life.

There was plenty of humour. One anecdote concerned a conker competition, in which there was widespread suspicion that the champion conker had been artificially hardened in a microwave oven.

At the end of the two weeks, some reserves went home, while others took part in a huge national military transport exercise.

While they were unable to comment about the Afghanistan situation in detail, they all accepted they could be called up to provide logistical assistance to the regular army. The TA has recently been in Canada, Belize and Cyprus.