Brothers make history operating service train at Lincolnshire Light Railway

David Yates (24), from Wainfleet, and his brother Stuart (33) took the train from its terminus at Walls Lane in the Skegness Water Leisure Park to the soon-to-be officially opened new station at Seathorne Bank.

It was only a couple of weeks ago that David passed his guard’s exam – and then a few days later, Stuart, who lives in the nearby village of Thorpe St. Peter, qualified as a diesel driver.

Railway spokesman John Chappell said: “It’s a great achievement for David and Stuart and shows we have a dedicated team of hard-working younger volunteers who will develop the railway for the future.”

Stuart has been a volunteer since May of 2024 and has already qualified as a guard – which means having a thorough knowledge of the railway’s rule book and its safety procedures, as well as being able to deal with brakes, couplings, giving signals to the driver – and checking tickets to ensure passengers are safely enjoying their journey in the railway’s century-old carriages.

He was recently elected as a trustee of the railway’s charitable support group, the Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway Historic Vehicles TrustWhen is is not volunteering he works in his father’s gardening business and previously was the skipper of a tourist boat in York.

Having previous;y driven tractors and motorcycles, he says driving a train is something very different – even though he admits, he has yet to pass his car driving test!

David said as a child he would go on holiday to places like Porthmadog (headquarters of the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways), the Statfold Barn narrow gauge railway near Tamworth and the Severn Valley Railway – so railways are in the family.

He and partner Courtney have a three year old son Harley, who’s already fascinated by trains but likes planes and anything else “that moves and makes a noise!”

The family can hear trains on the Skegness to Grantham “Poacher Line” which runs about ten minutes walk away from their home.

When a lift is not available from another volunteer living in Wainfleet, Stuart commutes from his home to the LCLR from Thorpe Culvert station*, one of the least used stations in the UK, transferring to a bus in Skegness to reach Walls Lane and walk to the railway’s base.

“My grandfather used to read me Thomas the Tank Engine stories and when I moved to this area just over a year ago I had already been a volunteer at the National Railway Museum, Tyseley Locomotive Works in Birmingham and the Statfold Barn Railway.

"For me, this is a fulfilment of a dream, to be driving trains. Having been involved with other railways, the LCLR is more friendly but it was still unexpected to be able to work up to being a driver so quickly”.

David said: “Stuart kept saying ‘come and work on the railway’ so I turned up and found it to be equally friendly and inclusive. I’m not the most knowledgeable person about trains, but you don’t have to be, to enjoy working here as a volunteer – it’s enjoyable, fulfilling and fun”.

Both Stuart and David have ambitions for promotion at the LCLR – for Stuart, the next step is to qualify as a steam locomotive fireman (on the line's venerable 1903-vintage Jurassic) and for David, it is to train as a diesel driver – and after that, to qualify on steam.

Richard Shepherd, Chairman of the Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway Historic Vehicles Trust, said: “Many heritage railways struggle to attract younger people to work on their lines but we are fortunate that we are developing a dedicated group of younger volunteers who come to work on maintenance and restoration projects through the often bleak Winter and Spring weather and then actively help to operate our Summer Services. It gives me great confidence for our future and we will welcome others to join us – however, you must be 18 to comply with insurance and with safety regulations”.

Those thinking of joining the railway can call at the site on Wednesdays and Saturdays when there are usually working parties (or services) or make contact via the website www.lclr.co.uk .

Membership of the Trust is a prerequisite for volunteers – the subscription is £10 a year.

*Thorpe Culvert station, once noted for its dramatically leaning signal box, has only a couple of stopping trains a day in each direction to Skegness and towards Boston, Sleaford and Nottingham; it was once the 18 th least used station in Britain with just 94 passengers a

year but is now officially the 24 th , with 396 passengers annually.