From driver to guard?

[DriverEight]

I've often come across posts from people wanting and waiting to move from being a guard/train manager to driver, but does anyone ever move from driver to guard? If so, what are the reasons? How do the TOCs feel about it? Is the transition easy?

Im talking about people that do it through choice, not out of necessity.

 

[skyhigh]

I've often come across posts from people wanting and waiting to move from being a guard/train manager to driver, but does anyone ever move from driver to guard? If so, what are the reasons? How do the TOCs feel about it? Is the transition easy?

Im talking about people that do it through choice, not out of necessity.

I know a couple of people who have - nearing retirement and fancy a change or less pressure. Same process really as moving the other way - if a vacancy comes up, you can apply.

 

[ComUtoR]

An ex Driver at my depot quit within the first few weeks of passing out as a Driver. He went back as a Guard.

 

[172007]

I know a couple of people who have - nearing retirement and fancy a change or less pressure. Same process really as moving the other way - if a vacancy comes up, you can apply.

How does that work pension wise. I assume they have taken their railway pension and carried on working (like my colleagues have done) most Toc driver / conductor pensions are final salary with no career average element so would you not lose out on a massive amount of pensions say 39 years in driver then going to conductor and then retiring with 40 years?

 

[LowLevel]

It usually happens if they don't like driving or they drop a serious or repeat clanger and used to be a guard, they might be offered a guard's job rather than dismissal (the latter option rarely results in an optimal guard, either, given the skillsets nowadays are completely different). I've known both.

 

[djack123son]

like myself.. you may fail a traction module during driver training, and reapply as a guard.. the TOC I failed at won't let me drive for 5 years from date of assessment failure.. but I'm at medical stages with 2 FOCs.. so no biggy

 

[185]

A number with medical restrictions, (multiple) SOL incidents and at least two with stress have gone guarding, varies operator to operator as to whether they allow it.

 

[falcon]

How does that work pension wise. I assume they have taken their railway pension and carried on working (like my colleagues have done) most Toc driver / conductor pensions are final salary with no career average element so would you not lose out on a massive amount of pensions say 39 years in driver then going to conductor and then retiring with 40 years?

Drivers pensions are not final salary. They are career average earnings.
The Driver gets the rate comensurate with the contributions he makes as a driver then when he becomes a guard he pays gaurds contribution and gets the rate comensurate with those contributions.
Both added together give him the resulting pension. The railway pension is simply based on what you pay in in in contributions you get back at the same factor for which ever grade you are in.
The term final salary is a bad discription.

 

[ArchangelA]

I know of a driver who used to work for GWR left to become a signaller at Gloucester signal-box, because he didn't like driving.

 

[craigybagel]

There are a few at my place too - AFAIK all were originally guards who went driving and then for one reason or another it didn't work out and they either asked themselves to go back or it was offered to them as an opportunity to retain their employment. As LowLevel points out, they're too very different jobs and aptitude in one does not necessarily carry across to the other. Some didn't get through training, others drove trains for several years before switching cabs.

A job as a guard, whilst a drop in salary from driving, is still a lot better then most entry level positions available outside the railway. And having done both jobs, salary aside there are definitely both pluses and minuses to both roles.