Passed It

It's forty years since I started volunteering on the Talyllyn.  As a teenager, after a few weeks on the trains, I mostly worked in catering and the shop - it paid a subsistence rate allowing me to be here all summer.  In my late twenties I returned to service and soon qualified to guard trains which I did regularly until the end of the years BC (Before Children.)  Fourteen years later Ruth was keen to have a go and I returned on a very part-time basis.  The advance of the Health& Safety culture means much more extensive training and performance assessment.  Today I had my three year routine assessment, done on the job.  I may sometimes feel I am past it but today I passed it :-)

I asked my fifteen year old trainee to record the day.  Jamie (14) was working in the office today just behind the loco.   The next generation of volunteers guaranteed if their performance and commitment are anything to go by.