Paignton South Devon - It was not your average rail journey out of Paignton last night as a pretend explosion was carried out on a specially chartered train, as part of an exercise for the emergency services and rail staff.
 
The explosion happened at about half past six near Churston Station.
 
Nick Dunn from the Dartmouth Steam Railway and Riverboat Company told ITV News it was initially to see how they might cope with injured passengers if a similar incident were to happen in real life.
 
First year paramedic students from Plymouth University were on board the train to play the part of the injured passengers.
 
Heavily made up to look as though they had been injured, the university says it's an important part of students' education to experience for themselves what it might feel like to be injured in such an incident and experience for themselves how they would like to be treated.
 
Second and third year paramedic students then arrived at the scene to see how they would cope with treating people in such a scenario.
 
"I hope it's going to be quite useful in the sense that we can experience what the patients feel as well, to see the different aspect because normally we would be on the responding side if this does happen, and it would be quite a good experience just to get a better understanding of how people present." - Kristing Tomson First Year Paramedic student, Plymouth university.
 
Staff from the rail company as well as police and fire officers all used the experience as a training exercise in how to deal with the aftermath of an explosion.
 
"As a practitioner myself it's important to play the victim as well sometimes so that we know how they perform on their side as well and we can pick up, I can pick up tips from the paramedics and the health care staff who are here tonight and I think it's good training for them." - Rachel Whitelaw Operating Department Practitioner, Torbay Hospital.
 
Training exercises similar to this are done regularly but it's less common to do so on this scale.
 
Many of those who took part say they did so in their own time and out of date stock was used to treat the pretend patients to keep costs down.
 
Staff who were there last night said training exercises like this are a vital way of getting hands on experience in as real a scenario as possible.
 
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