Railroaders' Nostalgia > The Conductor

Redwood City, CA.  1960.  Always wore a hat.

Ed

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Great shot!  (How did he possibly survive without a lime green vest and ear plugs?)

gyralite Wrote:
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> Great shot!  (How did he possibly survive without
> a lime green vest and ear plugs?)

The hat was all the protection he needed!

I worked with a guy who was promoted to trainmaster from a non-train-service management position rather than train service (a long time ago). He was a good rail and a good manager. He deserved the position.

The first advice he got upon starting to learn his new position was Wear a hat. The men won't trust you if you don't.

TAW

> The first advice he got upon starting to learn his
> new position was Wear a hat. The men won't trust
> you if you don't.
>
> TAW

I like this.  I am going to start using this in my daily interactions at work.  We only have one manager that wears a hat-and it's a Tampa Bay Buc's hat...not too popular in Indianapolis Colts country!

DrLoco Wrote:
  We only have one
> manager that wears a hat-and it's a Tampa Bay
> Buc's hat...not too popular in Indianapolis Colts
> country!

I don't even follow sports and I wouldn't trust that guy as far as I could throw him!

TAW Wrote:
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> I worked with a guy who was promoted to
> trainmaster from a non-train-service management
> position rather than train service (a long time
> ago). He was a good rail and a good manager. He
> deserved the position.
>
> The first advice he got upon starting to learn his
> new position was Wear a hat. The men won't trust
> you if you don't.
>
> TAW

What was the big deal about wearing or not wearing a hat?

DFWJIM Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> TAW Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I worked with a guy who was promoted to
> > trainmaster from a non-train-service management
> > position rather than train service (a long time
> > ago). He was a good rail and a good manager. He
> > deserved the position.
> >
> > The first advice he got upon starting to learn
> his
> > new position was Wear a hat. The men won't
> trust
> > you if you don't.
> >
> > TAW
>
> What was the big deal about wearing or not wearing
> a hat?

Custom - gotta look like a railroad man.

TAW

Here's a re-post of my paternal grandfather, with ever-present fedora, looking very much the part of a railroad man in Knox ND circa 1912; he was the GN agent at that time.

I think it leaves no doubt who's in charge at Knox.

 

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Not only railroaders distinguished themselves by hats. Until the early 1960s, practically every profession had some distinctive headwear. In most, fedoras were a "boss" thing, caps for rank and file.

Rebecca Morgan
Jacobsburg, OH

Where I worked (non-rail related) everyone wore a tie about 10 years before I hired on.  When I hired, the technicians wore button up shirts, the first level management wore ties, and the management above that wore suits.  Over they years the technicians began wearing polo shirts, or occasionally a colored or logo t-shirt, the first liners lost the ties, and local managers their coats.  By the time I retired it had become pretty sloppy and the company went to a uniform program.  Technicians and first line managers wore the polo or button up shirts, uniform pants and socks.  Company hats were provided with a few options.  Second level management had uniform shirts and uniform sports jackets.  

One of the reasons for the uniform was that some of our technicians had to make customer visits.  It didn't go well with the customer when a technician walked in with a Mt Dew shirt and the customer was Coke.  It also looked more professional when a tech had to visit a residential customer.  Not the best picture of the company when they guy shows up with a t-shirt holding his big belly, raggedy jeans, and an NRA cap.  Not someone you want visiting you wife while you're at work.  (I'm an NRA member so don't flame me for that comment.)

Sometimes your appearance demands respect, unless you prove you don't deserve it.

John

http://www.shorpy.com/node/6169?size=_original#caption

> What was the big deal about wearing or not wearing
> a hat?

A hat used to be part of the "uniform" for railroad officials  It was very ususual
to see an officer (Trainmaster, etc) without a tie and if he (weren't any women)
was outside he had a hat on.
zr190

Back in the '60's at Los Angeles I remember Santa Fe yardmasters (Grider, Mavity, Marshall, Schrader, Carbone), trainmasters (Lilley, Norling, Beauchamp), road foreman (Smellie) and crew callers/mark-up men (Guidero, Dexter) all wore hats that varied from traditional brown fedoras to the tightly woven narrow brim straw hats usually in shades of gray or black.  I don't recall ever seeing L.A. Terminal Supt's (Fish, Groundwater) with hats.  That long-ago era was mostly over by 1970 along with bibs, Kromer caps and sleeve protectors!  If anyone else out there recognizes some of those names drop me a line or post.  Thanks.

 

One of Beauchamp's sons was a telegrapher-clerk on the SP.
G

ExSPCondr Wrote:
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> One of Beauchamp's sons was a telegrapher-clerk on
> the SP.
> G

He worked out of Los Nietos a lot George. He was a kick to be around.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/13/16 17:16 by SLOCONDR.

Beuchamp was one of the nicest trainmasters ever.  Everybody liked him so far as I knew.  I never met his son.  Not everyone knew "Beau" wrote very good poetry.  When he retired he posted a farewell poem at the crew office.  Wish I had the whole thing but I have always remembered the line, "As I climbed the ladder to the top so many times I would have fallen -- if it were not for each of you holding me up."  He was a 1950 date LA Div. switchman.

Re: Hats

As The World's Greenest Asst. Trainmaster, St. Paul, for CNW, 1964, I was advised by Mr. T. S. Belew [Terminal Supt.] that "Mr, Jones [S. C. Jones, VPO] wants all his officers to wear a hat." So I got a hat. Would that this would have imparted instant knowledge. But over time, I did learn a few things!

SP at One Market Street was the last HQ building in SF where all men were required to wear hats.

When I was born, America was very stylish. People from most walks of life dressed really well. We lost that.

Best regards,

Rob L.

At Emporia, KS the Santa Fe Middle Div. Road Foreman did not wear a hat whereas the Eastern Div. RFE did.  When I was interviewed by Mr. Groundwater (AGM) in Argentine for a RFE position in Marceline, MO he was not wearing a hat that day (in concurrence with comment above).  My counterpart in Ft. Madison, Jim Conway, always wore a suit and a hat irregardless of what he was doing.  I asked him why.  He claimed he was instructed by the Superintendent to do so.  The Supt. had told him that if he (the supt.) showed up at a derailment he wanted to be able to see at a glance (by looking for the hats) what supervisors were there and where they were located.  He didn't tell me that so I just continued to wear slacks and a sport shirt.

When I went to the engineer training center all of the instructors wore white shirts and ties and the older ones also wore suits and hats.  After a year or so I started forgetting my tie from time to time.  After a while another instructor started forgetting his.  Then a third one did.  However the older ones didn't ever forget theirs.  Guess they had better memories than we younger ones did.