Railroad gloves

Not sure about  glove manufacturers back in the day.

I own a couple pairs of gloves made by the Fairfield Glove Co. of Fairfield, IA. I believe they made railroad gloves, but I believe they are no longer in business. The two pairs I have are both cotton, with gauntlets. One model is the "Signal," (model no. 436G) which features a semaphore signal on the gauntlet (very "railroady" looking); the other is the "Comet" model (No. 444 Large).

I've seen vintage images of steam crews which seem to show leather gloves. Leather is fine, and great for durability, but I never liked them much--too much heat transfer.

I prefer to use thick cotton gauntlet gloves called "hot mill gloves." I can pick up our whistle after removing it from the engine, where it's about 300 degrees, and easily carry it to the storage area without fear of any kind of burn. You can't do that with leather--the heat transfers through more quickly (on the other hand, cotton gloves must be dry for this heat protection to stay intact; once wet, the heat will transfer right through with painful results!). This is the brand I use (they come in different weights):

Magid Hot Mill Gloves

Most guys on our steam crew wear variants of leather garden gloves. One of the main benefits is that these can be purchased very cheaply at any garden center. I been known to use them too when working on the engine when it's cold. You can also sometimes find them with fleece inside, which is great when working in the NC winters. But when operating, I'm the hold-out for white cotton gauntlets, which you can see me wearing in my avatar.

If you type "railroad gloves" into an Ebay search, you find a neat selection of cotton and leather gloves, some marked with a railroad name.

"I prefer to use thick cotton gauntlet gloves "

I absolutely hated those type of gloves, especially after they got wet from being out in the rain and switching! They are very heavy and I didn't like that you couldn't feel what you were grabbing very well. But, then again, while switching or getting on and off cars you weren't dealing with anything hot.

I liked a good quality leather glove. They were much cooler than those big thick things and if they had elastic stitching that kept them tight on the hands, that was getting cut out as soon as I got them home!

After not having luck using the "freebie" cotton gloves we keep in stock at work for our crews, since mine always ended up wet and became useless, I switched to these by panther.  Several of our guys wear them and I just bought a small case of them at about $6 a pair.  At the time you could only get them in bulk, but it appears you can probably buy them one pair at a time for a little more.  They have pretty thick leather palms and are fairly comfortable.  I usually keep a dirty pair for firing and a cleaner one for running since the controls always end up too hot to touch mid-summer.  The only issue I've had comfort-wise was a blister I recently got from a seam inside that rubbed on my knuckles when I wore them while hot riveting a new tender tank we're in the process of building for one of our locomotives.  For normal wear on the engines and general railroad maintenance work they've been great.

The only downside is the large white logo on the gauntlet, at least for a historic museum setting, but that darkens shortly after using them on a coal burning locomotive.

Something similar to this?

After a few days of getting on and off  moving equipment (and often it was moving swiftly), I fell out of favor with the commonly used gloves that DMASSO posted. I found it easy to agree with Big Jim's comments on better fitting gloves. 

Big Jim posted:

"I prefer to use thick cotton gauntlet gloves "

I absolutely hated those type of gloves, especially after they got wet from being out in the rain and switching! They are very heavy and I didn't like that you couldn't feel what you were grabbing very well. But, then again, while switching or getting on and off cars you weren't dealing with anything hot.

I liked a good quality leather glove. They were much cooler than those big thick things and if they had elastic stitching that kept them tight on the hands, that was getting cut out as soon as I got them home!

Yeah, in a steam locomotive cab where it's routinely 140 degrees, having cool hands was the least of my concern. However, I preferred having gloves that are basically oven mitts to having any kind of tactile sensitivity--everything I needed to touch was big, and often hot.

Yes, in rain they suck.

From my own experience, I have always used good quality leather gloves during any activities NOT related to steam locomotives. Trying to use leather gloves in the the cab of a steam locomotive can cause you real problems, because once you have touched/grabbed something REALLY hot and that heat passes through the leather to your hand, it then becomes quite difficult to pull that glove off that hand (the very hot leather tends to shrink to your hand).

