At Central Station there is a nice little display of railway heritage in the beatifully restored old ticket office.The Edmondson railway ticket was a system for validating the payment of railway fares, and accounting for the revenue raised, introduced in the 1840s. 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.
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.
Edmondson tickets were phased out in NSW from 1991.
The Edmondson Family Papers, ca. 250 items for the dates, 1848-1885, primarily
ReplyDeleteconsist of the correspondence of the family of John Edmondson of Rutherford County,
Tennessee. There are also various Civil War military papers, including an order signed
by General John B. Hood, a discharge signed by Isham G. Harris, an oath, passes,
railroad tickets, and receipts.
------------------------
hennry
social bookmarking
If there's still one about, an old T.P.O. (traveling post office) van would make a fascinating item.
ReplyDelete