Edmondson railway ticket

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Tickets used by Ferrocarriles Argentinos
Tickets used by Ferrocarriles Argentinos
Edmondson ticket used by Czech railways
Edmondson ticket used by Czech railways

The Edmondson railway ticket was a system for validating the payment of railway fares, and accounting for the revenue raised, introduced in the 1840s.[1] It is named after its inventor, Thomas Edmondson, a trained cabinet maker, who became a station master on the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway in England.[1] He introduced his system on the Manchester and Leeds Railway.[1]

The tickets were printed on cards about 1 inch by 2 inches (2.5 by 5 cm), and were numbered. When the ticket was issued, it was date-stamped by a custom-made machine. The tickets to different destinations and of different types were stored in a lockable cupboard where the highest number of each issue was visible. Different colours and patterns helped distinguish the different types of tickets.

British Rail's centralised paper and printing centre at Crewe had a number of pre-1900 Waterloo printing presses which met its 320 million annual demand for Edmondson railway tickets.[2] The last press was switched off in 1988[2] and the use of Edmondson tickets by British Rail ceased in February 1990.[1]

The system may still be in use on some heritage railways in the UK, but has been superseded on other railway systems.

Contents

[edit] Half fares

Typically, half-fare tickets (say, for children) would be created by having a diagonal cut aross the ticket, thus having a value of half the adult fare. The remaining part could then used as another child ticket, or counted as a credit.

[edit] Rear of ticket

The reverse side of a ticket might be endorsed with "Subject to rules and regulations of X Railway", for a given railway company X.

[edit] Use in other countries

The Edmondson system was used in other countries outside of the UK, such as Argentina and Czechoslovakia. The use of Edmondson tickets in Argentina ceased in 1993.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d Farr, M (1997). " Edmondson, Thomas". In: Simmonds and Biddle, Page 141
  2. ^ a b "BR Ends Edmondson". In: Railway Magazine, Vol. 134, March 1988, Page 148.

[edit] Further reading

  • Bray, Maurice I., (1986). Railway Tickets, Timetables & Handbills. Ashbourne: Moorland Publishing Co. Ltd. ISBN 0-86190-163-0.
  • Glover, John (1985). "Mechanisation of ticket issuing". In: Modern Railways, Vol. 42, April 1985, Pages 192-195.
  • Simmonds, Jack and Biddle, Gordon. (Edrs), (1997). The Oxford Companion to British Railway History: From 1603 to the 1990s. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-211697-5.
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