North Yorkshire Moors Railway classroom to train next generation of drivers and firemen
North Yorkshire Moors Railway has secured funding which will enable it to build a new Mutual Improvement Classroom (MIC) at Grosmont Motive Power Depot.
This will be used to train the railway’s next generation of heritage locomotive drivers.
It will be the last surviving railway MIC in the world when it is completed by March 2025, and will replace the previous MIC at the railway, which closed in January 2023.
North Yorkshire Council received an allocation of £16.9m from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund – a central pillar of the UK Government’s Levelling Up agenda – to support programmes, projects and activities.
The total project cost is £600,000 and, thanks to Peter Best, a gifted donation of £250,000 has enabled the project to come to life.
Mr Best, a former NYMR PLC chairman, was recently awarded a British Empire Medal for his services to steam and heritage railways.
The 69-year-old has bought and restored a total of 11 locomotives with his own money.
He said that seeing young people on a train hauled by one of his locomotives gives him “huge pleasure and pride".
The new MIC at NYMR will house components from numerous models of locomotives.
Most training tools in the collection are priceless, having been inherited or donated from long-lost MICs over time.
The facility will also house more than 100 technical books on all locomotive matters.
Some of these books are over 150 years old, and are used in conjunction with IT equipment to enable the NYMR to present classes globally.
Mutual Improvement Classes (MICs) originate from the early days of railways.
As enginemen became more experienced, they would give up their time to educate colleagues who were rising through the grades on the footplate, starting as Engine Cleaners before progressing to Firemen and to Driver.
Tim Bruce, Director of Civil Engineering at the NYMR, said: “The new facilities will include a purpose-built classroom with the ability to broadcast training sessions worldwide.
“It will also provide much-needed shower and toilet facilities including new office space.”
Laura Strangeway, CEO at the NYMR, added: “We pride ourselves on sharing our skills with other industrial and heritage railway museums and organisations.
“Grosmont MIC will be the last surviving railway MIC anywhere in the world and we believe the concept is worth preserving and building on.”