There is not a lot he could do, is there?
He could have said something like: "Thank you sir. I will report it, and we do try to control these things, but please understand, with all the rush hour passengers, it's a matter of balancing staff for the job."
Indeed, I think he should be trained to say something on those lines. Otherwise, helpful passengers will just - as above - think: why the hell should I bother then?
Which reminds me of something I experienced a few decades back. It was 1973, kind of this time of the year, I was on a Midland semi-fast heading north, at Kettering. It was 11.00 or so on a Saturday morning, and I was in an SK or CK Mk 1, and, of course, there was a Cl 45 at the front. <sigh for old times>
As we left the station, a group of six or so very loutish looking Leicester City "supporters" lumped their way past my compartment towards the front of the train. And before we'd got to Glendon South there were light bulbs being flung out onto the track from up front.
Pretty quickly the guard came up, heading towards the front. Whether the gang had tickets or not, I don't know, but they were obviously trouble. I forget the exact sequence of events - I think he may have gone up and come back - at which point i told him I was a fellow railwayman, and if I could help I'd do my best to lend a hand. (Not that I consider myself a tough guy, but I felt I had to show solidarity. The guard, I suppose he was 50 or so, certainly didn't come over as tough.)
Anyway, he came back past me again after Mkt Harboro, told me he'd asked for help to be ready at Leicester, and went forward. I was standing at the compartment door. A few minutes later he came back with two lads, and told them - you sit in there and stay there. So the lads squeezed past me and sat down. But the guard then went off towards the back, leaving me with them! Hell, I didn't know what to do.
They were probably only 15-16, and started talking among themselves, obviously letting me hear, saying things like: Well, it wasn't us. Why does he think it was us?" Since I was standing, and it kind of gave me some superiority, I stayed that way, near the door. The lads were obviously not the ring leaders of the gang, and the guard had picked on them, presumably, in order to achieve some sort of easy result.
This went on for some miles, till we were approaching Leicester station. At this point, the guard reappeared from the rear, while simultaneously the rest of the gang, led by a big 'hard' guy, wearing black gloves with metal studs on them, appeared from the front. I'd guess he was aged 18-19 or so.
The next bit was over in a flash - but the guard said something like - ok, you two, come with me, and the two lads got up. At which, the 'hard' guy stepped in between the guard and the lads, and they squeezed out behind the hard guy into the corridor, ignoring the guard. At this point, I put my hand over the 'hard' guy's shoulder, tapped one of the lads, and said: Oi, he means you. The 'hard' guy then said to me: who do you think you're talking to? I ignored him, and tapped the boys on the shoulder again: He's talking to you! I said.
We had now come to a stop. The guard went forward to the lads he'd 'apprehended' - and I had to go back into the compartment to pick up my rucksack (containing two valuable cameras), and I tried to follow the gaggle onto the platform. I think the guard said something like You stay with the train to me - not that I had any power/authority to do anything with the train!
As I stepped onto the platform, the guard was leading the two lads, five-six yard in front, followed by the hard man, followed by two-three others in the gang who were just in front of me. A second later the two lads started running away from the guard, who gave chase, followed immediately by 'hard' man. But significantly, the 2-3 others didn't take any part in this. One made some comment, I forget what exactly - but it was then that I suddenly realised - they'd been through this before. I don't think i exactly started shaking, but it hit me that they knew the 'hard' man meant trouble, and they didn't want to get involved.
Well, I think I then walked down to the brake to do my very unofficial 'duty' for the train (it was due to stop for 18 mins or so awaiting the down Sheffield to overtake it.) Five minutes later, the guard came back. He was smiling: "That will have scared them," he said, "They ran like hell."
Uh? I thought - they just got away? I didn't say anything, but I was pretty furious. I think the guard was old school - he felt that if an official chased you, that was enough. The lads wouldn't do it again.
I thought the opposite. They'd be heroes for the afternoon, having got away with it, and that would mean they'd be more likely to do it again. Meanwhile, - though I couldn't prove it, of course - but I felt pretty sure that it was only with a bit of luck that I'd ignored the hard guy in the corridor. Because if i'd acknowledged him, I'm sure he would have smacked me one, and with his studded gloves, that could have been very nasty.
I never found myself in any situation like that again, but I must say, I felt the whole effort had been pretty much a waste of time, and a very risky one at that, the only positive being the guard, presumably, felt a bit better with my backing him.
Apologies - just realised how long this has turned out. I've never written it down before.
