ABOUT VOLUNTEERING AT ELSECAR HERITAGE RAILWAY

Join our 100% voluntary team to discover new adventures, all you need is a big yorkshire smile.

Discover new adventures, new friendships, new purpose and new skills as you help us keep our heritage trains running.

With a wide variety of roles we have something to interest everyone and you don’t have to be a train enthusiast to get involved. We offer training and support across our roles and many offer competence certificates and references that make excellent CV and skills evidence. We welcome beginners, let us show you how a railway is run!

From giving a smile to a customer, to cleaning the loos, to making tea, to serving food on the train, to selling tickets, to answering the phone, to taking bookings, to driving or firing a steam locomotive, to repairing the track and buildings, to doing the weeding, to helping with publicity, to arranging events, or telling visitors about our history – we have many exciting activities to get involved in. Have a chat with one of our team or ask to meet our Volunteer Coordinator to discuss volunteering opportunities at Elsecar Heritage Railway.

“I was looking for something to do at weekends and I’ve not looked back since, i’ve been welcomed into the team from day one and they dont make a bad cup of Yorkshire Tea either…”

Volunteers are welcome from 16 years old. We accept volunteers who are 14 or 15 years old provided they are accompanied by a parent or guardian who also wishes to volunteer.


Volunteers under 18 years old are not able to carry out Safety Critical Work. To undertake railway operations Safety Critical Roles (like fireman) you will need to be be physically and mentally fit, be prepared for early starts and long days and to get filthy, and be prepared to study, train, sit examinations and be assessed you are competent to undertake the role.

For customer service roles we love to meet volunteers who can give the friendly, smiling service that Yorkshire hospitality is famed for. For those who like to work quietly behind the scenes then we have maintenance and engineering teams who do great work in keeping everything in working order, or many administration tasks in our office team, so important to keeping our business alive.

We are an equal opportunities organisation so welcome people from all backgrounds, even from Lancashire!

For more information about volunteering, please contact us.