Carl/Pingman,
Thanks for posting the ad about the Northern Pacific Railway Stewardess-Nurses. That's really interesting. The uniforms look so much like airline uniforms. Nothing "hospital" about them :-).
Last night I did a quick search for the Pennsylvania RR and "stewardesses" and found nothing. However, this topic from Train Orders discussed Stewardess-Nurses on the Northern Pacific , the AT&SF, and the B&O. For those interested, the topic also has other photographs of these ladies taken from other Northern Pacific ads.
This National RR Hall of Fame topic says the position dates to the 1930s (scroll down about mid-way) and was introduced by the Union Pacific. Just above that mention is information on Olive Wetzel Dennis, an engineer who introduced many features to rail cars that ended up on airplanes, as well. So, the similarity in job title and outfit found on these competing modes of land and air travel shouldn't be surprising.
Although the 1930s would be "age appropriate" for my mother's story, she would not have been age appropriate for that position, nor qualified for the "nurse" half. I suspect that the woman on the left in this New Haven ad is more in keeping with her childhood dreams of rail travel and snazzy uniforms on the PRR. But who knows? 
:
Tomlinson Run Railroad
