Work experience boy runs Southern Rail's Twitter account

A 15-year-old work experience boy has won praise after he was given the job of running Southern Rail's Twitter account.

The teenager, known only as Eddie, took over the train firm's @SouthernRailUK handle on Tuesday, fielding messages ranging from the supportive to the bizarre.

He advised customers on what they should have for dinner - "it has to be chicken fajitas" - and the air velocity of birds. (He googled it.)

The teen's first tweet, shared over 200 times, read: "Hi, Eddie here! Here on Work Experience and ready to answer your questions! :)"

Eddie was immediately overwhelmed with requests from keen social media users, but seemed totally unfazed by their abstract nature.

Adam Winstone asked: "Would you rather fight 1 horse sized duck or 100 duck sized horses?"

Eddie replied: "100 duck-sized horses. A horse-sized duck would be pretty scary! You? ^Eddie"

Another odd request from Duncan Ingrim read: "Hey Eddie, do you think Jon Snow is going to meet Daenerys and Tyrion and rule Westeros?"

Eddie doled out the joke: "I'm sorry. I never get a chance to watch Channel 4 news. ^Eddie"

Perhaps wisely, he declined Rahul Desai's request to offer his thoughts on rail nationalisation.

Southern Rail's recent history has been blighted by long-running industrial action that has seen many services cancelled and delayed.

During the course of the day, Eddie was offered more work experience at ScotRail, spawned the hashtag #askeddie and encouraged to be given a permanent job running the account.

A British Transport Police account added: "We think Eddie deserves a permanent position! He is smashing it!"

But the schoolboy dismissed such calls, writing: "I am slightly more concerned on my GCSEs at the moment!"

User James noted: "I've never seen so much positivity on the @SouthernRailUK Twitter feed."

And the fun looks set to continue. Eddie has confirmed he is back in on Wednesday, writing: "Thanks for all the questions today, it's been... interesting.

"I'll be on same time tomorrow!! Get all your questions ready! ^Eddie"

A Southern spokesperson told Sky News the firm was "thrilled to see that he has won over so many of our customers this afternoon. We hope to have him back soon".