We Need YOU!
A One-Step Guide to Volunteering
Have you ever considered how much work it takes to keep the trains running?
Let’s take a normal steam day. The driver and fireman will come to the loco about 7am, they will remove it from the shed and light the fire, oil the motion and clean the engine down. At about 9am, the Guard will appear and begin to clean the carriages, and at about 10am the sparkling locomotive and the gleaming carriages will enter the station in Porthmadog ready for the 10.30am train.
So how many people does it take? Well I suppose the short answer is about 3 people … but please consider who maintains the steam engines, and who fixes the carriages, who repairs the diesel shunting engine that the driver and fireman used to remove the cold engine from the shed this morning.
This does not even give the slightest mention to the gangs who laid and maintain the track, the team that services and checks the signals, or the group that cuts the grass and prunes the bushes. The railway has so many different jobs that need doing and nearly every single one of them is done by volunteers – yes volunteers, people just like YOU!
Take me for instance, I am a volunteer, I am sat at home over 250 miles away from North Wales writing this little piece for the website, I will e-mail this shortly to another volunteer who will hopefully publish it on to the world wide web (well clearly he has because you are reading it!) again from the comfort of his own home (well maybe he is in someone else’s home but you get the point.)
Two weeks ago I was at the railway driving and firing steam engines for a long weekend; in a few weeks time I will be back again doing the same, and this is how our little railway runs. We have lots of people doing small bits to help make up the big jigsaw, which is the ‘Welsh Highland Heritage Railway’. Have you ever considered how you may help improve this bigger picture?
Nothing gives greater pleasure than seeing the happy faces of everyone who travels on the trains, and every single person who helps run the railway is responsible for the smiles on ALL our visitors faces, so please, if you have ever considered helping out, give it a go, I promise you will not regret it. Ask in the shop or e-mail volunteering@whr.co.uk for more details, it could be the best thing you have done all year. Just remember you don’t have to be mad to work here, but it helps…
No skills are required, full training can be given, we have no minimum time commitments, you can help out one day a year or 5 days a week if you like, all that we ask is that you get involved.
