" The guard coming on duty is a familiar railway figure. Kit over his shoulder, lamp in his hand, he is all set for the long journey ahead. This month's front cover picture shows a typical Goods Guard making for his train. He is Alf Rushton, and we found him at Spencer Street yard"

It shows a guard fully equipped with regulation unform and guards kit bag, under the flap you can see a taildisc and to the left of the bag, a billy, he is holding an old kero handlamp. I started on the job in 1980 and was instantly indoctinated into the "they (guards) are traffic branch, we (enginemen) are rollingstock branch. The enmity between the two grades, and branches, was eternal. What really got up the nose of an engineman was that the rulebook stated that the guard was in charge of the train when we all knew that most guards spent most nightime hours snoozing away the miles, of course when shunting work was to be done the guard would spring into action. Looking back now what was amazing was that right up until the mid 1980's, guards on older ZL vans worked with no water, no toilet, no electric light and no communication with the outside world. The era of the guard and his guards van in now gone forever but to me, a train still doesn't look complete without a guards van bobbing along on the rear.