When working in the cab of a steam locomotive I rarely wear gloves, although I do keep a pair of rawhide "welding type gloves handy. I prefer to work barehanded, as there is no control handle nor valve handle that is hot. Those times that the outside temperature approaches 100 degrees, and temps exceed 140 degrees in the cab, I simply use cotton rags to dandle the various hot-to-the-touch control handles.

Generally I do not use gloves to fire nor run any steam locomotive I've ever worked on, no matter coal fired or oil fired. 

They are more of a souvenir, but there's history behind them.  My dad's best friend, Elmer, was Yard Master of the SP Bayshore Yard.  Elmer worked for SP for 42 years.    His son, Randy carried on the family railroad tradition and is an engineer for UP...he has 30 years with them.  Randy gave me these UP gloves.

Matt

boin106 posted:

They are more of a souvenir, but there's history behind them.  My dad's best friend, Elmer, was Yard Master of the SP Bayshore Yard.  Elmer worked for SP for 42 years.    His son, Randy carried on the family railroad tradition and is an engineer for UP...he has 30 years with them.  Randy gave me these UP gloves.

Matt

Those are EXACTLY the fine quality leather gloves I was referring to, above. They were/are great for working around diesel units, but will seriously cause you pain on a steam locomotive if one grabs something very hot.

I wonder what kind Rich Melvin uses?

Alex

I want to say thank you all for the advice.  It's very interesting to read about the problems with moisture and heat.  The main reason my neighbor wants to replace his gloves with railroad gloves is they lasted forever.  I use leather gloves from the local ACE hardware and I'm lucky if they last a year.  Both he and I use our gloves for basic yard work and maybe for a quick snow shovel session.  I use a pair of ski gloves for my extended snow shoveling sessions.

I believe his old pair are leather and they have a cuff.  The style is like the panther gloves and the Seattle glove, but the material is uniform (all of the same type and color).  They are too well used to have any clue what color they started out as.

After reading about the issues with heat, I know fire departments used to use a Nomex glove with a Kevlar cuff, I wonder how that might work for use around a steam locomotive.

Thanks!

Mile High Hobo posted:

 

After reading about the issues with heat, I know fire departments used to use a Nomex glove with a Kevlar cuff, I wonder how that might work for use around a steam locomotive.

Thanks!

Those "Nomex" gloves would tend to be too thick and probably would detract from making fine adjustments by the Engineer and Fireman. Besides, as I mentioned above, there is no need for gloves in the cab of modern steam locomotives, as the controls used by the Engineer and Fireman, whether coal or oil burning, are NOT hot.

I should add, with the panther gloves, I buy the double palm ones, not the leather palm.  I think they're both leather palms and fingers, but a double layer that seems to last quite awhile.

As with what Hot Water mentioned though, I don't wear them constantly on the locomotive unless I'm touching something that requires the protection.  Usually about lunchtime the summer heat warms the controls up on our engines (1870's-90's vintage vs. the 1940's engines he's used to) to where they're just a little too hot to touch bare handed.

Mile High Hobo posted:

I believe his old pair are leather and they have a cuff.  The style is like the panther gloves and the Seattle glove, but the material is uniform (all of the same type and color).   

 

Sounds like they could be similar to leather welding gloves, which are often the same color, and include a cuff (or gauntlet).

I liked the gauntlet style. Never paid more than ten for a pair as they got filthy fast and i threw them away. Railroad filth has its own chapter in the book of dirt ! Especially intermodal cars that didnt get uncoupled much had a wondefull grease, dust, brake shoe flying stuff ' smorgesboard that could ruin a pair in a shift. Upside of the style was you could let them almost fall off your hand in the summer to let in some "cool" and same in the winter to rub your fingers together for a little heat...i miss it already conrail john

Google "Ansell Crusader Flex Gloves".   Possible these may work.

Side Rod

Oh and i forgot to mention a pair that looked good for only one dollar ! During my shift of switching cars it started to rain and as they got wet and wetter they began to disolve ! and slowly disintegrated until they had the texture of toilet paper !  one and done ! conrail john