The Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway is a volunteer-run organisation that has recently taken part in ‘The Big Help Out' event which is organised by the Royal Volunteer Service as part of the celebrations relating to the recent Coronation of His Majesty King Charles III.
The railway, which is based in the Skegness Water Leisure Park, is hoping that this involvement will lead to an increase in volunteers coming forward to get involved with the railway.
The railway first opened its doors in August 1960 and was the very first railway in the world to be solely built by rail enthusiasts. Since its opening, the light railway has moved to Skegness in 1992 and reopened in 2009, and is completely run by unpaid volunteers.
The King's Coronation coincided with the 120th birthday of the Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway's steam locomotive ‘Jurassic', which was originally constructed by Peckett and Sons Ltd in Bristol in 1903 and worked for Kaye and Company's quarries at Southam in Warwickshire. The locomotive celebrated the historic weekend with a special headboard featuring Coronation symbols which was made and painted by traditional sign writer Tim Fry from Martin Dales.
During the Coronation Bank Holiday Monday, ‘The Big Help Out' saw events take place across the country which was supported by Queen Camilla in order to encourage more people to get involved with volunteering for community-based organisations. Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway took advantage of this excellent opportunity by inviting visitors to experience behind the scenes of the railway and to learn more about ‘Jurassic' and the line's collection of heritage diesel locomotives, including how they work. The visitors also got to see how helping with repair work and renovating track, carriages, and equipment can be enjoyable, satisfying, and sociable and good for your health.
Richard Shepherd, Chairman of the LCLR's Historic Vehicles Trust, said: “We were very encouraged by the response and in particular, the coverage on television and the local media–BBC TV's Look North news programme filmed for much of the morning and both BBC Radio Lincolnshire and Lincs FM gave us a lot of airtime. Our local newspaper, the Skegness Standard, publicised the event well in advance and featured us on their website, live, during the day.”
“The message we gave out was quite simple: we need more volunteers to keep this unique part of Lincolnshire's heritage running for the next 60 years. We have succeeded in attracting more and younger volunteers in the last couple of years, but we welcome more to join us on our weekly Wednesday and Saturday working parties and to train to be drivers, firemen, guards and station staff for the days when we run passenger services”.
