For the tourist hauling train crews out there, what does your organization do with regard to train crew uniforms? Do they provide them? If so, what do they issue - baseball cap and t-shirt with your 'road name or full pillbox hats, vests, pants and jackets complete with brass buttons? Do you have a loose rule with just a "wear-whatever-as-long-as-it-looks-respectable" policy?

Just wondering what is out there...

Thanks.

Jason

For our regular trains, we use polo-type shirts with the organization's name on it for onboard and ticketing staff. For the train crew, it is generally a marked vest and a more railroady shirt, but again with the proper logo on them. We do encourage the proper PPE (boots, etc.) for those that work the ground, even with boarding functions.

We often will have one member in a conductor uniform as it provides some "authority" when checking tickets and people seem to expect the uniform. However, a common crew shirt or vest really helps. The vest become really important if there are ground activities such as photo stops or visits to facilities (pumpkin patches, tourist events, etc.) during the trip.

From having worked with many railroads on charters, a common request is to make the staff different than the railroad employees. We often do this through different colored shirts and vests. This makes it easier to find who is needed. We often have the primary railroad and primary excursion train contacts in a third color to make them even easier to find.

At our streetcar museum we try to look like a late 1940s Twin City Rapid Transit (TCRT) Company operator--medium grey shirt with two shoulder patches, bow tie or four-in-hand tie, black pants/skirts and black shoes. Some wear the newer 5/7 peak "bus drivers" hat and some wear the older "pillbox" style, just like the older TCRT operators did in the late 40s.

Our volunteers purchase their uniforms. Since we are a 501(c)(3) organization, our volunteers can deduct on their tax return the cost of any unique uniform item they purchase for their volunteering and any cleaning charges they might incur. Black shoes would be exempt from this provision since they can be worn any time.

Here is a photo of one of our crack crews at our Museum's Excelsior (Minnesota) Streetcar Line.

Thanks!

White collared shirt and black slacks, is what we use at the Shelburne Falls Trolley Museum. Black vest and overcoat and hat optional.

When I was with TVRM, the standard uniform was white dress shirt with black tie, black pants and dark colored socks and shoes/safety boots. The company provided the name badge and cap badge. Vest, sack coat and hat were optional. Sack coats were not generally worn during the summer and the summer hat (wicker) was substituted for the winter hat (cloth). Overcoats were permitted in winter. Non traditional coats were permitted but not encouraged.

At Old Pueblo Trolley, streetcar operators and conductors wore similar uniforms with the corporate logo patch on the shoulder of the shirt. The crewmembers were also required to wear company issued photo identification.

I volunteer as a car attendant on a local tourist RR. I have a Woolbrite vest with RR pins on it, and a conductor;s hat with the words "Car Attendant" on it.

It's important to remember that people aren't coming just for the trains (shocking I know) they are coming for an experience. That experience, in my opinion, should include historically correct uniforms and practices such as punching tickets.

Getting a ticket punched by a fully uniformed Conductor can be just as important as seeing a working steam locomotive in operation.

Well said. In fact, I do not feel we do enough in the rail preservation industry to "costume" ourselves properly, particularly in comparison to Civil War reenactors, etc. While the bib overalls are standard for most engine crews, if you look at vintage pictures of the New Haven, for instance, many were wearing button down shirts and matching pants made by Dickies with the arrival of diesels. This, in and of itself, is an important story to tell. The ability to wear lighter colored clothes was a direct result of getting rid of those "dirty" steam engines, with their lack of climate control. Ultimately, the problem with replicating uniforms are so few original artifacts exist. They were worn to failure and, understandably, discarded.

We tend to go all-out for the Christmas operations, but while not an official uniform, our car hosts and conductors are encouraged to at least, dress in black slacks and a white button-up shirt with a tie.

Working up some articles in Railfan & Railroad about uniforms and how they apply to museums and tourist operations. Got top men working on it. Stay tuned.

-otto-

Ticket punches have been mentioned. I first had experience with the M.C. Mieth company more than 40 years ago when it was still located in New Jersey. It is now located in Florida. They make the classic railroad and transit design ticket punches as well as many other kinds of punches.

See: https://www.ticketpunch.net/

I'm a proponent of dressing neatly for any public facing job at your museum/tourist railroad. You don't need to be in full conductor gear, but a pair of black or dark blue pants and a button up shirt, in the summer with a hat goes a long way to give a better appearance.

If your organization isn't buying, other than than the hat, you don't really have to spend a lot of money to get a professional look. I found a couple of uniform suppliers. I recreated a sack coat by using a fireman's dress coat, with pockets added by a local seamstress, for example. Authentic buttons turn up on eBay, at shows, etc, and usually aren't too expensive. Waterbury will still do a run for you of anything in their catalog, if you are willing to buy the run.

Back when I lived in St. Louis and went to IRM more often, I developed a couple of outfits that I could adjust for the situation. Using a common set of pants as a base, with a different jacket, shirt, or hat combination, I could be a PTC Motorman, a CA&E Conductor, a CTA streetcar Motorman, or a CSL streetcar Conductor/Motorman, as pictured below. When I moved to Utah, I converted the conductor uniform into a UP uniform, just by changing the buttons and lapel insignia. Also, I added an overcoat here, as it gets COLD in Utah during the winter. I found a nice reproduction WWII era Navy Peacoat that looks nice, and is very very warm.

Where did the man in the picture get the "eastern style" engineer hat?

Randy Patterson (who posted the photo) had them made some years ago, I bought a few from him. Not sure if that is one of them. Nice caps.

The hat is a style 305 “Otis” pin stripe cap from the Thompson Company of New Haven, CT. Thompson made clothes and accessories for railroad employees that became quite popular in New England. The Otis cap is a highly prized item and originals rarely become available. Brent Bette and I had this popular style cap faithfully reproduced for a while. The one in the photo, is an original as is the “jumper” coat he’s wearing.

Kromer was still offering a similar style when I last checked a few years ago. They called it their eastern or northeastern style cap.