Song 'immortalising my life on rails is amazing'

Joanne Ormesher said Findlay Napier's song left her "so emotional"

An accountant who spends her spare time shovelling coal on a steam engine has said having her life "immortalised" in song was "amazing".

Joanne Ormesher, from Darwen in Lancashire, is one of five people whose stories have become songs for a BBC Radio 2 special celebrating the 200th anniversary of the modern railway.

She volunteers at the Llangollen Railway in north Wales, often setting off from home at 05:00 to get there in time to do a shift as a "fireman", and her efforts have inspired Glaswegian singer Findlay Napier's Firecracker.

She said working with engines connected to her beloved late grandfather, who was an engineer, and the name of the track is taken from the nickname he had for her.

Ms Ormesher said she loved the song, which featured on Mark Radcliffe's 21st Century Folk, and was "so emotional" when listening to it.

'Kept me focused'

She said her grandad also made model trains and she recalled engine parts strewn across his home but it was only two decades after his death that she chanced on a steam engine waiting at a local station.

"I thought they were consigned to museums but this was hissing and breathing at the station. It felt alive," she said.

"The smells and the sounds, everything reminded me of him.

"I stood at the back of a throng of enthusiasts and it felt like my grandad was there."

She said it was a life-changing experience and she began cleaning engines at a local heritage railway as a volunteer, before rising through the ranks to become a "fireman".

She Added that she often had daydreams about being back on the railway while working in the office as an accountant.

In 2019, Ms Ormesher was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.

She said the railways helped her deal with what was happening.

"I didn't know if I was going to survive," she said.

"I shouldn't have survived but I was determined to get back to firing steam engines.

"It's what kept me focused.

"Ten weeks after my treatment, I was back at it."

Emma Roberts, the BBC's programme manager for Railway 200, said Joanne's story was "inspirational".

"It really demonstrates the powerful impact that the railways can have on people's lives," she said.