Train Drivers and Railway Workers

Thinking of typical professions you'd associate with the beret, painters and farmers (vintners, shepherds) immediately spring to mind, but during the first half of the last century, the beret was pretty much uniform among Spanish and French train drivers and railway workers.

The black beret hid the stains from grease and coal, was a practical headgear in confined spaces, was warm and didn't blow of in the wind.