Drivers hats

Where is the best place to get a grease top and a fireman’s cap?
Who supplies authentic replicas?

 

https://footplateequipment.co.uk/footplate-clothing/greasetops.html

As near to original as you can get. Not cheap, though.

 

My Grandfather was a LSWR, SR & BR Fireman and Driver based at Eastleigh. He wore a flat cap for his entire career. In WW2 he drove a much needed loaded ammunition train past an unexploded bomb and the next day was was told by the Boss to report to Waterloo to be photographed in his best footplate gear, complete with greasetop cap. He protested that he had never worn a greasetop and didn’t intend starting now. He was told “No greasetop, no hero”. Apparently his reply was unprintable and he wasn’t photographed. If you look at photos you will see that a greasetop is completely out of keeping with some areas and times. On the KESR the correct footplate uniform if flat hat, old suit jacket, collarless shirt, big boots with no socks and trousers with enough room in the crutch to hide a manor house. For some reason the KESR Ops Manager doesn’t approve of it!

 

No socks and trousers. I'm not surprised he doesn't approve.. Standards are obviously slipping at Rolvenden.

 

I would have put a comma before ‘and’ but about 65 years ago I was taught that it is a cardinal sin so to do.

 

I thought baggy trousers like that were for ferret wrangling

 

There is a photo somewhere, from the thirties I think, of a KESR Fireman with one foot on the saddle tank of his loco and another on the water column, an impossible feat without such trousers.

 

That was an instance of bad teaching. Sometimes the comma is needed for clarity, as above.

 

Ah well, it’s a bit late for me to go back and complain!

 

I was taught that a little less than 65 years ago, but I understand that is no longer the correct thing to do and you should use a comma before a conjunction.

 

Having been at school at about the same time, I can remember being told that a comma before but and and was implicitly included
so you didn't need to put one in, however, I have always put two either side of however. I,m sure you should but can't recall
any explanation or rational as to why.

 

The Longleat railway were sellers of drivers hats I've bought from them in the past

 

I've got a genuine B.R. issue (1965?) spare if it's any use. Size 6 7/8" almost new condition with replica B.R.(W) totem. Give me a P.M. if you are interested.
Ray.

 

Pity, that sounds great but my swede is massive 62cm xlr so I doubt it’d be big enough

 

Before you all start doing the usual 'internet forum thing' and presenting misinformation that might be taken as 'facts'...
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/explore/what-is-the-oxford-comma

Note the word optional

 

Before buying a greasetop, check the materials it's made from. I bought a signalman's cap, and found that what should have been a leather sweatband was actually a strip of plastic. After a few hours of wearing it one rather warm day, I threw it in the bin. Hideously uncomfortable.

In contrast, both the greasetop and the signalman's cap I bought from Footplate Equipment are the goods. As Steve points out, above, cheap they're not - but they're solidly made, comfortable to wear, accurate in appearance, and I suspect that I'll pop my clogs before they're worn out.

Re. the dreaded comma; I was taught that the various punctuation marks - commas, semi-colons, and full stops - indicate a pause if the text was being read aloud, and that the mark chosen should indicate the length of the pause. The comma is the shortest and the full stop is the longest (ignoring the end of a paragraph, which is a still longer pause!)

Take the text: " . . . flat hat, old suit jacket, collarless shirt, big boots with no socks and trousers with enough room in the crutch to hide a manor house."

If you say that out loud, you'll find you put a short pause between 'socks' and 'and'. If you omit that short comma-length pause, it's unclear if you mean 'no socks and trousers' or 'no socks (pause) and trousers with enough room', etc. As MellishR points out, above, it seems pedantic to leave a comma out to match some rule of grammar, when the lack of it may make the written text ambiguous.