Railway Train and Platform Tickets

Railway Tickets break down into two main types, travel tickets and platform tickets. Initially, railway companies used handwritten tickets, as was the practice for stagecoaches, but it was laborious for a ticket clerk to write out a ticket for each passenger and long queues were common at busy stations. A faster means of issuing pre-printed tickets was needed. There was also a need to provide accountability by serial-numbering each ticket to prevent unscrupulous clerks from pocketing the fares, since they had to reconcile the takings against the serial numbers of the unsold tickets at the end of each day. 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. The Edmondson system came into general use with the creation of the Railway Clearing House in 1842, becoming the essential standard feature. The Edmondson railway ticket was a system for recording the payment of railway fares and accounting for the revenue raised, introduced in the 1840s.

The whole system, from printing, bulk storage, ticket racks, dating and issue, was based on the measurement of the tickets which were printed on card cut to 1 3/16 inch by 2 1/4 inch , with a nominal thickness of 1/32 inch. The traditional material was pasteboard, pre-cut to the size with the centre layer of the sandwich was a cheap board with thin white or coloured paper laminated to it. The tickets in each series were individually numbered. When a ticket was issued, it was date-stamped by a custom-made machine which was bolted to the ticket office counter. The tickets to different destinations and of different types were stored in a lockable cupboard where the lowest remaining number of each issue was visible. Different colours and patterns helped distinguish the different types of tickets. British Railway's centralised paper and printing centre at Crewe had a number of pre-1900 Waterlow printing presses which met its annual demand for 320 million tickets. The last press was switched off in 1988 and the use of Edmondson tickets by British Rail ceased in February 1990.

Vertical-format Edmondson card-size tickets were the final manifestation of the Edmondson in the UK. The NCR21 system was used at Southern Region station booking offices from the late 1960s to the mid 1980s, until supplanted by the early generation of computerised systems including INTIS and APTIS. Vertical-format Edmonson tickets were validated in NCR21 cash registers—this is the machine printed date/fare/machine number on the ticket front. The Edmondson system is still in use on many heritage railways in the UK, but has been superseded on other railway systems. The Severn Valley railway, the West Somerset Railway, the Bluebell Railway, the Isle of Wight Steam Railway and the Swanage Railway print Edmondson tickets for their own use as well as for a number of other heritage lines. In Sussex the Bluebell Railway has a number of Edmondson printing machines that are to be placed on display in a specially-built museum at the front of Sheffield Park station. There are several small companies that still produce Edmondson tickets on request.

Typically, half-fare tickets (e.g. for children, dogs, and bicycles) would be created by cutting the ticket in half vertically, return tickets by having a diagonal cut across the ticket, having the value of half the adult fare. The remaining part was placed in groove in the lid of the ticket rack above its tube. It could then be used as another child ticket, or counted as a credit. The reverse side of a ticket might be endorsed that it was Subject to rules and regulations of the issuing railway company.

Michael Farr sets out here his approach to printing Edmondson style railway tickets. It fascinating from both a printer's perspective and a railway perspective. People interested in collecting or knowing more might find this web site of interest. See Old Railway Tickets.

Platform Tickets

Ref: railticket_023 MG Stewart British Transport Commission (M) Nuneaton Trent Valley No 2 Platform Ticket Cost 1d

Ref: railticket_024 MG Stewart British Transport Commission (M) Nuneaton Trent Valley No 1 Platform Ticket Cost 1d

Ref: railticket_025 MG Stewart British Transport Commission (M) Birmingham (New Street) No 6 Platform Ticket Issued Free

Ref: railticket_022 MG Stewart British Transport Commission (M) Rugby (Midland) (Series O) Platform Ticket Issued Free

Ref: railticket_021 MG Stewart British Transport Commission (M) Rugby (Midland) (Series O) Platform Ticket Issued Free

Ref: railticket_020 MG Stewart British Transport Commission (M) Rugby (Midland) (Series F) Platform Ticket Issued Free

Ref: railticket_019 MG Stewart British Transport Commission (M) Rugby (Midland) (Series T) Platform Ticket Issued Free

Ref: railticket_018 MG Stewart British Transport Commission (M) Rugby (Midland) (Series V) Platform Ticket Issued Free

Ref: railticket_017 MG Stewart British Transport Commission (M) Rugby (Midland) (Series A) Platform Ticket Issued Free

Ref: railticket_016 MG Stewart British Transport Commission (M) Rugby (Midland) (Series W) Platform Ticket Issued Free

Ref: railticket_015 MG Stewart British Transport Commission (W) Birmingham Snow Hill (C) Platform Ticket Cost 2d

Ref: railticket_014 MG Stewart British Transport Commission Rugby (Midland) (Series 2) Platform Ticket Issued Free

Ref: railticket_013 MG Stewart British Transport Commission (W) Birmingham Snow Hill (D) Platform Ticket Cost 2d

Ref: railticket_012 MG Stewart British Transport Commission (W) Birmingham Snow Hill (C) Platform Ticket Cost 1d

Ref: railticket_011 MG Stewart British Transport Commission (W) Birmingham Snow Hill (B) Platform Ticket Cost 1d

Ref: railticket_010 MG Stewart British Transport Commission (W) Birmingham Snow Hill (D) Platform Ticket Cost 1d

Ref: railticket_009 MG Stewart British Transport Commission (W) Birmingham Snow Hill (D) Platform Ticket Cost 1d

