Organisation
Until 1917 there were several different railway companies in the Netherlands. In that year, the shortage of materials due to the First World War compelled the two largest of them to join forces as a single national railway company, ‘Nederlandsche Spoorwegen’ (NS). It was not until 1938 however that a full-scale merger took place, with NS turning into a public limited company and the State of the Netherlands as its sole shareholder. The railways had always been strictly regimented, as reflected in a variety of official uniforms, caps and insignia - one for every position. The nature of the work meant that accuracy and punctuality were key. Employees had long working days, their work was heavy and could actually be dangerous. Following the great railway strike of 1903, many employees joined one of the trade unions to demand better working conditions. From 1926, the unions were represented on the Staff Council, which developed into an important consultation partner of the management board of NS. As the world teetered on the brink of the Second World War, NS was grappling with the consequences of the economic crisis. Losses were accumulating, forcing redundancies of both employees and railway lines. The appointment of professor Jan Goudriaan as the company's new President was to reverse this situation. In 1938, Goudriaan was given the task of modernising NS into a profitable business.
Strict hierarchy
Uniforms
Uniforms
Clothing designs H.S.M., S.S. and N.C.S., Railway Museum Collection; Company Uniform Regulations from 1923, Railway Museum Collection.
Prior to the merger of the various railway companies in 1917, each had its own set of uniforms. The chain of command was reflected in a system of caps, stripes, buttons and fabrics. In the year of the merger, a book of designs was published with detailed drawings and descriptions of all uniforms in use at the Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg-Maatschappij (HSM), Staatsspoorwegen (SS) and the Nederlandsche Centraal-Spoorweg-Maatschappij (NCS). As such, the publication offers a unique picture of the hierarchy that characterised the railways. After 1917, new, strict dress codes for NS employees were laid down in several sets of regulations, like the one issued in 1923.
As a reminder for our staff
As a reminder for our staff
Photo album, 31 July 1930, Railway Museum Collection.
M.E.H.Ch. Bongaerts, Chief Railway Engineer at Maastricht, retired on 31 July 1930. To mark the departure of this ‘beloved and humane’ chief, his employees compiled two photo albums that offer a wonderful picture of work at NS around 1930.
Regulations and official instructions
Regulations and official instructions
Standing order for workshop personnel, Railway Museum Collection 20297.
New regulations were implemented through circulars and official instructions distributed among the entire workforce. For example, in 1930 an instruction was issued laying down work regulations for workshop personnel. According to Article 6, staff were required to report in time and make sure they had changed into their uniforms before the whistle or bell announced the beginning of the working day. Employees could be fined if they were only five minutes late.
Railway women
Railway women
Poster of Carlo Jung ‘Services’, 1939, Railway Museum Collection
For a long time, the railways were a man’s world. In the 19th century, the position of level crossing guard was the only job open to women. In the 20th century, railways hired more and more women for administrative jobs or behind the counter. To improve the services and to attract more train passengers, NS opened service offices at different stations. “Smooth young ladies” were deployed to inform the passengers.
A new managing director
Goudriaan
Goudriaan
Photograph of Goudriaan during the NS centenary celebrations, Railway Museum Collection.
Professor Jan Goudriaan (1893-1974) has gone down into history as the founder of management science in the Netherlands. Besides working as a professor of business economics at the Dutch Academy of Trade in Rotterdam and Delft University of Technology, he worked at Philips from 1928 and rose to the position of deputy director at that company in 1933. A long-standing member of the Social Democratic Labour Party (SDAP), Goudriaan made no secret of his dismay at the political situation in Nazi Germany in the 1930s. He was appointed managing director of NS in 1938.
The Ethics of Business Management
The Ethics of Business Management
Brochure, Dr J. Goudriaan, De ethiek van de bedrijfsleiding [The Ethics of Business Management], Amsterdam, 1927.
As professor by special appointment at the Dutch Academy of Trade in Rotterdam, Goudriaan published a booklet entitled ‘De ethiek van de bedrijfsleiding’ [The Ethics of Business Management] in 1927. In it, he proposed that modern-day business leaders and managers would have to combine their commercial operations with business ethics in order to be successful. Leading a business ethically required qualities such as self-knowledge, resolution and courage. Goudriaan argued that is was in the interest of the business to promote better working conditions, hygiene, safety and well-being, as these were necessary to achieve the best results.
The deficit spectre
The deficit spectre
Cartoon from the Utrechtsch Dagblad newspaper, 20 January 1934, Railway Museum Collection.
Despite the introduction of modern diesel-electric trains in 1934, NS continued to struggle with financial losses throughout the years of the crisis. A cartoon in the Utrechtsch Dagblad cast doubt on the ability of NS to kill the ‘deficit spectre’ by introducing new trains.
A personal address
A personal address
Booklet, professor J. Goudriaan, Een persoonlijk woord [A Personal Address], Utrecht, 1939.
In 1939, on the occasion of the company’s centenary, NS managing director Goudriaan made ‘A Personal Address’ to all NS employees. Despite the looming threat of war with Nazi Germany, he had not lost his faith in freedom and democracy. He translated this to own company which he was convinced needed free-spirited employees who could think for themselves. ‘We have no use in this company for servile individuals whose only desire is to say what their managers want to hear.’ And he did not have any use either for managers with dictatorial tendencies. With this approach, Goudriaan tried to change the traditional hierarchic culture of the railways.
