Edmonson tickets a lost "cause" for ever?

Again, as you know perfectly well, tickets of a decent quality can be printed instantly.

 

It is a long while ago when I bought an Edmonson rail ticket; probably early 1959 when I got my first car.
However, as I was in the RAF and travelled frequently between 1955 and 1959 by rail, my memories of these tickets is not that great. However, I do recall return tickets being torn in half during or after the making the first part of the journey and surrendering the remaining half on completion of the return journey. No souvenirs there for the fridge!! Childrens tickets were cut in half at issue. One way, which I never bought, might have been different. Maybe very small stations allowed you to keep your ticket, or where there was no one on duty to collect it. It might appear therefore that lines using Edmonson tickets are, amongst other things, in the souvenir business.

 

And for the hard of learning like me, why are bespoke quality tickets instantly printed going to be less hassle and money than edmondsons?

 

Now there's a thing. I would prioritise antique timepieces over Edmondson tickets any time. Are you offering to donate one? £8,000 should get a decent wall mounted "regulator" with railway history. Graham escapement, Harrison's maintaining power, the lot. Now we have established I know (just a bit) about this subject lets stop being silly.

 

That wasn't my intimation and you know it.

 

Speed

 

The only experience I have had of printed tickets it took much longer than simply plucking the correct tickets out of a rack.

 

Nick,

I think there would be a problem with Smallbrook which, although much less busy than Havenstreet, can get rushes when Island Line services arrive. Gift Aid, online booking and so on have to be dealt with quickly if the steam train is not to be delayed. Perhaps a generic card ticket can be doled out. However as an erstwhile booking clerk on a tourist railway, I cannot see an easy way of marrying the two systems any more than that. Now let's wait for the howls!
Paul

 

Aha. Now I understand what's driving this whole argument. Tell me Paul, how did you feel about the heritage value of Edmonson tickets the day before the IoWSR switched to EPOS receipts?

 

Wasn't active then but would have felt just the same. Absolutely minimal effect with the bulk of the objections being quite OTT.

PH

 

I wonder when the IoWSR will introduce automatic ticketing at their stations...saves time, instant internal accounting, nice card tickets. Maybe scan your shop purchases at the same time. And gives a great heritage feel - just like yesterday on the mainline Seriously for a mo, is anyone actually doing this or planning to do this? If not, why not?

Steve

 

During the first of my two stints working for London Underground (1992-2000) I was entitled to a priv card for BR travel. All reciprocal agreements went in the bin with privatisation so I lost that when I left, but one of the perks of the system was an entitlement to one free return journey to anywhere, annually. I only actually used this once but when I ordered the ticket, what arrived was a proper old Edmondson ticket. So technically these were still in use (in a small way) on the main line well into the 90s. For all I know maybe they still are.

As for coach parties full of persons of a certain age, maybe the IOWSR has a peculiarly large proportion of these, perhaps due to its geography? Otherwise I don’t see that they should dictate ticketing policy.


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Took a long while for the penny to drop but you got there in the end.
The IoWSR will have had its own reasons for ditching Edmonton tickets but for someone who makes much of how heritage railways should strive for authenticity, I’m surprised PH condones such a departure from authenticity as EPOS. Long may Edmonsons survive and it will be a sad day when the only place to see one is in a museum.

 

That is an interesting posting! Thought provoking that the twilight for pasteboard tickets was one generation ago.

The I.O.W does have a large trade in inclusive holidays of the Shearings sort. Ironic that such users are not individually ticketed. Perhaps an opportunity for the shop?

PH

 

I wish the witch-hunts and in-fighting would stop

Back on topic, how long before we see Oyster cards available?

 

That's not my experience - either with National Rail or heritage lines that print tickets on demand, doing so is inevitably considerably slower than taking an Edmondson ticket from a rack. Standing in line as departure times approaches fretting about how slowly a queue is moving while tickets are printed out is not one of those features of the big railway that I would suggest is a good idea to replicate, but I have had exactly that experience at a couple of close heritage railways that manage tickets that way. The trite answer "well just make sure you arrive earlier then" isn't always possible when experiencing unexpected delays on a drive, or even the simple logistics of shepherding children out of a house to a timescale. A leisurely drive and plan to arrive with thirty minutes contingency can rapidly become standing fourth in line with the train due off in two minutes while a printer slowly shunters away in the background...

With the exception of the very specific example of Dartmouth and the need to precisely know numbers of people on boats - a situation that is hardly common across heritage railways generally - I still haven't seen anyone come up with a convincing explanation about what an expensive EPOS system provides that cannot be done just as effectively with a cheaper Edmondson system.

Tom

 

I am shocked that the IOWSR hasn't embraced mobile tickets. You know, download your ticket to the IOWSR app, show the guard the ticket on your phone who then scans it.

Or even an Oyster card scanner at the station, scan your debit card as you go in. Maybe some heritage automatic barriers at Smallbrook...

A victory for authenticity...

I mean how dare any other line have inappropriate things like Merchant Navies or Castles on their lines. Don't you know that this is completely inappropriate to the heritage experience.

 

There used to be a ticket inspector at Bodmin and Wenford who insisted on clipping your ticket for every journey. Not per single or round trip, but after every reversal. Parkway to General, clip. General to Boscarne, clip. Boscarne to General, clip. General to Parkway, clip. Not much left of an Edmondson ticket after a day there!

 

Given that we meet (ex-) London Underground trains at Smallbrook Junction you are probably correct!

 

There are a number of us who would like to get Edmondson tickets back on stream on the IWSR but the time is not right yet. (Posting purely personally here!!)