'LGBTQ+ project fills massive gap in rail archive'

Alison Petersen (left) and Laura Stoffers said working on the collection and trail had sometimes been emotional

A project is under way to record the experiences of LGBTQ+ workers on the UK's rail network during the past 50 years.

It would fill a "massive gap" in the National Railway Museum's archives, curators said.

A new trail at the museum in York also enables members of the public to listen to contributors describing their lives.

Alison Petersen, senior curator of archives and railway collections, said "We have diverse and massive collections of all different kind of archives, but this is a history which hasn't yet been told."

She said that in the past, the topic had been "really difficult for people to speak about", but the project team worked to "make it as comfortable as possible".

Each contributor was paired with a volunteer interviewer, who is part of the LGBTQ+ community and has a connection to the railways, to ensure an understanding of industry-specific discussion points.

"In quite a lot of them, they're talking about different franchises that people have worked for and changes in uniform, wrapped up in an experience that they might have had, related to their identity," she said.

One volunteer was Laura Stoffers, who works on the museum's communications team.

She said: "It's really inspiring being able to talk to older people who are part of the community who have lived their lives and might even share some advice with you."

"I think about the interviews quite a lot afterwards, as well," she added.

Quotes from LGBTQ+ railway workers' experiences are placed next to exhibits related to their careers, at the museum in York

The trail, around the museum's North Shed exhibition, includes quotes from participants in the project, next to objects relating to their careers.

Visitors can also listen to excerpts of the interviews online as they explore, by scanning a QR code.

The contributions include experiences of homophobic abuse, the first LGBTQ+ employee networks at rail companies and LGBTQ+ people being supported by colleagues, even when they didn't expect it.

The trail is in place until September, but the archive will be in place for decades into the future.

"People get a chance to tell their story and that is kept in our collection forever so that people in the future will understand what life has been like," Ms Petersen said.

"When I started managing this project, I knew it was important, but it was only when I listened to people talking that I realised the true value of it."

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