I don't perform my railway operations for any of the official TOC's - my natural habitat is the East Lancashire Railway. However, Dave, I will comment on your experiences. I don't know who you came upon at Castle Station, but it must have been the village idiot.

The guard is in control of the train...not the driver. (That accounts for the legendary animosity between the two, summed up in a traditional piece of railway verse that I couldn't possibly quote in a family discussion forum.) Anyway, the guard/conductor (I hate that word) says whether it goes or not (by using his signal buzzer, these days). The station staff have no say in when the train goes.(And the driver doesn't operate the doors, either.)The guard can always rescind a 'tip', especially if the train has not departed. He/she would have been standing at their open door. The thing to do was to go there and ask them if you could get on.

An ordinary ticket is valid by an authorised route (or routes) to your destination. Provided that you do not infringe this rule, you could travel to Preston by any scheduled train from Lancaster - including one of Beardie's. (You could even cadge one of the complementary papers from the pile in the buffet.)

By the way, do you know Alan Seymour?

Regards,
Train Guard