Our validators used a pad instead of the ink ribbon for self inking, so there was no way to effectively deaden the sound. Conductors were required to inspect the ticket for the validator stamp. No stamp meant that the ticket was not to be honored. Conductors and trainmen also punched the date when time allowed. That was not only authentic, but prevented the ticket from being used to make copies. Tickets that were issued by the conductor were stamped by the conductor with his validation stamp (Issued on Train No. XX by Conductor A. Walker) on the reverse of the ticket and the Agent's Stub.

On excursion trains with assigned seating, the Conductor received a manifest with the seat assignments. This allowed us to plan for loading of passengers who purchased tickets at the last minute and had no seat assignment. The tickets had numbers and names printed, so they could be matched up to the manifest. I believe the stubs also had numbers and those were collected by the conductor and trainmen and used for accounting purposes. They could also be used to identify which passengers actually boarded the train in case an accident required that information to be generated.