{"id":192225,"date":"2025-03-29T01:52:29","date_gmt":"2025-03-28T15:52:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.railwaymuseum.org.uk\/?p=14926"},"modified":"2025-03-29T01:52:29","modified_gmt":"2025-03-28T15:52:29","slug":"50-years-of-volunteering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=192225","title":{"rendered":"50 years of Volunteering"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the National Railway Museum celebrates 50 years of making memories, we shine the spotlight on some of our long-standing members of our volunteer community who have played an invaluable part in the museum\u2019s history. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rob Tibbits<\/span><\/b> who was recently awarded the Platinum Award for 50 years’ volunteering at the National Railway Museum remembers clearly his first day as a volunteer on 27 September 1975, the day the National Railway Museum was opened by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Rob receives his award for 50 years of volunteering<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He witnessed the auspicious occasion with <\/span>David Eastoe<\/span><\/b>, who retired from volunteering just last year following 49 years of service<\/a>. The event is etched in their memory.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Just before the official opening Dr John Coiley, the museum\u2019s first director, decided it would be a good thing to have some volunteering activity taking place on the day, in case the Duke of Edinburgh chose to look outside. Along with David, I was asked to clean Flying Scotsman, which was visiting as part of the Stockton & Darlington Railway\u2019s 150th anniversary.\u2019<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018In the event, the Duke only caught a glimpse of Scotsman and its cleaners as the Royal Train, hauled by a Class 47, approached York Station from the north. My first day at the National Railway Museum was the day it opened, and I have been here ever since.\u2019<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the next 20 years, David and Rob (and other volunteers) became indispensable members of the Museum\u2019s Locomotive Support Group, working on the engines that were steamed in those days such as Evening Star, the Midland Compound, City of Truro, and Mallard<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Four<\/a>
David standing beside the Evening Star as a member of the locomotive support team, June 1985.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the early days there was no official volunteering organization although this began to change in 1977 when the Friends of the National Railway Museum, who remain major supporters, was established.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

David Thomas, a founding member, recalls: \u2018At the inaugural meeting in October 1977 it was stated that the Friends\u2019 stand in the museum, manned by member volunteers including me, was proving popular. Our aim was to help the museum to fund the restoration of locomotives. This led to the locomotive and operations volunteers becoming part of the Friends.\u2019<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The volunteer support team became an essential asset to the museum and were involved in significant projects including getting Green Arrow working over the Settle to Carlisle line in 1978, returning Duchess of Hamilton to steam for the Liverpool & Manchester 150<\/span>th<\/span> celebrations in 1980,\u00a0 as well as helping to get several of the National Railway Museum\u2019s engines including Evening Star, City of Truro and Mallard running on the national network in the 1980s and 90s.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The locomotive service team stand proudly in front of Evening Star<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another of the museum\u2019s long-serving volunteers <\/span>Peter James<\/span><\/b>, who officially joined in 1977 volunteered at the museum\u2019s prestigious Railfest events in the 1990s, The Great Gathering of 2013 and was notably heavily involved in the overhaul of Flying Scotsman between 2006 and 2016. He became part of the museum\u2019s support crew of this iconic steam locomotive helping to bring delight to the public who saw it on excursions and on heritage railways.<\/span> Peter\u2019s background as a shunter and guard for West Coast Railways led him to become a Rail Ops Volunteer for the museum he continues to do this role to the present day.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Peter<\/a>
Peter James gives Mallard a spruce up<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

These volunteers and many more like them have shown passion, teamwork and an unwavering commitment to supporting our museum. Thanks to these pioneers and all those who followed them, our volunteers provide a wide range of services which are valued by visitors and colleagues. If you\u2019re interested in becoming part of the next generation of volunteers to carry on this work, find out more on our <\/span>Volunteering pages<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Volunteers<\/a>
The signalling demonstration<\/a> is still run monthly by a dedicated team of volunteers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The post 50 years of Volunteering<\/a> appeared first on National Railway Museum blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We shine the spotlight on some of the long-standing members of our volunteer community who have played an invaluable part in the museum\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

The post 50 years of Volunteering<\/a> appeared first on National Railway Museum blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":14928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16130,16129],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-192225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nrm50","category-volunteering"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=192225"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":389511,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192225\/revisions\/389511"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=192225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=192225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=192225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}