Railroad Brotherhood Lapel Pins

My great-grandfather (my father's maternal grandfather), born in 1884, was the youngest engineer on the Delaware & Hudson railroad at the time. These are his lapel pins from the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (left) and Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Engineers (right):


They are not the same organization, it appears. The BLF&E was originally organized to help railroad firemen, but later included engineers, while the BLE started from the job of engineer. The BLFE was a mutual insurance organization, with membership fees used to make death and disability payments to members or their families when they were injured doing their dangerous work, since the railroads did not. (Eugene Debs was a member, I just learned.)

The BLE was more of a regular labor union, though one that appears to have been more into conciliation than striking. It merged with the Teamsters in 2004.

I like the design of the blue pin better.