which raises the question--how did conductors use their ticket punches?

Here on the Heber Valley, the ticket punch is a formality giving us the opportunity to interact with the patrons. Usually have my punch that looks like the "Batman Logo" on the Haunted Canyon Specials at Halloween and like an "tree-topper angel" for the Polar Express (wish I had a dollar donated to the #75 rebuild for everytime I was asked to spell out some special word this last year on Polar Express)...but I digress

It would seem to me that the Railroads would save on printing costs to have multifunctional tickets that could be designated by a hole punch as to which class the passenger was traveling, where they may have boarded the train and where their destination was--thereby requiring two to three holes being punched in the ticket.

Is this correct? Were there other purposes or methods used?

For example, if a passenger was traveling from Denver to San Francisco but wanted a day or two stopover in Salt Lake City, could they use a single ticket that specified the fare being paid for Denver to San Francisco and the punches indicating a deboarding and reboarding at Salt Lake City or was it more probable that there were two tickets issued, one for Denver to Salt Lake City and one for Salt Lake City to San Francisco?

Are there any training manuals, rule books for conductors that may have covered ticket punching procedures?

sc 'doc' lewis

PRRTHS printed PRR's guide on the conductors' punches.

The conductors' punches meant the ticket had been used. On interdivisional runs, there was a code of where the ticket was punched to indicate progressive use over multiple divisions.

I suspect each road had its own policy.

In the olden days, tickets were generally sold at the station (depot to you Westerners) and ticket offices usually had an inventory of preprinted tickets from there to each destination, and a blank form for unusual destinations. The agent might use a rubber stamp or hand-write the station names. Some roads printed separate half-fare tickets, sometimes the agent had a "1/2" punch. In the 1960's Reading Co. 1/2 fare tickets had a red "1/2" overprint.

Cash fare receipts (pax pays $$$ to conductor) are multifunctional and have to cover all possible ramifications as the conductor has one pad. Cond'r punches blocks on the form to indicate the cash received and for what purpose. Sometimes the conductor takes an IOU from a rider if he isn't able to collect the fare. PRR had a form for this.

We are talking pre-computers, right? Pre-Amtrak, manual ticketing?

I'm not expert, but from my limited experience you've mixed two very different functions. And as you'll see, the idea of saving printing costs won't last long.

Let's use Southern's Akron, AL station as the example.

In general tickets were pre-purchased at a station, and one ticket was issued for each leg of a journey. Akron probably had several types of stock ready. One stack would have "AKRON" preprinted as the boarding point, and the stations south toward Meridian, MS printed on it to be circled/punched/marked somehow as the destination. Ditto the stations north to Birmingham, AL, and the stations on the branch through Marion, AL to Selma. Coach AND First Class stock, please. Oh, and another set showing Akron as the TERMINATING point, for the return legs of short trips.

Next would be a generic ticket for other stations, which may or may not have "AKRON" pre-printed.

Each ticket had stubs for the agent and conductor attached. The agent removed his stub and kept it for auditing purposes. The conductor tore his stub off when he checked the ticket, kept it for auditors, and punched the remaining bit, which the passenger kept.

Simple round trips would have a ticket with "Akron" pre-printed, an agent's stub and two conductor stubs (out and return). In addition to the generic stack, the agent might have station pairs pre-printed (Akron-Eutaw, Akron-Tuscaloosa, Akron-York, etc.).

Pullman tickets, either parlor car or sleeping space, were separate.

All would be numbered, and the agent responsible for keeping track of each ticket, so no "leakages" of free tickets happened. (Railroads were regulated utilities, so it was more important to have procedures in place to ensure that the product wasn't given away and that the money made it to the treasury, than to save on printing costs. Lots of different tickets made it that much harder for an agent to cheat the company.)

Now, let's say I lived in Akron and was going to take a journey. I want to travel first class, in the lounge, from Akron to York, AL, then take the local (second class only) to Bellamy. After a short visit with relatives in Bellamy (shooting the Sumpter & Choctaw with my 616 camera), I want to board the local toward Selma and get off at Marion Junction, where I have a bank account. After doing a bit of business there I want to catch another local back to Akron. (I'm making a triangle-shaped journey.)

The agent prepares one ticket for the Akron-York leg from pre-printed stock. There's an extra ticket for the Pullman space.

He prepares the York-Bellamy and Bellamy-Marion Jct. legs on generic stock, filling in the station names by hand.

The final leg is on pre-printed stock showing Akron as the terminating point.

He tears off his five stubs and hands me the bundle.

(Had I gone to York and back second-class, one ticket would have sufficed.)


Sold-on-train stock was generic, with the conductor filling in both stations. He kept his stub and punched your ticket. And at the end of his run he submitted a report with his stubs, any cash collected, etc.


Now, how about those offices full of clerks at the division headquarters, turning agent and conductor reports into accounting statements, preparing rate separations with other railroads on interline and Pullman tickets, and sending out traveling auditors to do spot checks?

Or the offices responsible for seat and Pullman berth reservations?

JAC

Some additional thoughts about Ticket Punches.

Often different conductors used different punch designs. I have seen a reprint of a UP handbook from the 1880's and it showed which design was used by which conductor. Also transit conductors used distictive designs. This was done so that the operating company could determine who had issued a receipt stub or (for transit operations) a transfer.

I have a Pullman conductor's punch and it is a simple circular design. Interesting is that it has a little compartment to catch the punched out circles. This would have kept these from falling onto the carpet.

To further explain the location codes on the ticket, let's say I buy an unreserved coach ticket from North Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. PRR sells me one ticket coupon for the trip, as it is all-PRR with no stopovers. That will cover three Divisions, with three conductors.

The Philadelphia Division conductor punches the ticket, seat checks me to Harrisburg and hands the coupon back to me. After Harrisburg, the Middle Division conductor punches the ticket, seat checks me to Altoona, and hands the coupon back to me. The Pittsburgh Division conductor lifts the ticket, seat checks me to Pittsburgh and keeps the coupon to turn in with his report.

Each of these conductors has a specific site to punch on the ticket so the next conductor will know it has been used on another Division and is thus valid on his Division.

as a one time commuter on the Long Island Railroad, there were three ways that you could have a ticket.

Single fare from say Penn Station to Oyster Bay, Conductor punched ticket one between NY and Jamacia and again after the transfer. ticket was good for one year.

Weekly ten ride ticket was dated and then punched as before.

Monthly ticket about the same. you sure got a lot of punches on that one! And God help you if you lost it! All the railroad would refund was the percentage of un used days left on the ticket that month.

Ted Miles

PRR used to have an "unrestricted" and a "restricted" monthly ticket. Difference was "unrestricted" was good on week-ends too. When they used a Burroughs Ticketeer machine, the machine-generated coupon was attached to a card form for the punches.

Strangely, the conductor was expected to punch the card for each use, even though the number of rides was unlimited.

RDG sold 20-trip tickets, which meant just that. Conductor lifted the ticket at the 20th ride. RDG didn't have machines, but used printed card tickets.

We can go on and on about variations in RR ticketing. There's got to be a group of people who follow and collect these things.

Short answer is the accounting department of a railroad issued instructions for collecting/accounting for revenue/tickets. My father was a PRR Conductor and gave me a 1944 manual from the Pennsy that is 40-50 pages long going into great detail on "lifting transportation".