'I've dedicated my life to this miniature railway'

Since being taken for his first train ride on the Scarborough North Bay Railway by his dad at just a few weeks old, Steve Johnson said he felt destined for a life on the railway.

He began volunteering at the Yorkshire tourist attraction when he was 11, became an apprentice at 17 and now, at the age of 35, is the railway's operations manager.

He has now been recognised for dedicating his life to the railway and Scarborough's tourism industry by being named a finalist for the 2025 Visit England Tourism Super Star Award.

He told BBC Radio York: "It's just lovely that someone would acknowledge the effort you're putting into it. It's humbling really."

The award recognises the passion and dedication of those in England's tourism industry, with the winner determined by a public vote.

With about 100,000 visitors a year, Mr Johnson said he was proud to be associated with what had become "part of a traditional day out in Scarborough, as much as fish and chips".

"We see a lot of generational visits," he said.

"So grandma who brings the grandchildren who used to bring their parents."

The railway has also become a multi-generational operation, with Mr Johnson's father - who first brought him there as a baby - now working there too.

He said: "My dad was always interested in railways [so] I had no chance.

"There are parts [of the job] that just feel like we're playing trains, but we call it 'continuous professional development'," he added.

From helping the guards check tickets and wiping down the train seats as a young volunteer, Mr Johnson said his first job as an apprentice at 17 was overhauling the railway's oldest locomotive, Neptune, which was built in 1931.

"For that to be the first job when I first started, it just felt like it was all fate," he said.

He said another major career highlight was when pop superstar Kylie Minogue, who was in town for a show at Scarborough's Open Air Theatre, performed the Locomotion on one of the trains in 2019.

"She rang us up especially to come on the railway," Mr Johnson said.

"She was brilliant, what a lovely lady she is."

Mr Johnson said after almost two decades on the railway, he's proud of the mark he's made.

"The way things are, I'm happier than I ever have been here," he said.

"What we're actually achieving as a team is phenomenal I think."

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