Edmondson railway ticket

The Edmondson railway ticket was a system for validating the payment of railway fares, and accounting for the revenue raised, introduced in the 1840s.Farr, M (1997). " Edmondson, Thomas". In: Simmonds and Biddle (1997), Page 141] 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. He introduced his system on the Manchester and Leeds Railway.

Edmondson tickets in the United Kingdom

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."BR Ends Edmondson". In: Railway Magazine, Vol. 134, March 1988, Page 148.] The last press was switched off in 1988 and the use of Edmondson tickets by British Rail ceased in February 1990.

The system is still be in use on some heritage railways in the UK, such as the Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge railway but has been superseded on other railway systems. The Severn Valley railway prints Edmondson tickets for its own use as well as a number of other heritage lines.

Half fares

Typically, half-fare tickets (say, for children) would be created by having a diagonal cut across 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.

In Czechoslovakia were half-fare tickets created by having a horizontal cut of under third of ticket. Later are used stand-alone child tickets.

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".

Use in other countries

The Edmondson system was widely used in other countries outside of the UK, in many European countries such as Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, or Switzerland, as well as outside of Europe, for example in Argentina. The use of Edmondson tickets ceased in most countries in the 1980s or 1990s. In Switzerland, Edmondson tickets were still issued regularly at some stations, especially of the RhB, until December 2007. [ [http://schweizweit.net/2007/12/09/edmondsonsches-billett-verschwindet/ schweizweit.net: Fahrplanwechsel: Edmondsonsches Billett verschwindet] (German), December 9, 2007. Retrieved September 14, 2008.]

In Czechoslovakia there were two printing houses which printed Edmondson tickets: the first one at Prague in Czechia since 1898 until 1999, the second one at Vrútky in Slovakia. Both of them appertained to the state transportation publishing house NADAS. NADAS was privatized to NADAS AFGH s. r. o. (Ltd.). In 1993 Czechoslovakia split into the two countries of Czechia and Slovakia and the state railway company ČSD was divided into České dráhy (ČD) and Železnice Slovenskej republiky (ŽSR). The Prague printing house produced 50 thousands tickets per day until start of decrement.

Since 1999 the ČD stopped to give orders for those tickets and the production was stopped. In 1999, the new private narrow gauge railway company Jindřichohradecké místní dráhy (JHMD, Local Railways of Jindřichův Hradec surroundings) bought the machine accessories from Prague and since 2000 they run their own printing house at Kamenice nad Lipou, for their own use as well as for nostalgic rides of ČD and a number of museal railways. JHMD keeps (together with 4 newer machines) one of two extant Goebl printing machines from 1895 in the world.Fořt, Martin (2004): [http://ford.dataline.cz/pressforum.old/pdf/02_04/Pressforum_2_2004-15.pdf "Jindřichohradecké lokálky od tradičních lepenkových jízdenek ustoupit nemíní"] , Pressforum 2/2004, Pages 30–31, section Tiskárny/Na cestách]

In the eighties, at some ten of the biggest train stations in Czechoslovakia special mechanical printing machines were used, which printed tickets directly at the station using the prepared cards in Edmondson's format.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* 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.

Further reading

* Bray, Maurice I., (1986). "Railway Tickets, Timetables & Handbills". Ashbourne: Moorland Publishing Co. Ltd. ISBN 0-86190-163-0.
* Farr, Michael (1991). "Thomas Edmondson and his Tickets". Andover: author. ISBN 0-905033-13-2
* Glover, John (1985). "Mechanisation of ticket issuing". In: Modern Railways, Vol. 42, April 1985, Pages 192-195.