Tabbard colours

[whole diary]

[REVUpminster]

When the Underground starting issuing tabbards they where yellow but as pointed out above of the confusion with drivers and yellow signals they were soon changed to orange for any work on the track.

We were not allowed to wear hoods either as they would impair hearing. When I started as a booking clerk we never had uniforms and were not used near tracks except for detrainments. We were taught basic signalling and how to turn the traction  current off in emergencies.

[eightonedee]

That may have been the case, but that is no longer the case as most of the rest of the construction industry seems to have adopted orange!

Possibly to spare the embarrassment of being mistaken for George Osborne, who was always being photographed in yellow High Vis and a hard hat whenever a photo-opportunity arose! 

[Bmblbzzz]

A TV show, Alex Rider, is being filmed right now two streets away from where I am. This involves a large number of staff in hi-viz clothing, of which there are three types: Yellow jackets, acting as "security" for the closed street; orange tabards, standing a little further in; and yellow tabards right up in the action. I don't know the exact delineation of orange vs yellow tabards but I doubt if it has to do with road (let alone rail!) safety. The actual actors, or people who might be actual actors, are all wearing black.

[Bmblbzzz]

And in terms of visibility, there are hi-viz tabards which use both orange and yellow for the best of both worlds. Or is it so they can blend in with all backgrounds? I don't expect to see them on the railways.

[Witham Bobby]

[snip] it was not permitted to wear any yellow, red or green clothing which could've been mistaken for signal flags, so this is another reason for orange - it's not a signal colour.[snip]

I remember turning up at Witham 'box for late turn, to relieve Adrian Vaughan.  There were visitors - Adrian introduced me to railway photographer par exellence Ivo Peters, who was with a friend of his wearing the brightest reddest shirt I'd ever seen.  Idiot me was far more concerned with the redness of the shirt than I was in chatting to the great photographer.  My loss.  If his reputation meant anything, I guess Ivo would have stayed and chatted; he befriended many railwaymen.  Some of the pictures taken by ivo that day are in his book, "Railway Elegance", which I greatly recommend to all who appreciate semaphore signalling and D1000 locos.