Tributes are paid to long-serving and much-missed Lincolnshire Coast railway volunteer Mike Gott, 63

THE Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway has been mourning Mike Gott, a volunteer of 52 years who passed away aged 63 on April 2.

Mike first volunteered at the LCLR at its former home in North Sea Lane, Humberston, in 1970 and has been associated with line ever since.

He became a founder member of the LCLR Historic Vehicles Trust on its formation in 1983 and was also a shareholder in the LCLR Company Ltd.

Trust chairman Richard Shepherd said: “He was a long-standing member of the Narrow Gauge Railway Society, When he moved from Lincolnshire to Lancashire for work reasons in 1990, he also became a member of the West Lancashire Light Railway (at Hesketh Bank), where he kept a Ruston diesel locomotive which he owned.

“Mike’s interests were broader than just railways. He was a fine musician, a Morris dancer, a collector of elderly motorcycles and mopeds, a railway modeller, and an excellent photographer with his trusty Leica.

“He was my very good friend for 50 years and will be much missed.”

Mike is survived by his wife, Louise, with whom he shared a former railway cottage in Horwich, near Bolton, and his brother, John.

DAVE ENEFER/LCLR Mike Gott (front) with fellow Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway volunteer Mick Allen (driver, on footplate) beside Peckett 0-6-0ST No. 1008 of 19023 Jurassic, on which he was fireman, in May 2018, when an open day was held to mark the extension of the line in the Skegness Water Leisure Park.