Youngest volunteer Matthew handles his first ever train
THE youngest volunteer on the Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway, 18-year-old Matthew Forman-Clark, has just qualified as a passenger train guard and handled his first services on August 6.
The railway – the first heritage railway in the world to be both built and operated by enthusiasts when it opened at its original site at Humberston, south of Cleethorpes on August 27, 1960 – has for the first time begun offering three-days-a-week services in August on its line within the Skegness Water Leisure Park in Ingoldmells (on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays).
Matthew, a student at Boston College, who lives in nearby Skegness, began volunteering on his 18th birthday – the youngest age that anyone can volunteer at, helping to prepare Peckett 0-6-0ST No. 1008 of 1903 Jurassic for service and working on renovation and maintenance of the track and carriages and wagons.
Richard Shepherd, chairman of the line’s Historic Vehicles Trust, said: “All of us involved with the railway congratulate Matthew on passing his guard’s exam and are impressed to see his smart turn-out for his first duties. He is an indispensable part of our small tam of volunteers who keep our heritage trains on the rails. We are more used to seeing him in a boiler suit with a smattering of soot from cleaning out Jurassic’s boiler tubes and smokebox.
“We hope many younger volunteers will follow in his footsteps to ensure the railway can continue in the future.”