'Our volunteering is vital to keep railway history alive'

Chris Morrill volunteers on the Wensleydale Railway in North Yorkshire, helping to maintain the 22 miles of track

It is a significant weekend for railway enthusiasts across Britain.

Celebrations are taking place to mark 200 years since "the birth of the modern railway" - the Stockton and Darlington Railway on 27 September 1825.

But for some, this history is celebrated every time they visit their local heritage railway as a volunteer.

However, those working on heritage railways regularly have to overcome challenges, such as sourcing materials, attracting visitors and recruiting volunteers.

The Middleton Railway in south Leeds is the world's oldest continuously-running line, established in 1758 with the world's first commercially successful steam locomotives serving the local colliery from 1812.

Nowadays the operation is entirely volunteer-run, and celebrating the role its original engineers played in inspiring George Stephenson's designs.

Charles Milner, who chairs the railway's trust, said: "The precedents we set facilitated the construction of the Stockton and Darlington Railway."

Charles Milner said the Middleton Railway Trust is expanding its museum to "tell the story better" in a bid to entice more visitors

The line has no paid staff, and relies on its 70 volunteers and 16 governing council members.

"Without the volunteers, simply we wouldn't be an economic proposition," he said.

"The finances of almost all heritage railways are fraught in different ways. Because we don't have to pay for any labour, that does give us an advantage."

That advantage is crucial as the trust balances rising fuel costs with visitors being "much more price-conscious than they were pre-Covid".

Before the start of the Ukraine war, they paid £120 for a tonne of coal, but now pay £350.

"In some cases by making special offers such as 'kids for a quid', that's increased the number of adults travelling on the railway so we're slightly better off than we were before we cut the price of a children's fare."

He added that they have expanded the on-site museum to "tell the story better".

"The Middleton Railway is not situated in a well-known tourist area, we don't offer much in the way of scenery on our ride and it's quite a short ride. What we do have is an extraordinary history and in the longer term we want to make more of that history."

Nearly 60 years separates Geordie and Steve but they enjoy volunteering together at the Middleton Railway in Leeds

Steve Roberts, started volunteering in the 1960s, and went on to work on the railways and became an honorary mechanical engineer for the Middleton in 1977.

"In 1962, when I was 12, you either played football or you were interested in the railways. I think 50% of the people my age used to go trainspotting.

"Working on the heritage railway in my position is quite an interesting challenge.

"Every day you come down here, there's a new problem to solve and solving that problem is a lot of the interest for me."

But he is conscious that he "can't carry on forever" and enjoys passing on skills to younger generations.

One protege is Geordie Brown, an 18-year-old who joined after visiting the railway.

He now runs, maintains and overhauls locomotives, and has also begun an engineering apprenticeship at Northern's depot in Leeds.

"It's vital that we keep these skills and items alive because they form a really key part of our past.

"I work on the high-speed electric locomotives and I work on the much smaller steam and diesel locomotives of the past generation here, so I've got my hand in a bit of both, which is lovely."

Century-old materials

Up in North Yorkshire is the much longer Wensleydale Railway, which covers 22 miles (35km) and was a passenger line until its closure in the 1950s.

It runs a mix of steam and diesel heritage services aimed at tourists visiting the Dales.

Volunteers maintain the track and have to rely on equipment donated by other railways.

"We are grounded in the real world as to what we can do," said volunteer Chris Morrill.

Sourcing materials for new projects is based on a "number of relationships" with contacts in the rail industry.

"It's really hard."

Chris Morrill (right) and the permanent way gang use heritage techniques to maintain the railway

Once materials are sourced, transport must be arranged, often at a "significant" cost to the railway.

"If we are able to get all the material offered to us, it has the capacity to enable us to do roughly 10 years of projects."

He said the appeal of the work to volunteers is largely the "hands-on practicality".

"This line is a relic. We do have some materials on the line which are still fit for service but they're over a hundred years old."

The team uses traditional skills to maintain the 19th and 20th Century equipment, he added.

"The techniques which laid the foundations for the modern railway are still being used here."

'Major difficulties'

One line which could not overcome the challenges it faced was the Elsecar Heritage Railway.

A volunteer-led stretch of track was opened in 1996 but closed in 2020 due to "major difficulties" during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Barnsley Council, which owns the site and leased it to its operators as part of the wider Elsecar Heritage Centre attraction.

It was once a freight route serving the Fitzwilliam family's collieries and ironworks until the collapse of the coal industry in the 1980s.

Councillor Robin Franklin said "a new vision" to regenerate the site as a rail engineering college had encountered difficulties.

In a statement, he said: "This ambitious vision was designed to suit the funding schemes available at the time through the last government.

"Unfortunately we did not secure the multi-million pound investment required to deliver this vision."

While plans for a new Elsecar Heritage Railway failed, a visitor centre was recently opened by Barnsley Council

Franklin said the plans would be revisited "in the coming months as part of a master planning exercise for the whole site".

He added: "We are however pleased to have secured £3.2m of Cultural Development Fund investment which is improving and reopening buildings across the Elsecar Heritage Centre site, including the recently opened new visitor centre."

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