Scott Czaja

The story of these badges has been told before. However, the appearance of one of them on Ebay recently was a reminder that information about fakes is never out of date. So here is a reprise of the story:

Above. An authentic badge from the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad. Below. A fake badge.

Some years ago, a clever metal worker from the Boston area decided to manufacture some cap badges based on authentic examples. The badges were rather well done and have fooled several advanced collectors. They have what appears to be a legitimate "American Railway Supply Co," hallmark on the reverse side and seem to have correct "ghosting" (stamp of letters appears to leave a shadow on the reverse side).

Fortunately, the counterfeiter appears to have used a computerized milling machine rather than a stamping machine -- the traditional manufacturing method. This provides the best clue as to the badges' real identity. A milling machine cannot make a square "outside" corner, so all of the outside corners of the lettering on the fake badges are rounded. The easiest place to see the round corners is in the smallest letters. If you look very closely at one of the fakes you will see that the characteristic very flat blocks are undersized and rounded. Compare the two images shown below.

Above. An enlargement of letters from an authentic badge. Note square corners and periods. Below. An enlargement of letters from a fake badge. Note rounded outside corners and diamond/rounded periods.

A second characteristic that is hard to mimic with a computerized milling machine is to "correct" for the size of getting the occupation right. Obviously AGENT takes up a lot less space than STATION AGENT. The fakes seem to always have very round "O" and "C" characters. The height of the letters is the counterfeiter's method of sizing, and not the correct method of selecting more compressed letters.

A third characteristic is that all originals have square periods and not diamond shaped periods, which the fakes have. However, you really need magnification to see this. Again, see comparisons at right.

These fake badges have been made for several roads and occupations, although the bulk of the fake badges represent rare occupations from the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad. There are also several badges from much rarer New England roads, all narrow gauge roads. Earlier speculation led some to believe that the existence of what appears to be a valid American Railway Supply hallmark made these "good" badges (to the most experience New England collectors). Whether these badges were made using original American Railway Supply Co. blanks or the hallmarks were faked is of no consequence. All of the fakes have authentic shapes. This suggests that the person doing the dirty work had a great working knowledge of what he was doing. The color choices for each occupation (gold for Conductor, nickel for Trainman) are correct. All of the New Haven occupations, some very obscure, really did have authentic badges made for them. Perhaps the only good news here is that, to the best of my knowledge, only New England badges were created.

Close cooperation among New England collectors had the local word out on these badges. In the summer of 1994 I was tipped off that a quantity of these badges were on display at a bank in Quincy, Massachusetts. I brought a pad and pencil to the bank and recorded the following fakes:

New York, New Haven & Hartford RR (all are standard "notch top" style):
Station Agent
Station Master
Information
Baggage Porter
Brakeman
Porter
Ticket Seller
Flagman
Delivery Clerk (image enclosed)
Gateman

Kennebec Central:
Station Agent

Hoosac Tunnel & Western:
Ticket Agent

Wiscasset & Quebec:
Baggage Master

Boston, Revere Beach & Lynn:
Conductor
Baggageman (older form using one word not Baggage Man)
Station Agent

Phillips & Rangeley:
Conductor (See note 1)

This is not necessarily a complete list. It is possible that other markings have been produced.

At the very least, the existence of these badges shows that railroadiana fakes can be well-made, highly convincing, and distinguishable from the real thing only by careful examination of subtle characteristics. Considering how much buying and selling of railroadiana these days is done on the basis of fuzzy, low-resolution web images, it's easy to see why so many collectors are worried about the impact of fakes on the hobby.