From heritage railway tearoom volunteer to senior engineer

Posted on 15 January 2026 • Engineering, Science, maths, computing and technology, Student stories

Thirty years ago Nick Simpson was a Grosmont Station Tearoom volunteer at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway (NYMR) in Grosmont – now he’s its Head of Mechanical Engineering.

It was partly thanks to his recently acquired first-class degree in Engineering from The Open University, which his forward-thinking former boss decided to sponsor him on throughout.

It was no mean feat for the married father of two, now 42. He worked full time for the registered charity while he embarked on the course that took him seven years’ part-time study to complete.

And as a result, he’s had three promotions since. Now he manages 24 paid staff and more than 120 volunteers passionate about preserving the historic engines and track. He’s the first to admit “it’s a mint job”.

“I can’t stress enough how good it is for [someone] if they can get on that ladder and get a degree course under them. I’ve benefited immensely,” he said.

He’s come a long way since joining as a volunteer – initially training as an apprentice diesel fitter on site. Now the charity’s investment in him and his degree has paid dividends.

He said it changed his life and his new knowledge has helped transform the way the yard maintains and manages its magnificent rolling stock.

He said tackling projects is much more scientific:

“Now you have to step back and you think, right, what are the risks? What are we going to do and how to finance it. It gives you a better overview of engineering.”

One of those projects involved his dissertation – saving a massive but crucial aging piece of maintenance kit from the scrap yard.

The “wheel drop” was built in 1914 and the yard had used it for 15 years, since a generous benefactor donated it. But it was on the cusp of being retired as it needed updating.

The mechanism is rather like a car ramp but 10ft long and scaled up to take the weight of up to 120 tonne steam engines and rolling stock.

It allows his team to remove and maintain the wheels on the trains, some of which match Nick’s 6ft 6ins tall frame, by supporting the weight of the engines as they remove them.

He said it was “quite a challenge” not least because all the steel was built in Imperial measurements but now, of course, it’s metric that dominates today’s world.

Nick says it’s working on big engineering restorations that gives him great job satisfaction and helps enables NYMR’s many visitors annually to enjoy the trains and rolling countryside.

“Seeing that steam engine thrashing past with seven coaches absolutely full of families waving at you because of something you’ve mended – now that’s a buzz. That’s brilliant. And also, there’s nowhere around here that I can do the big engineering restorations that I do here,” he said.

For someone who admits he’s not actually a railway buff, the railway site “still gets into his skin”.

So, it was a proud moment for him, wife Alison and teenager daughters Lyla and Grace as they watched him walk across the stage to collect his degree at a recent OU graduation ceremony in London.

Pictured is Nick Simpson in front of the wheel drop, which was his dissertation subject