Over the last 6 months, I've been training up to be a Guard on the East Lancashire Heritage railway. The line runs from Bury to Heywood and Rawtenstall through parts of the outer urban areas of Manchester and into Rossendale.
The trains guard is responsible for the safe timely operation of the train, that means ensuring the coaches are fit to run, the locomotive is safely attached and dispatch/arrival checks at each station on route ensuring that passengers are safely onboard. It takes months to complete the training, doing 2-4 days per month learning about the theory and getting some practical experience.

Most of the time my role is to supervise the train into a station safely, ensure that all signals are suitably cleared and waving my green flag to dispatch the train from a station stop...

However the training hadn't covered what to do about the passengers I encountered upon arrival at Burrs Country Park halt on my final service of the day. The country park is on the banks of the Irwell with neighbouring farm land. Quite a scenic location and popular with walkers and families, as well as those parked on the caravan site.
However it wasn't some caravaners waiting, but it was a herd of cows!
Initially they appeared to be congregated at the north end of the platform, as we entered the platform they scattered and some jumped on the track ahead of the train. As the cows were now obstructing the track, we had to stop short, leaving the rear portion of the train hanging off the train. This is where the role as a guard is vital, our trains don't have central locking so we have to observe people don't try to alight. We safely allowed our passengers who needed to disembark, avoiding the cows and escorted them from the platform, minding the dung!

However, we still needed to get the train and passengers safely to Bury. The drivers up front in the locomotive and I had to release our inner-farmer and usher the herd back off the track and out of the station, as you can see below!
With the line clear, cows in a neighbouring field and passengers safe, I was able to wave my flag 1 last time that day and have us continue into Bury where I was able to end my journey.

Herding cows wasn't on my bingo card for this year, but it's all experience.
It shows that as heritage railway guards we have to think on our feet and be ready for various exceptional circumstances.

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