Management trio
Management trio
Group portrait of the supervisory directors and managing directors of NS in Utrecht, 1939, Utrechts Persbureau/HUA.
Goudriaan knew that as an outsider he needed people around him with profound experience of the railway industry. For that reason he appointed W. Hupkes and W.F.H. Van Rijckevorsel, two old hands in the sector, to the management board. The three managing directors of NS posing on the occasion of the centenary celebrations of the Dutch railways, 20 September 1939. Goudriaan in the centre, flanked by Hupkes (right) and Van Rijckevorsel (left).
Willem Hupkes in paint
Willem Hupkes in paint
Oil painting of Willem Hupkes by Jan Boon, c. 1950, Railway Museum Collection.
Willem Hupkes (1880-1965) had been employed with the Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg-maatschappij (HSM) as an engineer since 1904. He had designed a new steam locomotive, the HSM 500 (later known as the NS 2100) and, as Chief Rolling Stock and Workshops Supervisor, made an important contribution to the development of the first diesel-electric train in the Netherlands, in the 1930s. The NS supervisory board considered him the ideal new president, but the Dutch government eventually selected somebody else. He was appointed deputy president however by Goudriaan in 1938.
Van Rijckevorsel
Van Rijckevorsel
Oil painting of W.F.H. van Rijckevorsel by Joop Bonsen, December1944, Railway Museum Collection.
Willem Frederik Hendrik van Rijckevorsel (1880-1950) took up employment with the Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg-maatschappij (HSM) immediately after obtaining his engineer’s degree in 1902. After performing several roles in the passenger and goods segments, he was eventually appointed Chief Transport Supervisor. Van Rijckevorsel invented the self-loading container system for door-to-door goods transport. In 1938 he joined the NS management board. Joop Bonsen made this painting during the railway strike of 1944, when Van Rijckevorsel was in hiding.
The Staff Council
Decorative plate
Decorative plate
Pewter plate of the Dutch Association of Railway and Tramway Personnel [Nederlandsche Vereeniging van Spoor- en Tramwegpersoneel], c. 1930, Railway Museum Collection.
The Dutch Association of Railway and Tramway Personnel (NV for short) was the largest union of railway personnel in the country. The NV was of socialist persuasion and aimed to promote social security and decent living standards for all railway personnel. Around 1930, several prominent NV members were presented with a decorative pewter plate in gratitude for their ‘loyalty to the organisation’.
Banner
Banner
Banner of the socialist Dutch Association of Railway and Tramway Personnel [Nederlandsche Vereeniging van Spoor- en Tramwegpersoneel’] (NV), Enschede branch, 1920, Railway Museum Collection.
In a tradition originating in the late 19th century, local union branches would commission craftsmen to create splendid velvet banners, often embroidered with silk gold thread. The banners were displayed in processions or on festive occasions, or served as a background for group photographs of union members. The one shown here was commissioned in 1920 by the socialist Dutch Association of Railway and Tramway Personnel (NV), Enschede branch.
St. Raphael
St. Raphael
Gouache by Joep Nicolas, 1927, Railway Museum Collection.
In the aftermath of the great railway strike in 1903, many catholic railway staff joined the catholic union, Sint Raphaël, named after one of the archangels and the patron saint of travellers. On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the union, artist Joep Nicolas made this gouache in 1927. It shows a number of shepherds and a sheep, and the winged wheel on the left – the symbol of railways and tramways.
Commemorative plate for B.A.N.S.
Commemorative plate for B.A.N.S.
Glazed decorative plate to commemorate B.A.N.S., made by P. Regout & Co. of Maastricht, 1939, Railway Museum Collection.
Railway employees who wished to remain politically neutral joined the Association of Civil Servants employed by the Dutch Railways [Bond van Ambtenaren in dienst van de Nederlandsche Spoorwegen], or B.A.N.S. To commemorate its annual meeting on 29 and 30 April 1939, all participants were presented with a decorative plate featuring the wheels of a locomotive.
Gift from the Staff Council
Gift from the Staff Council
Marble sculpture named ‘Traffic’, designed by Charles Eyck and Jo Uiterwaal, 1939, Railway Museum Collection.
On the occasion of the railways’ centenary celebrations, the NS Staff Council organised a design competition among a selected group of sculptors. The idea was to commission a sculpture for Utrecht Central Station, as a gift from the employees to the management board. Charles Eyck and Jo Uiterwaal produced the winning design, featuring the gods Fortuna, Mercury and Minerva, symbolising welfare, trade and industry respectively.
Socialist Association
Socialist Association
Decorative plate to commemorate the Assiociation of Railway and Tramway Personnel (NV), 1929, Railway Museum Collection.
One of the railway employees’ unions had a clearly socialist character. This was the Dutch Assiociation of Railway and Tramway Personnel, in short: NV (National Association). On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the department Maastricht of this union, Q.M.E. Bellefroid designed a commemorate plate with among others an image of a torch with flames.
The Staff Council in 1939
The Staff Council in 1939
Photograph of the Staff Councel of Dutch Railways in 1939, Railway Museum Collection.
A year before the war a picture was taken of the Staff Council of Dutch Railways. The Staff Council was made up of representatives of the various unions of railway personnel. At the head of the table sits Piet Moltmaker, the chairman of the socialist Ducht Association fo Railway and Tramway Personnel (Nederlandse Vereeniging van Spoor- en Trampersoneel, NV). From 1926 until 1940 he was also chairman of the Staff Council of NS. His succesor was Godert Joustra (second right).