The Railways: Nation, Network and People

by Simon Bradley

One common personal object that could not be carried securely on the roof was the gentleman’s hat. These reached their greatest height in the 1840s–60s, as if in sympathy with the soaring chimneys of the locomotives. Too tall to keep on when entering the carriage or standing within, too bulky to be kept easily on the lap, too fragile and valuable – at least without some sort of protective box – to risk kicks, treading and dirt by placing on the floor or in the space beneath the seats: the non-collapsible ‘stove-pipe’ presented the traveller with quite a challenge. The solution adopted in many carriages was to stretch taut cords across the ceiling, in parallel or criss-crossing at right angles, from which hats could be suspended upside-down by the brim. So in each first-class compartment of 1862 we may imagine up to six inverted black hats, juddering and quivering overhead with the motion of the train.