Every so often I see the topic of uniforms come up here so I thought I would share what I have found.

First, the hardest thing to finde tends to be the conductor and or motorman hats and badges. American Railway Supplies provides both. They have the standard black and gold "pill box" hats in winter, summer, and all mesh styles. Their website is here http://www.americanrailwaysupplies.com/index.htm but seems to be dead the flyer I got from them at The Railroad Hobby Show in Springfield MA list pgyorkis (at) gmail (dot) com
Phone 508-509-7860 Fax 508-533-1222

The vest is another thing I see people getting wrong. A lot of the time people will ware vest made to be worn under a suit (these have smooth lining material in the back to reduce friction with the suit coat). For Uniform vest I have had good luck with https://www.sharperuniforms.com/ecovest-vest-mens.html

For ties I use https://www.galls.com/lawpro-breakaway-tie the organization I volunteer for does not want standard ties for safety reasons so these breakaway ties look the part, unlike the dreaded clip-on counterparts.

Pocket Watch, for these I just get the gold-colored option for this
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Loves-Quartz-C ... SwtBdbQts6
and the chain here
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Retro-Antique- ... 4b647e97f3

For ticket punch holders just search for "boston leather punch"

Hope This Helps, I may be adding more later.

I’ve toyed around with the idea of starting up a company to fill the gap that Transquip left. Think there would be a decent market to buy all the supplies in one place?


By the way Perry Suspenders, made in the USA, are an excellent addition to a railroad uniform.

Field and Flower Railroad gifts still sells winter and summer trainman hats made by Keystone Uniform Company.

The usual trainman uniform vests had 6 buttons. I’ve used the Stafford brand of suit vests by JC Penny’s that features them.

How recently did you purchase from Paul Yorkis?

Keep in mind that a true railroad-approved watch did not have a "lid". There are other watches available that give a better representation of a railroad pocket watch, if one doesn't want to carry an antique. This one has an excellent railroad dial, just like a classic Hamilton:

https://smile.amazon.com/Gotham-Silver- ... 157&sr=8-5

There are others by this same maker. They are not lever-set watches, the major safety feature that makes a pocket watch a true "railroad watch".

Howard P.

Gotham makes a true railroad grade watch don’t they?

Most railroads "back in the day" required that both a coat and a vest be worn together.

A review of the Gotham Watch website indicates that Gotham does not offer a "lever set" pocket watch.

https://www.gothamwatch.com/

While they do offer various watches labeled as Railroad watches, most likely the absence of a "lever setting" mechanism suggests that those would not qualify on most railroads (back when railroads had watch standards).


Here is a page that shows examples of various watch 'setting' mechanisms, including a lever style:
http://www.pocketwatchrepair.com/how-to/setting.php

Ah thanks for that info. I was thinking the “mechanical” watches on their site were true railroad grade. Still an excellent source for authentic looking watches that are in between valuable antiques and cheap Walmart quality.

Reviving an old thread, but I found this company:

https://www.railroaduniforms.com/home

The railroad-watch requirement for "lever set" was to prevent anyone but the railroad 'time service' inspector from adjusting the time. The watch needed to be within 30 seconds a week because it was inspected and regulated once per week, and set to the correct time and the case "sealed" by the inspector. Naturally this also avoided potential disaster if a pendant-set watch had its stem jerked out by accident during work (Japanese railroad watches are pendant=set and seconds-hacking with the stem pulled out -- they trust their employees more than we did!)

This has not been a railroad requirement since the advent of wristwatches -- some of which are quite interesting historical pieces in their own right. One "standard" is to look for a 'railroad approved' dial(which resembles the Gotham dial on the watch in general style, but may not have the individual minutes around the periphery of the dial, which we call a "Montgomery' dial). I don't know if a watch with "railroad approved" on the dial actually has a highly accurized movement, but since even the cheapest quartz watches with second hands exceed COSC certification (which is similar to railroad accuracy requirements) there may not be the special requirements of, say, the Hamilton Electric movement (which retained a cute little swan-neck regulator, the distinguishing mark of a 'railroad' 500 or 505.

What there OUGHT to be is a replica with a heavy railroad-style case and crystal, with a dial that has 'boxcar' numerals and Montgomery or railroad line minutes, and heavy spade hands. Note that there may be a substantial market for a watch of this style that can be timed to various model-railroad 'fast clock' time as described a few years ago in Model Railroader.

Incidentally, many older railroad-grade watches WERE in hunting cases (wind at 3 with the little lid0; only the Ball standards after 1891 required open face. The problem I have with most of the modern hunting-case replicas is that they're cheap-looking and small -- you need 16s for modern and 18s for older, and many of the better watches and movements were seriously heavy and up in the 'turnip' range as a carry watch. I am tempted to say that light sanding and repolishing of some of the cheap cases might give you a closer approximation to a 'working' railroader's watch...

Railroad uniforms varied from railroad to railroad and in different eras. Examples on display in the Boone, IA railroad museum

American Railway Supplies appears to be in business. Although the home page video doesn't make me think about American Railways....

https://www.americanrailwaysupply.com/order

Uniform requirements of the Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee.
(p 130, North Shore Memories George Campbell)