SEPTA Conductor's uniform questions

I've been on alot of septa trains and I have never noticed a septa conductor wear a conductors cap. All I've noticed were basebqll caps. Does septa have conductor hatS?

I used to see one conductor who had a conductor's cap; if i recall correctly it had a gold-colored septa emblem on the front of it. I haven't seen him lately, though.

They do. I see them *fairly* frequently.

PARailWiz wrote:I used to see one conductor who had a conductor's cap; if i recall correctly it had a gold-colored septa emblem on the front of it.

I thought the badges were pewter in color, but I've also seen more ball caps lately. Looks a lot less professional, but then...

I have another question about conductors' uniforms.

I noticed that conductors have started to wear various eplelets on their shoulders, e.g. five stars. Do these denote some kind of rank?

Each star designates 5 years of service.

Matthew Mitchell wrote:

PARailWiz wrote:I used to see one conductor who had a conductor's cap; if i recall correctly it had a gold-colored septa emblem on the front of it.

I thought the badges were pewter in color, but I've also seen more ball caps lately. Looks a lot less professional, but then...

but then SEPTA doesn't really run a railroad, they just figure them for oversized trolley cars.

They don't have assistant conductors, head or rear brakemen, or flagmen....they're....well heck, I don't know what they call them now, but "PA" (passenger attendant) was a recent term.

They have no yardmasters.....they have yard supervisors.

There are no trainmasters, they're just supervisors....

yadda, yadda, yadda.....

I see the conductors hats and baseball caps pretty equally. And there are still some crewmembers who wear the full conductors outfit, which I find more professional.

But man, they gave them really cheap 2-way radios! They look and sound like toys.

septa used to mandate the conductor hats as part of their uniform (in the 80's), but through various changes in personnel management over the years they have relaxed a lot of the formal uniform standards on the rail division. You'll also notice some conductor where the old grey pants with red ties, and most wear the 'newer' look of blue pants with blue ties.

It's funny. 10 years later, the railroad uniforms seem to continue to loosen to the point you sometimes can't identify a train crew member.

Almost nobody on the train crew wears a SEPTA hat (baseball cap or conductors hat). Some of the newer younger generation wear personal hats.

Rarely anyone wears a neck tie and white button down shirt. Nobody wears the suit coat or trench coat. It's always the windbreaker jacket or navy sweater.

Again, the newer guys wear personal outer wear and coats. Obviously not SEPTA issued uniform clothing.

Same goes with shoes. Hard to find a young person on black leather dress shoes.

I often wonder if SEPTA eliminated uniform requirements to save money, or if it's a generational "thing" with the Millenials? But I've definitely noticed a continued downward trend in employee uniform standards of excellence over the last decade.

NorthPennLimited wrote: I often wonder if SEPTA eliminated uniform requirements to save money, or if it's a generational "thing" with the Millenials? But I've definitely noticed a continued downward trend in employee uniform standards of excellence over the last decade.

SEPTA has hired over 150 new assistant conductors in the past two years. They haven't been able to keep up with uniform deliveries. Any male new hire who is "average" size is instructed to buy their own white shirts (SEPTA does have plenty of patches for them to iron on), and navy trousers, without the anticipation of reimbursement.

As for the suit coat (Blazer), it can be cumbersome and does not have enough pockets. Particularly, having the patch ironed over the breast pocket made it exceptionally unwieldy and unable to be used to hold pens, seat checks, etc.

As for hats, most new hires do not want the stovepipe hat (Traditional conductor hat.) SEPTA managers have instigated verbal discipline on Trainmen wearing a stovepipe hat with no "badge" (The stylized SEPTA logo.) It is my understanding that the badge has been out of stock for several years and there are no plans to restock it. Additionally, the stovepipe hats are only available in the "Winter" style, that is to say with a solid top. The hat is extremely hot to wear in any kind of heat and humidity. SEPTA has no plans to stock "Summer" hats, with a mesh top, as every other railroad has done.

With regards to shoes, when I was in train service my shoes were black, but not leather. They were, however, extremely comfortable and they met the standard of the rule. At the end of the day, comfort and safety come first, particularly given the extremely long and demanding shifts SEPTA puts on their employees.

CNJGeep wrote:

NorthPennLimited wrote:
With regards to shoes, when I was in train service my shoes were black, but not leather. They were, however, extremely comfortable and they met the standard of the rule. At the end of the day, comfort and safety come first, particularly given the extremely long and demanding shifts SEPTA puts on their employees.

I was going to say something about this, black leather dress shoes are massively impractical for that job. Beyond the comfort factor they don't have good treads or reinforcement. I imagine you would have to resole several times a year just from walking on ballast.

Nowadays SEPTA's train conductors look like slobs but from I read here, it's more management's fault than anything else. Train crews should be issued both winter and summer conductor's hats so they are clearly identifiable as crew members. The baseball caps may be more comfortable but they look unprofessional.

So how do we go about fixing this? Who's ear do I have to chew off to make this happen within our lifetime?