The Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway has been taking steps to build relationships with schools and communities in its local area, which has seen the year three pupils of Richmond School in Skegness enjoy a special visit to the railway.

The visit saw the heritage railway run its flagship locomotive Jurassic, which celebrated her 120th birthday just days before. The locomotive provided a good number of pupils with their first train travel experience, with only a few of the children ever experiencing the wonderful sights and sounds of a steam engine before.

The Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway is a narrow-gauge railway based in the Skegness Water Leisure Park with a claim to fame for being the first-ever heritage railway in the world to be built by rail enthusiasts and opened back in 1960.

Richard Shepherd, Chair of the Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway Historic Vehicles Trust said:

“The day was an eye-opener for us and made us realise that other schools and their pupils in the area could use our unique railway to learn so much about the area’s history, society and economy in such an enjoyable way.”

“This was the first time we had hosted a large-scale visit from a school – 60 children – and it was a joy for our volunteers. Hopefully, the children and their teachers enjoyed it as much as we did. The children were polite and very well-behaved and a credit to Richmond School. We hope to welcome them again and now plan to approach other schools in the area to suggest they may wish to make a similar visit”.

Ricki Daniels, Deputy Headteacher at Richmond School and organiser of the visit, said:

“Certainly the children enjoyed their visit and learned a lot from travelling on the train and experiencing at first hand how this form of transport helped create modern Lincolnshire and the world we live in”.

John Chappell, Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway spokesman said:

“We have something unique to offer schools in the area and hope to encourage more to visit the line and learn from what we have been able to conserve over more than 60 years”.