Apologies Tomnick,
I should have realised that you were talking about a preserved railway when you used the term 'Guard' which really no longer exists on the Mainline by that name. But it is a serious matter when grades start to become split over what each may or may not get paid. It used to happen in B.R. days and Shunters would complain about Guards, Guards about Drivers or signalman and vice verse and it really never resolved anything. In B.R. days a signalman, expecially in an M.A.S. box could make a lot more than a train driver at a smaller depot who may not have rest day or Sunday work. When I started in Aberdeen there was just one booked Sunday, a year! Never mind a week or a month.
Most depots on the Western didn't work rest days. On ocassions B.R. would try out some sort of bonus scheme but once it looked lucrative for the driver and guard it was quickly dropped. Even at the end of B.R. the driver's basic wage was just around £148 a week with only one Sunday a month to make that bareable. To gain the £30,000 plus a year they earn today Drivers had to vote away over 100 years of working and social conditions for the money, They are most unlikely to ever get that back again. So please don't grudge them their wages and whatever conditions they have left.
Of course working on a Preserved railway will be based mostly on voluntary working and is quite a different case. However, even here, where there are paid jobs, some form of differential is necessary so that a younger and less experienced member of staff will have something to work towards. Most cleaners in my time appreciated the turns they had to work to progress from Passed-Cleaner, Fireman, Passed-Fireman to Driver. You really felt that you had made progressed and grown with the job. Likewise, our older colleagues equally enjoyed seeing us successfuly move up through the grade and you also learned more and more to work as a team and share in the commaradarie that the job entailed. Today, for the most part all they have is a very 'empty' length of railway to work over.
By the way, the ex G.C.R. is one of my favourite railways and will always be missed. I fired trains up to Woodford Halse near the end, from Didcot via Banbury. I have motorbiked from Woodford H. to Braunston & Willoughby, including through Catesby Tunnel and have visted the line numerous times over the years, including your working line at Loughborough Central, which is an excellent preservation and getting better by the year and am keen to see the line reopened back to Ruddington again. Every other year since the Nottingham to Newstead and then to Worksop reopened I have had a visit to check out the remains from Nottingham and Annesley. I have yet to see what they have done since building the new tramway at Weekday Cross but plan to do so this year. Also to check out the new trams.
I got my driving job at Marylebone in 1974 and worked over the Southern sections of the GCR to Aylesbury and High Wycombe and at Didcot we used to work London Brick trains to Calvert via Oxford and Claydon LNER Jct. At that time the brickworks had it's own small diesel locomotive (converted from steam) to take the wagons, two at an time, too and from the bric train.
Later we worked the Bristol/Bath Rubbish trains (Dusty Bins). We also had a full circle Household coal train to Neasden via Reading and return via Aylesbury, Claydon Jct and Oxford. For a time we worked a Wine train too and from Aylesbury Goods Yard, over the same routes. This train was booked From Neasden Coal Concentration Depot via the Met line to Aylesbury but most times it was directed via Princess Riceborough then via Little Kimble to Aylesbury.
When we worked the Cardiff-Calvert brick trains, the ex GCR track was still down from Calvert to Brackley but Bletchley train crews were working track lifting trains over that section and the junction was quickly reduced to just a memory. When I first worked over the Oxford-Cambridge line in 1965 I can remember seeing trains running over the top of the O&C as we approached Claydon LNER Jct. At that Time, while Calvert Station was closed, the station buildings and footbridge to the road was still very much intact. The station master lived in the Station House and was still looking after the freight trains that worked to Calvert. The signalbox and the Up Goods yard was in operation. Freight and Parcel trains would pass too and from Bletchley making it still look and feel like a real railway, albeit in a rather rundown state. Our brick train mostly had a Western Hydraulic at the head but on ocassions a Hymeck would be used. Most of the diesel trains that passed had Class 37's. I don't recall seeing any other type of loco at that time. The double mainline was also still in good condition between Calvert and Aylesbury.
On the 30th Anniversary of the closure a workmate and I had a day out visting all the old stations and places of interest between Brackley and Leicester Central Stn site. The Ex GCR will always be a favourite and the sadness of it's closure remain. Perhaps part of the mainline will reopen one day and even link with the Channel Tunnel as originally planned, but in whichever way, it will never return as it was, so memories are all that is left.
My apologies once again if I got things wrong and hope that you find some of this story of interest.
Cheers.
BillEWS.