Tickets, New and Used

[NW Mailing List]

Abram
 
I can get the ball rolling with observances of my great grandfathers (C&O 1914-1954) conductors paperwork and how things are done today. I'll welcome any corrections cheerfully :-)

The ability to lift tickets and handle cash would be covered under union agreement. In short, if you handle cash or any type of accounting, then you're generally entitled to a higher rate of pay.  That example goes to onboard or station personnel as well. For example, the dining car steward would handle money collected in the dining car, not the waiter. So a passenger brakeman or flagman would not be required to lift tickets.

If a conductor or station agent is working alone, then he is responsible for all cash and accounting and therefore entitled to a higher rate of pay. 

A conductor working alone on a low volume train should have time to get caught up between stops. He could also punch tickets and seat passengers enroute and get completely caught up by his termination point. Again, if volume is higher, he has help. 

Remittance would be handled by a ticket agent or station agent (station master supervised the entire station) at the conductors home or away terminal. That revenue is added to the general ledger for days sales and has its own accounting code / line. There wouldn't be a need to remit enroute, so smaller stations would not be set up to handle those. 

I've seen a couple forms dealing with the issuance of ticket punches. It would be handled in the same way a ticket agent is issued his dater die. A form is filled out and signed then passed on up to the proper accounting office.

If a die or punch becomes lost, stolen or broken, then another form is filled out as that's the employees identity to the company and must be accounted for. That also protects the employee in case somebody tries to use the punch or die in an improper manner.

Today, it takes a form properly filled out to order new ticket stock as it was most likely done back in the day. Pre computer tickets all had serial numbers and had to be accounted for and placed in inventory for audit. When a conductor got low on ticket stock, he'd fill out a form and hand it to the ticket / station agent at his home or away terminal. The tickets would be distributed and he is then accountable for all the stock until depleted. 

To answer your main question...I'm not sure what office directly handled the stock or if it was sent directly to each station from the printer after the proper accounting forms are filled out.

My great grandfather as most passenger conductors carried an aluminum or sheet metal "office box". Inside was kept all the forms, ticket stock, pens, pencils, time books, timetables etc. When I was given that box ( my grandmother had kept it all those years), I looked through it and was amazed at the amount of forms and boring paperwork it contained. As I work in a similar situation today, those forms take on new meaning.

One way to get better understanding is looking for somebody selling a "lot" of forms at a train show or elsewhere. Most go for very cheap as there is no fancy logos, just a form number and a look into that side of railroading long and not so long past...

Matt



> On Apr 12, 2017, at 11:21 PM, NW fMailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
> 
> Anyone know what the N&W's process was for the distribution of ticket stock to the station agents and the Conductors?
> 
> I know that cash receipts and cancelled tickets were sent in to the Auditor of Passenger Revenues, because I saw envelopes so addressed being filled with such items.
> 
> My question concerns the issuance of new ticket stock.  Who (what office) supplied agents and Conductors with these things?
> 
> One of the questions I was not smart enough to ask while it was being done...
> 
> Larger railroads, which had truly huge passenger volumes, had a Ticket Receiver for each Division or major terminal, which handled ticket stock, cancelled tickets, cash remitted by Conductors, and even ticket punches (should a Conductor need a new one.)
> 
> In retrospect, it now seems odd to me that on the N&W, passenger brakemen did not "lift fares" and punch tickets.  Only the Conductor did that.  I guess the volume of business was low enough, and the stations were far enough apart, that one man on the train could handle it.
> 
> -- abram burnett
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