IS THIS A MAN’S WORLD?
The Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway’s Megan Charman on encouraging women to get involved in railway preservation
The issue of attitudes towards women working on the footplate was brought home to me one day when I was using the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway (where I am a member) to commute to Welshpool. Having chatted to the locomotive crew before departure, I went to the front balcony of the leading carriage (the place to travel if you are not on the footplate).
Travelling alongside me was an ‘enthusiast’ who had clearly been listening to our conversation. As we progressed towards Welshpool, my fellow traveller enquired as to my connections with the line. I happily explained that I volunteered in the tearoom, my dad was a trustee, “and I’m training to be a fireman.”
“Footplate?” he replied.
“No place for a woman…”
Well… This was my first encounter with negative attitudes to women in the steam railway movement – until that point I had received nothing but support from my fellow members at Welshpool.
I passed out as a fireman around a year ago, I now regularly crew locomotives on the Welshpool line and I have made a lot of friends in the movement – and through the power of social media, these now extend around the world.
STOKING A PASSION
I, and other women I talk to, still receive negative comments on a regular basis, thankfully it must be said only from a minority of enthusiasts, suggesting that we should not be doing what we do.
This is one of the reasons I’ve launched the Women Teaching Women initiative, to encourage more women to do what some believe we are not supposed to be doing – to get centrally involved in preserved railways and engineering in general.
Five years ago I was what my dad described as “a typical female teenager” and I certainly had no interest at all in steam or engineering. Then one day in the
first week of the school summer holidays, I was sitting on Llanfair station platform, already bored and watching the world go by. Simon Durant, the W&LLR’s then engineering manager, suggested I alleviate that boredom by helping him out in the workshop – and the bug well and truly bit.
Within days I was using enormous drills to make holes in brake blocks for one of the locomotives, helping to change the traction motor in the tamping machine, refitting axleboxes and enjoying every minute of it. Before long, I was persuading locomotive crews to take me for rides, and
I was soon handed a shovel. The rest, as they say… I spent most of that summer holiday either in the workshop or on a footplate.
As well as becoming a qualified fireman, I’ve since learnt to weld, driven traction engines, and generally discovered a passion for all things engineering. With my partner employed at the Kirklees Light Railway and my dad in the rail preservation media, I now visit a lot of railways – and Dad is always irritated that I always get on a footplate before he does! I have much to thank Simon for.
Now I want to provide the means for other women to make similar discoveries, and to boost our numbers in what is a traditionally male-dominated environment. Our first Women Teaching Women event will be held on the Perrygrove Railway, on the weekend of June 22/23 – the Sunday coinciding with International Women in Engineering Day.
The Perrygrove is an excellent place for our debut – it may be of just 15in gauge, but it is a superb re-creation of an estate railway, with challenging gradients and sharp curves ensuring that footplate crews have to concentrate hard on what they are doing.
David and Katherine NelsonBrown, who run the Perrygrove line, are very supportive of the initiative, particularly as the line has two female drivers on its roster. “Both of them often get negative remarks,” says Katherine, “so we really need to shout from the rooftops that we’re proud of our female drivers and want to encourage more into the industry – they’re actually better than some of our male drivers!”
Both will be playing a big part in our first weekend, giving footplate rides and offering driving opportunities. There will also be road locomotives to drive, and we also plan to offer blacksmithing demonstrations with the chance to have a go; stuff involving classic cars, in fact anything engineering-related that women probably haven’t had a chance to try for themselves – or indeed even thought of doing.
Many of those we hope will join us probably won’t even be aware of how much enjoyment they could get out of it. Not long after I started volunteering in the Llanfair workshop, an old school friend visited me for a week. She spent most of the week in the workshop, and at the end of it found herself driving a traction engine at Perrygrove when we went to the gala. And she loved it!
EQUAL OPPORTUNITY
We see our events as an opportunity for women to connect and network with like-minded others in the industry, to further promote women in the rail and preservation engineering industry and encourage those who might be put off by the negative comments they receive from some men.
I should emphasise at this point that the vast majority of men I encounter are hugely positive and supportive of my involvement. It is only a minority that persist with such ‘dinosaur’ attitudes. We are now in the 21st century, and if women enjoy stoking fires, driving engines, blacksmithing, fixing cars, or whatever it may be, then we should be allowed to enjoy it, without such questions or comments.
We hope many women will want to join us on the first of what are planned to be regular future events. If you would like to get involved, please email me at megan.charman62@gmail.com
– and if you can bring something engineering-related along for our women to enjoy then we’d love to hear from you too.
And Steam Railway readers: is there a female family member or friend who might enjoy Women Teaching Women? If so, get them to come and join us!
WE REALLY NEED TO SHOUT FROM THE ROOFTOPS THAT WE’RE PROUD OF OUR FEMALE DRIVERS AND WANT TO ENCOURAGE MORE INTO THE INDUSTRY
KATHERINE NELSON-BROWN, PERRYGROVE RAILWAY