The NYMR has secured vital funding from North Yorkshire Council’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund, enabling us to build a new Mutual Improvement Classroom (MIC) at Grosmont Motive Power Depot, which will be used to train the railway’s next generation of heritage locomotive drivers.

It will be the last surviving railway MIC in the world when it is completed by March 2025, and will replace the previous MIC at NYMR, which closed in January 2023.

Drone photograph showing the previous MIC building (in white) and the location for the new MIC Classroom.

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund was a central pillar of the previous UK government’s Levelling Up agenda, providing £2.6 billion of funding for local investment. The fund aims to improve pride in place and increase life chances across the UK, by investing in communities and places, supporting local business, and people and skills.

North Yorkshire Council has received an allocation of £16.9 million from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund to support programmes, projects and activities, until the end of March 2025.

The total project cost is £600,000 and, thanks to Peter Best, a gifted donation of £250,000 has enabled the project to come to life. Peter Best, a former NYMR PLC chairman, was recently awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM) for his services to steam and heritage railways. The 69-year-old has bought and restored a total of 11 locomotives with his own money. He says that seeing young people on a train hauled by one of his locomotives gives him “huge pleasure and pride".

Elevations of the new MIC Building (download plan).

The new MIC (floor plan) at NYMR will house components from numerous models of locomotives. Most training tools in the collection are priceless, having been inherited or donated from long-lost MICs over time. The facility will also house over 100 technical books on all locomotive matters. Some of these books are over 150 years old, and are used in conjunction with IT equipment to enable the NYMR to present classes globally.

Mutual Improvement Classes (MICs) originate from the early days of railways. As enginemen became more experienced, they would give up their time to educate colleagues who were rising through the grades on the footplate, starting as Engine Cleaners before progressing to Firemen and to Driver.

Tim Bruce, Director of Civil Engineering at the NYMR, said, “Thanks to North Yorkshire Council and Peter Best, a private benefactor, we can now have quality facilities to train the next generation of footplate staff. The new facilities will include a purpose-built classroom with the ability to broadcast training sessions worldwide. Additionally, it will also provide much needed shower and toilet facilities including new office space.”

The interior of the old MIC building. Image courtesy Andrew Jefferey & Grosmont Enginemen's Mutual Improvement Classroom Facebook Page.

Laura Strangeway, CEO at the NYMR, said, “The NYMR has an important role to play in the heritage sector, preserving the unique skills needed for the protection and safe operation of historic locomotives, carriages and infrastructure. We pride ourselves on sharing our skills with other industrial and heritage railway museums and organisations. Grosmont MIC will be the last surviving railway MIC anywhere in the world and we believe the concept is worth preserving and building on.”