We all know that the majority of people have stereotyped views of how train crews should look. Engineers wear coveralls and a striped hat, conductors a suit and pocket watch, and if your lucky these people with about 95% accuracy will be able to tell the difference between the two. But just how accurate are these stereotypes? As museums and tourist lines I think it's a good idea for us to consider what the "real" railroaders wore back in the first half of the twentieth century, noting of course that the general public most often will neither know nor care. What sort of additional "jewelry" would a conductor have on him, practical or for appearance? How does this differ from say a brakeman or trainman? What did the engineer and fireman wear, and what differentiates the two? All of these are things that we should examine in order to provide the most accurate representation of the atmosphere most museums and shortlines are after.

On the main line railroads the conductors and brakemen working passenger trains were generally required to have the required uniform which you called a suit. These were generally a three-piece suit made out of a heavy wool surge. In most cases the railroads specified a dark color although some did use a gray color. It appears that the number of vest buttons and coat buttons varied from railroad to railroad according to the railroad's specifications. Sometimes, the pocket openings were leather trimmed for reinforcement. Buttons, hat badges and lapel devices (RR initials) had different colors for the job positions -- gold (yellow) for conductors and silver (white) for brakemen. [Pacific Electric used gold for conductors and motormen and silver for downtown passenger terminal gatemen and switchmen.]

Years of service was often indicated by stars and bars on the coat sleeve. On the Union Pacific a bar indicated 5 years and a star indicated 25 years (star and 2 bars =35 years) on the Pacific Electric a bar indicated one year and a star 5 years (star and 3 bars = 8 years seniority).

I have seen (and have a xerox copy someplace) of the Southern Pacific booklet of passenger train crew uniform tailoring/construction requirements. The interiors of pockets were a heavy-duty fabric -- probably to avoid tears and rips. The sack of the coat had reinforcing strips going up and over the shoulders from top to bottom, front to back -- probably to help support the weight of all the material that needed to be carried.

Years (decades) ago I looked at a reference book at the Los Angeles Public Library titled Transportation uniforms of the World, by Fred Gilbert Blakeslee. This book was privately published (IIRC, 500 copies) in from 1939. The author quotes specifications (color, number of buttons, etc) for select railroads, street car systems, motor bus operators).

Looking at the library's on-line catalog, the same author also researched and published a number of similar books: Postal uniforms of the World (1937); Police uniforms of the World, (1934); Uniforms of the World, (1929); and Army uniforms of the World (1919).

As far as engine crews, there are some excellent photos of early to mid 20th century crews in "The Railroaders by Stuart Leuthner". I particularly like the shot of the East Broad Top crew back when it still was a "working" railroad.

I retired four years ago after fifty years of service and as an engineer/freight conductor I always wore Key, bib overalls. In summer they were roomy, cool and comfortable. In winter I wore a one size larger over my "street clothes" to handle cold weather and snow. I suppose today I would choose Carhart, insulated overalls in winter. In addition insulated mitts in winter...summer just mitts and always, Red Wing hi- top, steel toe, boots. A white Kromer hat for summer and a black, pull down flapps hat in winter. I still have a couple of Kromers for winter wear.

exprail

Your reference to the pull down flapps would indicate to me the original "Sormy Kromer." This product is no longer by the Kromer Cap; sales declined and this product was sold in 2001 to Jacquart Fabric Products. This firm markets it under the Stormy Kromer name. With new owner sales increased and the line was expanded.

Back in 2014 we had a similar request on this forum it ran to 6 pages.

See: Hickory Stripe v. Denim-Image v. Reality?

I've always thought this was an interesting point of my volunteer work. If you look at pre WWII photos of engine crews you see more and more newsboy and derby type of hats. The further back you go the more you see enginemen wearing neckties too.

The look that most crews end up wearing on American heritage railroads is the 1940s-1970s look. The one exception in the east is the Strasburg which has engine crews that always have an early 1900s looks.

Train crews in freight service never really had a uniform, but conductors liked to wear something to reflect their status. Back when the bowler hat was the height of fashion, lots of photos show train crews in work clothes with the conductor in a bowler hat... sometimes with a conductor badge pinned to the front.

This is certainly interesting information. I'll provide a little bit of what I know: Most modern railroaders certainly do NOT dress in a blueish-gray hickory striped cap, red bandana, and denim overalls. Today, they dress similar to a contrustion worker with a reflective vest and a hard hat. Conductors on Freight trains would wear denim overalls and a cowboy hat, bowler hat, phedora, or something along those lines.

Yep, Stormy is where I buy my Kromers now. Quite a few folks up here in the North like the Kromers and wear them even though they don't know the railroad connection. BTW, I didn't wear striped overalls ...just plain blue ones which were good for any railroad job.
But they had to be Keys as anything else was wasn't good enough to hold up other than Carharts.

exprail

Unless you're working at a tourist railway or amusement park, that getup, especially the bandanna, would get you laughed off the job.



You are correct. However, I think the question was more about a historical context, and what railroaders wore "back in the day".

As with most things, the answer isn't the simple stereotype the public expects. The engineers didn't all wear striped bibs, not all conductors wore uniforms, though that was pretty common, and most engines weren't the 4-4-0 coal burners people picture when they think of a steam train.

The best approach is to research the railroad(s) you're trying to represent. What did the crews typically wear? Old photos and rulebooks are a good starting point.

