Full steam ahead as cancer charity challenge visits railway in Skegness

Rob Nicholls was making his 27th stop at the station in Skegness Water Leisure Park as part of his challenge to raise funds for Prostate Cancer Research.

He is aiming to visit each of the 41 narrow gauge railways in the British Isles which operate steam trains and have a track gauge of 60 cm (1’ 11⅝”) or more, awarding himself ‘points’ for each visit.

These are then used to encourage people to convert his progress to donations via his JustGiving page .

Rob lives at Tamworth, very close to the largest collection of narrow gauge locomotives in the UK, on the Statfold Barn Railway). He is supported by his wife, Wendy, on his challenge.

At Skegness he was invited on to the footplate of the veteran steam locomotive Jurassic, built in 1903 in Bristol by Peckett & Sons Ltd for Kaye and Company’s quarries in Warwickshire.

He’d travelled to the LCLR after visiting the Isle of Man – home to no fewer than five narrow gauge railways, a horse tramway and a miniature line – for its recent Vintage Transport Festival.

Rob said: “I have recently retired and I have always liked narrow gauge steam – there is so much variety, nowhere else is there so much.

“What I find at smaller lines like the LCLR is the friendly welcome – here I was allowed to stand on the footplate of Jurassic while she waited for her next trainload of passengers”.

To make a donation visit the Narrow Gauge Steam 2023 Challenge JustGiving page.