I have been looking through the TRAINS magazine website and seem to notice that many railroad workers dont wear uniforms. Why is this? In the UK it is accepted practice that your company has to provide you with a uniform. Saves a bit of money as well !
In US only Conductors and Station personel get uniforms, as Engineer I can wear what I want as long as its no shorts and decent.
That would be passenger (Amtrak) and commuter conductors wearing uniforms. Freight conductors have no uniforms. Do UK freight engineers (drivers) and conductors (guards) have uniforms? Do they still have guards in the UK?
I suppose you have a uniform, you must have steel toed boots,gloves, and sometimes other stuff.
Safety glasses, hearing protection, lantern, portable radio…etc…
LC
Get the average trainman to wear a hardhat, much less keep one? [(-D][(-D][(-D]
Yes, safety glasses, hearing protection, workshoes at least six inches high and with a defined heel, preferably 90 degrees and a grip in one hand or slung across one shoulder, but that’s not a uniform, that’s accessories.
It would be pretty interesting to see train service employees on freight railroads wearing uniforms. That would be a change.
I do have a question regarding uniforms on passenger rail. Why is it that the station agents, conductors, and asst conductors have to wear uniforms and the engineer doesn’t? Im guessing the main reason is because, back in the day engineers would get “down and dirty” and having a uniform would be pretty pointless. So, maybe the passenger railroads decided to keep that tradition going.
I would recommend business casual for T&E crews. After all they are the front line people and should be presenting a good image to the public.[tup][:-^]
A lot has to do with who deals with the public.
One could suggest that enginemen did have a “uniform” - coveralls, bandana, and the classic RR hat (starched, to repel cinders), but it’s not likely someone who would have to deal with coal, grease, and what-have-you would be wearing a nice wool uniform… Nowadays they probably could wear a three-piece suit, but since they don’t deal with the public as such, why bother?
Something you will see on RR personnel (especially management) is apparel embroidered with the RR logo.
Just as Larry pointed out, most of the PTRA officers wear slacks, and golf shirts with the company logo on it.
T&E uniform…blue jeans, work boots, lots of cowboy cut shirts, gimmie ball caps with the company logo, some cowboy hats, and work boots. (steel toe optional)…
Most of the guys in yard service wear either overalls, or jeans and a tee shirt…you get pretty dusty/dirty/greasy pounding rocks all day.
Along with your radio, safety reflective belt and holster/chest pack, safety glasses…lantren, grip and such.
The only “uniform” thing we wear is the baseball cap with the company logo…we get them free about every two or three months, and that is about as long as they survive anyway!
Ed
Tree 68, you haven’t spent any time riding around on a freight train, have you. Three piece suit, indeed. Maybe that was tongue in cheek but it didn’t read like that.
“Dispatcher, we’ve got engine trouble but I might get grease on my suitcoat if I go back there and open that compartment door, could you send somebody out? Oh, and that scanner that got us, the conductor is concerned about that mud in the ballast we saw back there, that car might be right there, maybe somebody could come out for him, too.”
In a fashion. It’s more of a sweatshirt or polo shirt with the company logo on and maybe a company cap. With the freight environment being of a dirtier nature a shirt and tie is not really practical. The freight side is quite casual, mainly jeans wore with the company sweatshirt etc. I know one driver of a freight company who wears regularly North American railroad caps on duty - so UP etc can often fly the flag in the UK.
The passenger side is more uniform orientated allowing obviously for contact with the paying customer and setting a high standard and image for most operators. A few do slip through the net. Guards still wear uniforms.
FOFLMAO…
Exactly. Anyone who has ever brushed into a radiator on one of those %^&%$#@! GEs can tell you that the 3 piece suit won’t work. Besides you’d probably split the *** just climbing on the power…
LC
October 23, 1981 - On a lark, the ATSF Colorado Division roadmasters, field engineers and the survey parties showed-up at the office in at minimum, sport coat & slacks. The first question out of anybody else in the building that day was “Who died?”[:D]
Let’s dress up all train crews like the Texaco man, who pumped your gas and washed your windows. Seems fitting?
One nite on 3rd shift in the diesel house we noticed an additional person in our lunchroom at the beginning of our shift. This is not unusual as train crews often sat in with us during lineup. He was dressed about like most engineers, no one noticed anything unusual about him until he stole our lunch boxes and headed for a departing freight…in a boxcar !!!
We requested that the train crew be given a dress code, they were indestinguishable from bums.
Randy
I used to wonder but then it’s understandable that engineers will have to perform mechanical or trouble shooting work on units from time to time, so dressing up would not always be practical.
Years back on the SCL I noticed that rather than blue jeans, some engineers would wear khaki or black colored type jeans with button up shirts. Sort of a “dressy casual” look.
I’ve seen more modern photos of Amtrak engineers in the NEC. One was dressed up nicely with a necktie included. I think he was running a Metroliner schedule.
In some old books I’ve seen photos of engineers on steamers during the WWII era. Interesting thing that stood out was that beneath the striped coveralls, some of the old timers were wearing neck ties! Made me do a double take. Might have been on the Pennsy, but I’m not certain.
10-4.
I believe Tree68 was refering to passenger trains…no?
Here everyone has to wear their High-vis vests when they are out and about.
On the commuter trains, the engineers and conductors wear a suit with a tie.