I have a number of pictures of my Grandpa who was a locomotive engineer on the CRRofNJ . He hired out as a yard fireman, got promoted to line haul fireman and in 1909 was promoted to engineer. He retired with 50 years & 1 days service. The story as told by my grandmother to my mother was that he worked 1 day past his 50th. year anniversary on account that grandma bugged him so much about when he'd retire he did the extra day just to show her who was boss.

The photos I have of him show him in his engineers outfits of bib overalls, dark colored engineers hat,bandanna ( arranged to completely cover his neck front) long sleeved dark shirt, gold watch chain ( i was given his Hamilton by my Dad who inherited it from grandpa) and boots that appear to be well shined. The pictures are all B&W.

I was told that late in his career he held a regular passenger job out of Jersey City that operated M-F and that he polished his work boots every Saturday for the following week and that he had 5 sets of bibs & shirts and would wear a fresh pair every day.

Whenever I get called to be a locomotive engineer I dress as my grandpa did, knowing that to the general public I'm representing all those professional locomotive men who took pride in the job who proceeded me.

I often think of these stories when I see how poorly today's crop of engineers dress for work. The same can be said of the general population when you witness how people dress today to travel on public transportation. Torn sweat pants, shirts with holes in them, men with hair down to their rear ends, tatoos etc. The lack of decorum is sad.

IMHO-Ross Rowland

I should have commented on this earlier... Stormy Kromer is what the new company calls the hat; when it was manufactured by the Kromer Cap Co. It was the Kromer Blizzard Cap, said so right on the label.

I'll add a bit from different eras in my area. About 30 years ago when I hired out in former E-L territory (and some NYC and LV), there were several old heads (hired out in the 50s-70s) that still wore denim overalls. They ranged in color from new deep blue to faded blue to an almost gray color. Whether they wore them over regular street clothes or not depended on how hot it was, but usually they were over something else, donned in the locker room at the beginning of the trick and doffed at the end (and usually stuffed into a plastic bag for the trip home to the washing machine). There was one conductor who would wear a bandana around his neck if it was hot and the sweat was rolling, and some carried bandanas in their pockets to wipe sweat. Many conductors and some brakemen still wore RR chore coats, some with square corners and some with the rounded corners like the OshKosh style. Most of them were blue denim, but some were hickory striped. I wore overalls when I worked as a yard trainman sometimes, but only older street clothes as an engineer, as did most other engineers.

There were a few engineers in yard service that would sometimes wear blue overalls, as some outlying yards had no mechanical department and they had to get dirty doing inspections and whatnot. Some engineers would wear traditional engineer caps, although they were not all hickory striped. There were plenty of all blue denim, a few with blue denim bands and bills with white denim crowns, homemade ones of other colors, Kromers (polka dots of various colors were most popular), and even a couple of all white denim. Engineer caps were worn even with street clothes.

Going back to the 20s and 30s, at one time I asked the engineer dress question of my grandfather, who hired out on the Lackawanna in the 20s and left the NYC in the 40s. His answer was hickory stripes were strictly a passenger engine crew item. Freight engine crews wore solid blue or gray of denim or canvas, and occasionally brown. Occasionally gray would cross over to a passenger engineer, but he relayed a story of one engineer that was dressed down by an RFE for it. Somewhere I have a photo of a DLW section crew at work and IIRC they are all dressed in blue denim from head to toe - caps, jackets and overalls.

Going back a little farther, here's a couple of pics of a LV local crew in Manchester, NY in 1912. It looks like it was cold out as they're all layered up. In the first pic they are (L to R) engr (in cab), brkmn, frmn, brkmn, and cdr. In the second, brkmn, cdr, brkmn, eng, and frmn. That's my great grandfather straddling the coupler pocket in the second pic. Note the long gauntlet gloves on the fireman, the older brakeman's and fireman's european style caps, the engineer's heavy gold watch fob, and nobody is wearing a tie. The older brakeman does have a dark bandana around his neck and the engineer appears to have a scarf around his. All of their chore coats are square cornered.

The engine is a LV J-48 and looks like it very recently had it's valves checked, some new gloss black applied to the front boiler jacket and the graphite on the smokebox freshened up. Got air brakes and solid knuckle couplers, but still working with a kerosene headlight and a tender that looks like it's the original from 1885.

First off, I'd note that a person's decorum has little or nothing to do with what they wear. All you have to do is look at some of the clowns in Washington who wear a coat and tie every day. I remember when people dressed up to travel, but those days are long gone, just like meals on airplanes.

Anyway, my wife's grandfather was a PRR Middle Division engineer. Photos I've seen of him in the cab of a K-4s show him in a boiler suit, with a blue or gray work shirt and a necktie, long gauntlet gloves, a white Kromer cap and goggles. When the diesels bumped the K-4 and T-1 engines out of passenger service, he wore slacks and a sport shirt to work unless he was on a special run, when he would wear a coat and tie.

My father told me of a neighbor when he was growing up, whom he always thought was a doctor. The man would wear a three-piece suit with white shirt and tie and carry a leather bag when he went to work. My dad was very surprised to see him in the cab of a GG-1 at North Broad Street Station one day, wearing bib overalls and a white cap.

Looking at photos of short-line railroaders back in the day, they wore a wide variety of clothes to work in, ranging from work pants and shirt and an old suit coat to bib overalls and back. Many of them wore flat caps (golf caps) rather than the usual striped cap. So I'd say historic photos of men working on your railroad, whatever it was back then, is the best bet.