I’m now imagining those old railway cars that looked like three or four stagecoach bodies bolted to a flatcar. Is that about right?
No. These had the general outline of any average 20th century railway car (the stagecoach lookalikes went out about 1850). The only external difference was that there were lots of doors all the way along the car, rather than say one at each end with window in between.
They were often known as “dogbox carriages”
The tickets in Sydney up until about 1990 or so were called “Edmonson tickets”. They were a stiff piece of card, and they were quite small - about the size of a cigarette lighter. They were preprinted, and had no passenger details - thus they could be potentially reused and were collected by a station assistant at your destination. Even today, the magnetic single-journey tickets are “captured” by the turnstile machine at the end, for the same reason. Long distance tickets have passenger information, and the railway isn’t interested in collecting them.
When I was a kid platform tickets cost 1p
We spent hours trainspotting and getting filthy from all the smoke.
Mummy was ever so pleased we we rolled in looking like Al Jolson 
Platform tickets weren’t free but the cost was minimal, just a few pennies. I thought that they’d long ago been phased out but it seems they’re still used in some regions.
Slight nitpick, it was 1d and not 1p.
I realise my earlier post was a bit ambiguous - see the page I linked to, which shows a 1950s British Rail-built non-corridor carriage.
Corridor vehicles also could have doors all along one side, opening directly into the compartments, and just two doors on the other side at each end to the corridor. At least I think this is the case. The photo in my link also shows another external difference - a solid end, with no way to walk through to the next carriage!
Until 2 or 3 years ago all the platforms at Edinburgh Waverley were open to the public and no platform ticket was required to see friends off. Now some (mainly the Glasgow/Central Scotland platforms) are closed unless you already have a train ticket - and there aren’t any platform tickets available either…
Hi
I’m a first time poster but long time reader so please be gentle!
To say that you have bought a train ticket in the UK is a misnomer.
When handing over your hard earned cash to the train company you have actually bought the right to make a journey from one destination to another. The ticket that you receive remains, at all times, the property of the relevant train company.
Thirty years ago when the train system was run by the UK Government a train journey would ideally happen as follows:
you purchase the right to travel and are given a ticket, show your ticket to the station master to get onto the station platform, board the train, have your ticket clipped by the ticket inspector (we often call them clippies even today), reach your destination and hand your ticket in to the station master and leave the station.
All in the hope that it would prevent fare dodging!
The reality nowadays is a little different. Trains are run by commercial organisations as profit making businesses and the number of staff available to check tickets has reduced dramatically - they have often be replaced by mechanised barriers and ticket machines or teams of Revenue Protection officers.
To answer your questions:
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What was the purpose of this? To check that you had paid for the journey you had made or were making. Plus the ticket is the property of the train company and they wanted their property back!
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Was collecting your ticket on exit done only at suburban stations, like Beldon, or also in busy stations like London as well? Tickets were suposedly collected from all stations but naturally it was subject to staffing levels. Often larger stations performed spot checks to make sure that customers weren’t fare dodging.
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Is it still done today? Yes and No!
The same or very similar terms and conditions of travel exist today.
When buying a standard return ticket you are always given two tickets (one for the outbound journey and one for the return) in case you have to surrender a ticket once you reach you destination.
If you have to use a mechanised barriers at the end of your journey they usually (with a standard ticket) retain the ticket and let you off the platform.
Revenue protection teams still check tickets but the profit making organisations running the train companies view ticket checking as a cost/expense and do not put quite as much emphasis on this activity.
Conspiracy/boggling mind? Can you really imagine anyone sorting through the millions of tickets used each day to try to glean some useful usable data from them? The train companies already know where 99.9% of their customers are going and coming from - after all they did by a ticket!!
Interesting. I don’t think we’ve ever had that style of passenger car in Canada. I can see where it would have great advantages for speed of loading.
True, but there’s compromises. One is reduced capacity, with restrictions on seating layouts and little room for standing passengers. Another is problems (be they perceived or real) with the safety and security of passengers while shut away in small enclosed areas with only a few strangers, or perhaps one stranger, for company.
Of course, the speed-of-loading aspect is reflected in the typical multiple-door layout of subway trains the world over.
Just so. In fact I believe it was in response to several attacks upon female passengers that led to the introduction of Ladies Only carriages in the 19th century.
Interesting snippet from The Railway Times, 3 March 1888,