Volunteers are the beating heart of our Railway. Our 500+ volunteers play a crucial role in looking after our visitors, operating our railway safely, maintaining our locomotives, carriages, stations and grounds, and keeping our track in great condition.
We try to make the Isle of Wight Steam Railway a fantastic place to volunteer, and work hard to make sure we look after our volunteers and offer a range of benefits to our team as well as the satisfaction of a job well done. Look at the options below to find which starting role might suit you, or find out more about the benefits of volunteering for us here.
CURRENT VOLUNTEER ROLES
CARETAKER
Our caretakers remove litter and keep our site clean and tidy for our visitors.
Gardener
Our gardeners help make our site colourful with picturesque borders and planters.
Site Maintenance Assistant
Contribute DIY skills to keeping our site in great condition.
Museum & Archive Assistant
Catalogue and Research our extensive collection of documents, artefacts, and photographs.
Museum & Heritage Guide
Welcome visiting groups and show them around our fascinating living museum.
Track Maintenance Assistant
Join our team of track workers making our line safe and smooth.
Customer
Service Assistant
Welcome our visitors, ensure they have a great day, and deal with varied customer enquiries.
Passenger Assistant
Help our visitors on and off the trains, and give them a friendly wave on their way.
Retail Assistant
Help our visitors get the most out of their visit serving them from our various retail and catering counters.
Assistant Coachbuilder
Help maintain and restore our unique collection of carriages and wagons.
Assistant Coachpainter
Help keep our fleet of carriages and goods vehicles looking great.
Locomotive Cleaner
Learn your way around a steam locomotive and start the challenging journey towards footplate roles.
Locomotive Workshop Assistant
Join our locomotive engineering team and contribute around the workshop and yard.
TRAINEE UPHOLSTERER
Learn traditional upholstery skills and help keep our carriage compartments looking beautiful.
PLANT / EQUIPMENT WORKSHOP ASSISTANT
Help keep our day-to-day tools like brushcutters and mowers in good working order.
ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT
Support our office staff and department managers with administrative assistance.
If you have specific experience and qualifications in the mainline and/or heritage rail industry and would like to contribute some time, you can email us directly with details of this at [email protected]
