When were hats for customer facing rail staff phased out?

[ChiefPlanner]

View attachment 55953 My old GNER cap from when I was a train guard. I still have my master key from the class 373 Eurostar sets when they worked the White Rose. Don’t tell anybody though !

Off topic - but GNER had style. Wish I had asked for one of their monogrammed drinking glasses. Sure I could have bought one ....

 

[atraindriver]

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[atraindriver]

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[atraindriver]

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[Taunton]

One of the sadder things about privatisation is that the old ‘proper’ way of doing things has gone out of the window. I reflected on that when I saw the Station Manager at Glasgow Central.

Of course, Glasgow Central is a Network Rail station, so that can't be attributed to privatisation.

Dress standards do move on with time, about 20 years ago was when professional office staff began not wearing ties, which has now spread from daily work to meetings with clients. And one notices that both William and Harry will turn up likewise at some quite formal occasions nowadays.

Those of you that still have hats, and work at or pass through major stations that have war memorials on the concourse, do you remove your hats as you pass? That seems to have disappeared as well. I can remember as a kid in the 1960s visiting London and going in a bus down Whitehall, and all the men, without prompting, did so on passing The Cenotaph. Even the conductor.

 

[Fearless]

I can remember as a kid in the 1960s visiting London and going in a bus down Whitehall, and all the men, without prompting, did so on passing The Cenotaph. Even the conductor.

And at the same time, I remember that when we went to church the men removed their hats/caps as a mark of respect but the women had to put theirs on, for the same reason. Never did understand that.

 

[Highlandspring]

Of course, Glasgow Central is a Network Rail station, so that can't be attributed to privatisation.

I’m afraid I don’t see your point. Railtrack (a private company listed on the LSE) never issued bowlers and Network Rail (a private not-for-dividend company limited by guarantee until September 2014) has never issued them either. Privatisation directly led to the end of the British Rail issue bowler hat for the MS grades.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

I’m afraid I don’t see your point. Railtrack (a private company listed on the LSE) never issued bowlers and Network Rail (a private not-for-dividend company limited by guarantee until September 2014) has never issued them either. Privatisation directly led to the end of the British Rail issue bowler hat for the MS grades.

Well said , you save me replying.

 

[AshBod]

Certainly Midland Mainline staff had them before the franchise went to EMT in 2007.

We can still get peaked hat's on EMT, they are on the uniform ordering form. There is a 1st class host with one and 1 or 2 dispatchers. Don't really see them as not compulsory to order or wear.