Choo choo!

I’ve been a regular volunteer on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway for a few years. The railway was closed as a Beeching Report cut in 1967 but was reopened by a tenacious groups of fundraisers and volunteers in 1969. From the days of running occasional services for enthusiasts from Goathland to Grosmost, to today where a timetable of services between Pickering and Whitby runs every day from Easter to October, the railway has gone from strength to strength. It is run largely by volunteers – over 500 regular volunteers – doing all roles from engine driver and fireman and train crew, staffing the stations and yards, restoring and rebuilding engines and rolling stock, relaying and maintaining track, signalling, ticket sales, customer services and retail. The railway turns over £7 million per year, all of which is spend on day-to-day operations, maintenance and restoration.

I first travelled on the railway in 2007, when J and I went to Pickering for a weekend away. We saw 60007 Sir Nigel Gresley – one of the most glorious engines you will ever see and I look forward to his return from his 10-year overhaul (£100,000 later) this year. We left the train and went for a walk on the North Yorkshire Moors and I’ve been interested in it ever since. Five years ago, I wanted to volunteer regularly for something I really liked; having volunteered in Oxfam before, I applied to be a volunteer in the shop at Pickering station and was accepted. I’ve been volunteering about once per month ever since. Retail is an excellent fundraiser for the railway and also means I get to hang out at the station, watch the trains and get excited for other people’s day out on the trains. It also appeals to my love of cleaning – steam and diesel engines chuck out a load of crap and under the roof of Pickering station, a lot of it drifts quickly in to the shop. I’m not nostalgic for a previous era of travel or think the old days were better; I enjoy the engineering and the sheer challenge of keeping a railway running, particularly where some of the moving parts are over 100 years old and were never envisaged to last this long. I enjoy the defiance of being part of a Beeching-cut line and the beautiful landscape you can enjoy from and around the track.

Once I had moved on to Plan C for this career break, it gave me an extra weekend at home and I signed up for another turn at Pickering shop, where I spent the day yesterday. It was the last day of the summer holidays for a lot of people travelling that day, enjoying one more day out before the school routine started again.

Here are some photos from Pickering station:

Volunteering 4 is one that I have not really done, but one that I have been grateful to be around. Our street in Hull is awesome and has a proper community feel to it. It is a street that holds its own festival every 2 years, runs an animal rescue, has a delivery point for local veg boxes, has its own art project (Street of Birds and Shadows), has communal flower and herb planters and a general bring and share feel about the place.

I mention this as I have helped in a tiny way with something that J volunteered to do this week for the street. One resident was part of the team of volunteers that helped clean up the site after the Leeds festival; a large number of sleeping bags were retrieved and brought back to Hull and shared amongst volunteers who have arranged for the sleeping bags to be washed, so that they can be distributed to those needing them in Hull. On our street’s Facebook group, one volunteer put out a message to ask for people to take a couple of sleeping bags to wash. J pinged a message and we picked up 4 sleeping bags that I did not look at or smell too closely. However, with our washing machine running on solar power, ours and several other washing machines on our street have been washing out mostly brand-new-and-now-abandoned sleeping bags. A number of thoughts about the consumerist nature of festivals and the fleeting appreciation that youngsters have with money of course flitted through my brain (recognising how old I sound); however, I appreciate that festivals are one-off experiences for many, many festival-goers and I am delighted that people have stepping in to retrieve the sleeping bags and other abandoned goods and are diverting them to more permanent recipients. I am glad I live on a street where someone steps in, and that fellow residents are happy to offer up a bit of time, water and power to recycle and help others. It’s one of the many reasons why I like living here.

My volunteering role today was to supervise the drying of the final sleeping bag we washed. I can confirm that is now dry. Another successful volunteering stint!

Next up – Youth Hostel work. Watch this space!