History of Striped Locomotive Engineers Caps????

The stripped material is pillow ticking...the material pillows were made out of, a light canvas weave, to keep the down or feather stuffing from sticking through the pillows...bed mattresses and furniture cushions were also made from the same, then covered in a more decorative cloth.

I would imagine the material was used simply because it was cheap and readily available, very durable and that most of the early engineers had their wives make them hats out of it to keep the ash and cinder out of their hair.

I recall reading an account in Trains about a young fellow who had just hired out/gotten promoted to fireman.  He mentioned his freshly starched and ironed hat - the better to keep the cinders from sticking to it.

Hats made of ticking,

(Don't bother clicking to enlarge - that's just part of the image)

 I could have sworn I've seen hats with broader stripes (likely printed on as opposed to woven in), but I can't find an image thereof.

edblysard

The stripped material is pillow ticking...the material pillows were made out of, a light canvas weave, to keep the down or feather stuffing from sticking through the pillows...bed mattresses and furniture cushions were also made from the same, then covered in a more decorative cloth.

I would imagine the material was used simply because it was cheap and readily available, very durable and that most of the early engineers had their wives make them hats out of it to keep the ash and cinder out of their hair.

Cool.  I never knew pillows used to be made out of that material.

I can see how the striped hats would be another one of those things created because necesity is the mother of invention.

I did a little more searching (on Wikipedia, yes I know its not the best place to look for info), and it looks like the type of material the striped railroad hats are made of is a type of denim (similar to what they make blue jeans out of.)  The striped pattern in the fabric is a result of the way its woven in the factory.

stmtrolleyguy

I never knew pillows used to be made out of that material.

Johnny

Here's a link that will provide some history:

http://www.sacksstore.com/Kromer-Cap.htm

I first read about this in the compilation book A Treasury of Railroad Folklore.  As I recall it, an engineer - George "Stormy" Kromer - had his wife make a cap for him as per the linked article.  Although the linked article doesn't say so, I believe that she made the first one out of the only cheap & readily available material she had at hand - the striped pillow ticking.  Well, it was a success for Stormy, and so many railroaders asked about getting them that he went into the business of selling them under the name of Kromer Caps - see link above.  I don't know if he quit railroading or not, but it became a big business, and of course all the variations in colors and style that we now see.  (Sorry, I just can't take too seriously anyone wearing a polka-dot cap !    )

Do a search for combinations of Kromer Cap, Stormy, railroad cap, etc. and you'll probably find more.  You may also want to get or borrow a copy of the Folklore book someplace.  Let us know if you find out anything different.

- Paul North.

Paul, you remembered better than I did, so I picked up my copy of the book (which I bought right after it was published), and re-read the account (on p. 385). According to this account, he was a fireman, but he was, of course, subject to the same weather that the engineer was (also, the account says that it was mattress ticking, but I'm sure that the same material was used for both). The account does not say so, but he may well have quit firing when he and his wife went into the manufacturing business.

I have seen pictures of men with polka-dot caps, but I agree that they are not quite the same thing.

I lent the book to an AT&N engineer, and he enjoyed it greatly. I don't know if he told the story about the conductor and the mules to any conductor, though.

Johnny

Johnny - 

That's the story about the mules who kept kicking the slats out or off of the stock car they were in, the conductor who had to deal with that, the operator who kept relaying messages to the dispatcher, the dispatcher that had to deal with the conductor, the superintendent who had to deal with all of them, and the instructions/ destination for the mules that the DS asked the op to relay to the conductor ?  LOL then, and now !

But my favorite in that book is about the delayed train from down south that had the notable RR President (can't remember his name - but I should) on board, who was anxious to get moving and kept sending various subordinates up to bother the station agent/ operator about what the problem was and when they would get going again.  Eventually he got irritated enough to go up himself and ask.  I should post that reply next to my desk here:  "If you G-- d--- s----o--b------ will leave me alone, we'll get this here thing straightened out !"  Oh, yeah !  And then the President's meek reply when asked back at his private car what was going on: "Oh, it's just a little delay - they'll have it cleared up shortly" (or similar).

Thanks for looking the hat story up, and reminding me of those !

- Paul North.

 I always figured they wore a hickory stripe cap to match their hickory striped overalls.

The polka-dot Kromer caps are different from the Hickory stripe engineer caps.  Kromer offers what it calls railroader with an adjustable strap/band.  To me, the original engineer style striped cap shouldn't be a one fits all type. 

I have an engineer style that has a herringbone pattern and there's an engineer out of Proviso that has a denim (blue) color, so they are available in other colors/patterns.

Kromer offers their style cap (the style they call a welder's cap) in the hickory stripe colors.

Jeff, but don't take me too seriously, my warm weather cap at work has polka dots.

Just this morning over breakfast I was reading the account from a recent Classic Trains of the last run of a passenger train (down to a doodlebug by that time) in Xenia, OH.  The engineer in the picture that accompanied the story was wearing a polka-dot cap, and the story dated to the early '50s...

Seems as though this material was the popular product in the past. It is highly recommended for the patching of the muzzleloading fraternity. I recall my mother having quite a supply of this stuff when I was knee-high to a grasshopper. My father used it to make rod covers for his fishin poles from that material. So I'm not surprised that the story of how they came about the way it did. It is pretty heavy material at a reasonable cost (40's/50's).

Thanks,

Jim