Grant has been involved with the Supporters’ Association for over thirty years, initially as a volunteer on the Groudle Glen Railway with his first involvement on the railway being several spells of work experience whilst at high school; his first job upon leaving school was to run the gift shop at Douglas Station for two seasons and he became a board member in 1994 at the time when involved with the first cosmetic restoration of No.6 Peveril.

He became assistant secretary to the late Tony Beard and for several years was the Association membership secretary before first taking editorship of the official journal Manx Steam Railway News in 2001, a position he held until 2014 when other commitments meant he had to step down; happily he later returned to providing the railway notes for  each edition and returned as editor in 2019, providing notes and news in the interim period.

Grant became the Company Secretary of the Association in 2007 and remained in post until 2014; in 2023 he returned to the role of Company Secretary though not a member of the board of directors.  His activities for the Association include website administration including layout, content updates as well as being our primary social media content administration and editor and volunteer co-ordinator for our various projects.  He is responsible for our front-of-house activities.

He has been an employee of the railway for many years and can often be found at Castletown Station where he is the secretary of the voluntary Friends Of... group there.  He is also one of the active volunteers for the Association in his time off work, being a key figure in the cosmetic restoration of No.5 Mona and the works at The Level, Ballabeg, Four Roads, Ballasalla and Port St. Mary.  He also updates and keeps the historical displays refreshed for some exhibits in the railway museum.

Away from the railway he is a keen musician and has played the tuba with Onchan Silver Band for many years as well as a number of administration roles within the group including the roles of secretary, librarian and deputy conductor at various times; he has competed with the band at national level representing the island on a number of occasions and is their historian, the band dating back to 1937; he organised their sixtieth anniversary concert.

He has also been involved with several other musical groups on the island including the Isle of Man Wind Orchestra with whom he has toured Europe, and Sheean Prash (Manx for Brass Sounds), a brass quintet which represented the island at the annual La Tour festival of music in the south of France.  Anyone who knows Grant will agree his time away from all these activities is spent socialising...never too far away from Castletown Station!