COMMENT

“The Guard is a man who sits in the van at the back of the train. ”

The rest of that rhyme is unrepeatable in polite company© but it goes on to reflect the antipathy that existed between different grades of railway staff and, more particularly, between the different trades unions on the railway. Footplatemen – drivers and firemen – would generally be members of the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Footplatemen (ASLEF) while Guards were usually members of the National Union of Railwaymen (NUR). As in so many industries where there was more than one union, there was little love lost between them, but let’s let that