Hi Casbar, welcome to the forum. I expect you may not want to name the company you're considering, but you should understand that different companies offer very different experiences. East Midlands Trains is an Intercity Operator and (by railway standards) has pretty contented and well behaved customers.
I used to drive London suburban trains for Connex South Eastern and quite frankly I'm glad to have got away from there without having received a good kicking ! I wouldn't put my worst enemy down the Medway Towns as a guard.
Incidentally the railway is full of ex-IT people, so you'd certainly not be alone. One ex-IT member of platform staff on my line is currently going through driver training, so there certainly is a career path if you're after it. Also it's still posssible to be taken on as a Driver at 50, it varies from TOC to TOC but 58 is the maximum age to be starting as a Trainee Driver (maturity and life-skills are a valuable commodity
)
Hope this helps
Cheers,
Foggy (First Class Honours degree in Salad Cream, University of McDonalds)