The Bahamas Locomotive Society has announced that they have received a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant of £61,500.

The grant has been awarded through the Heritage Emergency Fund and will help the Bahamas Locomotive Society recover from a loss of income due to the coronavirus pandemic.

COVID-19 has meant that its Ingrow West headquarters have been closed and its staff placed on furlough.

The COVID restrictions meant that the educational facilities at Ingrow West and its Learning Coach were suspended, which was funded through a £776k grand awarded in 2013. This grant also saw 45596 Bahamas returned to mainline condition (which has not seen public use since the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway Spring Steam Gala in March).

Keith Whitmore, BLS Chairman, commented: “We are absolutely delighted that once again The National Lottery Heritage Fund has shown confidence in us by continuing to support not only “Bahamas” but also our learning and community work which is proving to be an important and increasingly well used resource by local schools and the wider community. Over the years The Fund has helped with the development of our Accredited Museum at Ingrow, our overhaul of the LNWR ‘Coal Tank’ and more recently the much-acclaimed restoration of “Bahamas” which has already given pleasure to thousands of people since it returned to the main line a year ago.

BLS Commercial Director John Hillier said: “Covid-19 has made us refocus and develop some aspects of our work. The grant will help us establish further initiatives to support our increasingly popular community activities. Importantly the support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund will help us re-establish all our vital revenue streams which include developing further opportunities for our flagship locomotive to be seen in action and the re-opening of our museum with the necessary safeguards in place”.

Ros Kerslake, Chief Executive of The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “Heritage has an essential role to play in making communities better places to live, supporting economic regeneration and benefiting our personal wellbeing. All of these things are going to be even more important as we emerge from this current crisis.

“Thanks to money raised by National Lottery players we are pleased to be able to lend our support to organisations such as the Bahamas Locomotive Society during this uncertain time.”

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