Passenger Trains > Burlington-Rock Island train hostesses

Other lines had more well known Zephyettes, courier-nurses, and train stewardesses.
Not so familiar were the train hostesses who served aboard the Texas Rocket, Texas Zephyr,
and Sam Houston Zephyr.  The stewardess program lasted from 1939 to early 1942---possibly
earlier. Hiring and training were the responsibility of the Ft. Worth & Denver City.
Uniforms varied with the season and with the railroad (Rock Island or Ft. Worth & Denver).
World War 2 ended the program and it was not reinstated after the war on the B-RI.

 

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This is an obscure tidbit of information that I never knew about the Sam Houston Zephyr and/or Texas Rocket.  Both were short consist trains. This was clearly back in the day when an attempt to promote and protect passenger service on the line was more common place.  As an aside, I knew and worked with coach cleaners who serviced both trains in Houston during the 60s.  We talked a lot about the good-ol-days. They never mentioned the train hostess position to me but probably because it was all too short lived and before their seniority.  I wonder if the hostesses were required to be registered nurses?

(nostalgia and history might be more appropriate)

Neat! Thank you for sharing this. Traveling back then was an event, and families would dress in their Sunday finest and kids would be on their best behavior.

Last trip on Amtrak, a half dozen "adults", and I use the term loosely, were yelling into their cellphones, each trying their best to make sure the whole car knew every detail of the conversation. One had two kids that kept running up and down the aisle and yelling and acting like a wild animal.

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These train hostresses on the Burling Rock Island train were based out of Fort Worth and worked Fort Worth-Houston-Denver-Fort Worth.
 

RodneyZona Wrote:
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> These train hostresses on the Burling Rock Island
> train were based out of Fort Worth and worked Fort
> Worth-Houston-Denver-Fort Worth.
> 

Thank you for keeping track of these details.  ny idea how many women were involved in this program?

These hostesses were not required to be registered nurses. I have the hiring requirements in my archives.
Somewhere between 8 and 10 women were hired.  A few quit before the service was terminated in early 1942.
One hostess quit after a deadly wreck of the Texas Zephyr between Dallas and Ft. Worth in November 1941.

The lady in the posted photo left a written record of her experiences.

Noted:  I will post non-contemporary passenger train material in Nostalgia & History in the future.

Thanks for all the info

I was riding on the San Joquin Daylight back in the '50s from Mojave to Bakersfield. A kid was running up and
down the aisle (they did it in those days too) when we hit the first tunnel. The crew had forgotten to turn on the interior lights.
The kid froze, and when we were back in daylight sat down with his Mom for the rest of the trip.

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

PVSfan Wrote:
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> These hostesses were not required to be registered
> nurses. I have the hiring requirements in my
> archives.
> Somewhere between 8 and 10 women were hired.  A
> few quit before the service was terminated in
> early 1942.
> One hostess quit after a deadly wreck of the Texas
> Zephyr between Dallas and Ft. Worth in November
> 1941.
>
> The lady in the posted photo left a written record
> of her experiences.
>
> Noted:  I will post non-contemporary passenger
> train material in Nostalgia & History in the
> future.

Thank you for posting here..... This is actually an interesting retrospect...... Imagine a current coach attendant adapting to some of the simple things, and those things that would still be "legal" to do for that matter. Coach attendant would not be able to accept the liability of "watching a baby while the mother ate." But CLEARLY this program was designed for the customer and riding passengers first and foremost. It still could be updated to the present time for coach attendants AND sleeper car attendants to consider. Take a message from a message and turn it into a telegram where it could be sent from the next station master to get to where it needs to go - that was quite a feat of "keeping the beat" back then. Reminds me of when VIA Rail put special train hosts on the Ski Train operating between Edmonton and Jasper. While onboard, the passengers could interact with the train hosts to make reservations for weekend winter activities, ski lessons, meal/dinner suggestions. An extra layer of pampering. And to think that "no tips or gratuities" would be accepted.........This is Nostalgia & History that can be learned from by present Coach, Sleeping Car, and other attendants aboard Amtrak. Somewhere in a cubicle in Washington DC is a person "looking over" the operations of a particular long distance or corridor train. Imagine if the train crew got a personalized memo before the start of the journey from said person. Or even the "District Manager" in charge of that particular train. 

Hostesses on the Texas trains needed a family background check.
They needed to be single and between 23 and 30 years of age.
Hiring was done in Ft. Worth.

I am delighted to learn about this amenity to those trains . Thanks for sharing this. 

PVSfan Wrote:
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> The lady in the posted photo left a written record
> of her experiences.
>
> Noted:  I will post non-contemporary passenger
> train material in Nostalgia & History in the
> future.

If there's a lot of material in those written records, it could make for a great novel, TV movie or motion picture, or perhaps a TV mini-series...... something to consider there.

Hostesses were also on the joint RI and SP  "Californian"  Chicago-Los Angeles.

In the 1950's worked with that transferred to the SP reservation bureau in Los Angeles.

Binary Identity job description on the Railroad?

Molino Wrote:
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> Binary Identity job description on the Railroad?

Hiring the hostesses out of Texas, it's likely there were racial criteria, too.

It's interesting that the duties of the hostess overlapped those of the conductor (assist with collection of tickets), but had a solid line of demarcation (under no circumstances should the hostess become involved with serving of food) with the dining car staff.  Railroad labor tended to be quite aware of craft boundaries.  Were the hostesses part of the conductors union?

On helping with tickets, this could have been placing the hat checks or with a "smile" pickup the tickets from customer and hand to the conductor.  Not all conductors could smile and say "Thank You".