Ann

Ann - Guard, Shop Assistant, Diesel Railcar Driver & Trustee

While I was scanning some slides I realised that this May is 35 years since I started volunteering.  I worked in London and occasionally met Jon Barlow and Graham Perry, two of our founding members, on the train.  Jon and I got to know each other through a mutual friend and an interest in industrial archaeology.  1985 was the 150^th anniversary of the Great Western Railway and there were celebrations all over the area, including a 10 day Gala at Didcot Railway Centre.  It was Jon who suggested that I do something to help the Society and coincidentally I saw an advert in the Newsletter for Shop volunteers.  I have always worked in shops so that sounded a warm, clean, dry place to spend some time.  The Shop Manager said come along and my first day was during the Gala.  My colleagues were amazed that I could use a till as well as stock shelves and cash up.  It was incredibly busy and I think they appreciated the help as they asked me to come back and I have been involved ever since.

Another conversation led to becoming a Trustee and helping Graham Perry with our first Museum Registration application – a role which has continued to this year’s successful renewal.  A career in the public sector was a perfect training ground for this kind of volunteering work, which developed into taking responsibility for developing and managing many of our policies and procedures.  It was quite late in my volunteering career that I joined the operating staff qualifying as a Duty Manager then a Guard before meeting my childhood dream of driving a train – our wonderful diesel Railcar No 22.

Through volunteering I have made many good friends, kept fit, developed life skills and generally had a great time.  It is difficult to think of a single highlight but one of them was last year’s Oxford 175 event, which we ran in partnership with a number of Oxfordshire organisations and involved both Jim Noble, Brunel’s great great great grandson and the lovely Tim Dunn.

The first step to becoming a volunteer is to join the Great Western Society - the Charity that runs Didcot Railway Centre.

We need volunteers to carry out all types of tasks - see the opportunities across our departments here.

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