11th August 2018.
The last stop of our heritage was to the Edmondson
tickets printing press. It was told the visitors were not allowed and we are
the first batch allowed to peep in may be last also. Special permission was
given by the Asst. General Manager of Southern Railway and thanks to him.
This Edmondson tickets are introduced in 1840s by the
British railways as a replacement to the hand written receipts. This was
invented by Thomas Edmondson, who worked with the British rails. Initially the
introduction of these type of tickets faced little restriction but latter the same
was resolved. These tickets are 31x75x.75 mm in size. This system was
introduced in 1892 by the Southern Railway and this printing press at Royapuram
was started in 1926 and completed it’s golden jubilee. In 1926 the staff are deputed to
the Madras trade School when it started a separate printing press. The 1927 German made printing machines is idle after retirement.
The high security with Southern Railway water mark /monogram 192 tickets are printed on a 500 GSM card board and cut to sizes through hmt made cutting machines. The tickets contains the amount, the stations and the class.
Serial numbers are punched manually. Different colour boards are used for different
classes like, white, light green,light yellow, light brown etc,. The trilingual languages
are printed. 250 tickets are tied with a rope using hand press. It was told that
15000 to 18000 tickets are dispatched per day. These tickets are issue for the local short
distance trains.The decision of Closure
of the press in 2017,was revoked in Feb 2018, due to the resistance of
employees. Since most the jobs in the printing press are done manually and the issuing of computerized tickets this printing press is at the verge of
extinct.
Apart from tickets, the press also prints the time tables, reservation forms, books for Railways, etc,. This is one of the ticket printing press out of 5 presses functioning in India and other 4 are Byculla, Howrah, Shakurbasti and Secunderabad.
Apart from tickets, the press also prints the time tables, reservation forms, books for Railways, etc,. This is one of the ticket printing press out of 5 presses functioning in India and other 4 are Byculla, Howrah, Shakurbasti and Secunderabad.
192
tickets printed board
bundling of 250 tickets
192 tickets are printing in a sheet
Individual tickets are cut
---OM SHIVAYA NAMA---
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