Volunteers are the life-blood of the Railway. Without the volunteers there would be no East Somerset Railway! We can never have enough volunteers so if you have a couple of spare free hours to learn a new skill or teach us a new skill then we would love to hear from you.

Steam trains run every weekend throughout our season March - October, and in high season we also run Wednesdays and Thursdays too. Too enable us to do this we need the help of volunteers. There are so many varied jobs around the railway that whatever your professional background, skills or interest, there will be a role for you and your help will contribute to the ongoing success of the East Somerset Railway. Full training will be given where necessary.

Examples of jobs are welcoming and helping our visitors, on the footplate as a driver or fireman, guard, staffing the ticket office and shop, maintaining and restoring engines and stock, maintaining trackwork and signalling and maintaining our buildings and grounds.

The time required is down to you and how much time you can spare. Want to know more? Call the office on 01749 880417 or e-mail [email protected].

To become a volunteer you must be a member of the East Somerset Railway.

If you between 14 - 18 years old and you want to help out then no problem, you can join our junior volunteer section!

Become a Member

Volunteer Roles

We have a number of roles available at the station currently, including Crossing Keeper, Platform Guides and  Travelling Ticket Inspector. Lisa Pool is now our Volunteer Manager alongside her role as Education Coordinator and Dementia Champion so she is the first point of contact for any questions about Volunteering. She can be contacted via email [email protected]

 To view some of the current roles that we have available, please download the PDF where you will find a full description of duties, details and benefits for each role. 

Volunteers - NEW & OLD

It’s important that we have up-to-date records for all volunteers, especially as new volunteers begin to get involved and active.  Please, if you have made contact with new volunteers recently, could you ask them to download the form below and either ask them to drop it into the Office, marked for Lisa Pool's attention, or email to [email protected]

Equally, if you’re a Volunteer who hasn’t completed this form, or if details are out of date, please return to Lisa as above.  (The details required are different to those given on membership forms and afford the ESR better protection in terms of emergency contacts and GDPR.  You can request permission to have details removed at any time.)

Steve Masters

Volunteer Recruitment Day

Be part of the great work that we do for British Heritage and meet some friends on the way. We run steam trains every weekend throughout the season March - October and in high season we also run Wednesdays and Thursdays. 

To enable us to do this, we need volunteers! By volunteering you will be making a valuable contribution to the railway and helping to keep it alive for future generations to enjoy. Full training will be given where necessary. 

Meet us at the ticket office at 10:30am on Saturday 25th March 2023 to discuss some of the roles we have available...

We'll provide you with a free tea/coffee from The Station Cafe and there will be a free train for prospective Volunteers on this day. 

No need to book, just turn up on the day.

For further info about the day contact:

 01749 880417

Education Coordinator: Lisa Pool - [email protected]