Ref: railticket_008 MG Stewart British Transport Commission (W) Birmingham Snow Hill (E) Platform Ticket Cost 1d

Ref: railticket_007 MG Stewart British Transport Commission (W) Birmingham Snow Hill (C) Platform Ticket Cost 1d

Ref: railticket_006 MG Stewart British Transport Commission (W) Birmingham Snow Hill (E) Platform Ticket Cost 1d

Ref: railticket_005 MG Stewart British Transport Commission (W) Birmingham Snow Hill (D) Platform Ticket Cost 1d

Ref: railticket_004 MG Stewart British Transport Commission (W) Birmingham Snow Hill (B) Platform Ticket Cost 1d

Ref: railticket_003 MG Stewart British Transport Commission (W) Birmingham Snow Hill (A) Platform Ticket Cost 1d

Ref: railticket_002 MG Stewart British Transport Commission (W) Birmingham Snow Hill (A) Platform Ticket Cost 1d

Ref: railticket_004 MG Stewart British Transport Commission (W) Birmingham Snow Hill (E) Platform Ticket Cost 1d

E&WJR and SMJ Railway Tickets

Ref: railticket_026 MG Stewart East & West Junction Railway Byfield to Woodford & Hinton First Class Cost 4d

Ref: railticket_027 MG Stewart East & West Junction Railway Stratford on Avon to Broom First Class Cost 1s and 3d

Ref: railticket_028 MG Stewart East & West Junction Railway Ettington to Towcester First Class Cost 5s 0d

Ref: railticket_029 MG Stewart East & West Junction Railway Stratford on Avon to Broom Junction Third Class Cost 7½d

Ref: railticket_030 MG Stewart East & West Junction Railway Fenny Compton to Kineton Market Ticket Third Class

Ref: railticket_031 MG Stewart East & West Junction Railway Stratford on Avon to Byfield First Class

Ref: railticket_032 MG Stewart East & West Junction Railway Kineton to Evesham First Class Cost 4s 8d

Ref: railticket_033 MG Stewart East & West Junction Railway Stratford on Avon to Cambridge First Class Cost 10s 3d

Ref: railticket_034 MG Stewart East & West Junction Railway Kineton to Worcester Third Class Cost 3s 1½d

Ref: railticket_035 MG Stewart East & West Junction Railway Towcester to Bath Third Class Ticket Cost 8s 4½d

Ref: railticket_036 MG Stewart East & West Junction Railway Stratford on Avon to Broom Third Class Cost 7½d

Ref: railticket_037 MG Stewart East & West Junction Railway Bidford to Broom Third Class

Ref: railticket_038 MG Stewart East & West Junction Railway Ettington to Kineton Third Class Cost 4d

Ref: railticket_039 MG Stewart Stratford upon Avon & Midland Junction Railway Binton to Stratford on Avon First Class

Ref: railticket_040 MG Stewart Stratford upon Avon & Midland Junction Railway Fenny Compton to Byfield Third Class Cost 7d

Ref: railticket_041 MG Stewart Stratford upon Avon & Midland Junction Railway Binton to Stratford on Avon Third Class Cost 6d

Ref: railticket_042 MG Stewart Stratford upon Avon & Midland Junction Railway Kineton to Woodford and Hinton Third Class Cost 1s 3d

Ref: railticket_043 MG Stewart East & West Junction Railway Broom Junction to Stratford on Avon Third Class Cost 7½d

Ref: railticket_044 MG Stewart East & West Junction Railway Binton to Stratford on Avon Third Class Cost 3½d

Ref: railticket_045 MG Stewart East & West Junction Railway Blisworth to Stratford on Avon Third Class Cost 3s 2d

Ref: railticket_046 MG Stewart East & West Junction Railway Bidford to Stratford on Avon Third Class Cost 6d

Ref: railticket_047 MG Stewart Stratford upon Avon & Midland Junction Railway Stratford on Avon to Redditch Child Third Class Cost 1s 1½d

Ref: railticket_048 MG Stewart East & West Junction Railway Fenny Compton to Woodford & Hinton Third Class Cost 9d

Ref: railticket_049 MG Stewart Stratford upon Avon & Midland Junction Railway Broom Junction to Stratford on Avon Third Class Cost 1s 1d

Ref: railticket_050 MG Stewart Stratford upon Avon & Midland Junction Railway Stratford on Avon to Wixford Third Class Available on day of issue only Cost 1s 1d

Ref: railticket_051 MG Stewart Stratford upon Avon & Midland Junction Railway Bidford on Avon to Stratford on Avon Third Class Available on day of issue only Cost 10½d

Ref: railticket_052 MG Stewart East & West Junction Railway Stratford on Avon to Broom Junction Third Class Available on day of issue only Cost 7½d

Ref: railticket_053 MG Stewart East & West Junction Railway Kineton to Fenny Compton Third Class Police on Duty Cost 5d

Ref: railticket_054 MG Stewart Stratford upon Avon & Midland Junction Railway Bibton to Stratford on Avon Third Class Single Local Privilege Ticket Cost 1½d

Ref: railticket_055 MG Stewart Stratford upon Avon & Midland Junction Railway Ettington to Woodford and Hinton Third Class Available on day of issue only Cost 1s 7d

Ref: railticket_056 MG Stewart East & West Junction Railway Blisworth to Fenny Compton Third Class Available on day of issue only Cost 1s 10½d

Ref: railticket_057 MG Stewart East & West Junction Railway Stratford on Avon to Broom Junction Third Class Local Privilege Ticket