What is /was this used for?

[Flamingo]

Can anyone say what this box would have been used for? My guess would be it was how used collected tickets were returned to area HQ for auditing purposes. However it looks a bit on the large size if tickets were all it contained, hence my question. .

Seen at Barry Island station, late 1970s, purpose unknown (to me at least)

[StevieG]

Conveyance of wages (bulk, or ready-packeted) from a central pay office to a booking/other office for paying out ?

[ Just possibly, having (apparently) no mention of purpose on the outside, might support this or a similar theory. ]

[Multiprinter]

This is a cash box for conveying cash from booking offices of smaller stations to the nearest large station. In the case of the box in question it would go to Cardiff. There was a slot in the top into which all the cash etc was put. The boxes were normally wrapped in chains with padlocks and were heavy, hence the need for a sack truck. They were certainly common in south and west Wales and probably elsewhere on Western Region and were still used into the 1990s.
Southern and Scottish Regions I think only used locked leather pouches for the same function, handed to the guard as a 'Value Parcel'. This meant, in theory, that the guard couldn't leave his van to check tickets etc.

[StevieG]

Aha! Thanks Multiprinter. I wasn't too far out then.

And welcome to this forum: Comments on how interesting newcomers find its information seem to appear at least every 2 or 3 months: I would venture that negative feelings are very rarely posted.

[hq1hitchin]

Aha! Thanks Multiprinter. I wasn't too far out then.

And welcome to this forum: Comments on how interesting newcomers find its information seem to appear at least every 2 or 3 months: I would venture that negative feelings are very rarely posted.

Yes indeed, welcome Multiprinter. At Welwyn North in the 1960s, for example, we had a little leather cash bag which would be sealed by the booking clerk after the takings had been put in, together with the remittance note (I think it was called that), using string and sealing wax then sealed while the wax was still hot with a metal stamp 'LNER Welwyn North' before being handed to the guard as a value item - so it needed to be signed for - for conveyance to Welwyn Gdn City, which was our banking station.

[Flamingo]

As usual, rapid and informative replies. Many thanks, gentlemen, excellent work indeed. Multiprinter, with a user name like that you must surely have some tales to tell us about booking office work? Welcome to the forum, anyway.

[Multiprinter]

Thanks for the warm welcome folks. I'm pleased I was able to assist.
My user name actually hints at one of my collecting interests - BR tickets of all types except Edmondson which are too expensive!
I did however spend a few years as a guard, so hopefully I may be able to assist with other enquiries. Meanwhile, I'm slowly reading through all the previous posts and topics - there is so much of interest.

Going back to the subject of cash boxes, I have a feeling they may have originated with the GWR. I'll have to check this out.

[hq1hitchin]

Just got the old brain cells thinking about booking office cash - or rather excess fares and what have you - at Dunstable Town station, where passengers bought their tickets from the booking office which was to one side of the general waiting room (austere sort of place, bare floor boards, high ceiling, hard benches etc) seperated only by an internal wall, the sort of thing we see on lots of preserved railways today. At that location, however, there was a very small slot in that wall through which the porter could push coins and notes when the booking office was closed. As a gullible skuleboy I was told the money dropped straight into the safe, not sure whether that was true or not. Anyone else heard of similar means of keeping the railway's money safe? Sad to think I'm probably one of the few people still around who can remember that slot. The station closed in 1965 and that awful busway, which few people seem to want (including Dunstable's MP) is still being built and the old railway overbridges demolished.

[Mickey]

Deleted

[Mr Bunt]

At Welwyn North in the 1960s, for example, we had a little leather cash bag which would be sealed by the booking clerk after the takings had been put in, together with the remittance note (I think it was called that), using string and sealing wax then sealed while the wax was still hot with a metal stamp 'LNER Welwyn North' before being handed to the guard as a value item - so it needed to be signed for - for conveyance to Welwyn Gdn City, which was our banking station.

We were a bit more minimalist on the RH&DR in the 1980s and 1990s. The booking office takings were put into a canvas bag with a Velcro flap that had three brass eyelets through it and it was secured using a long hasp padlock, the keys for which were only held by New Romney and the stationmaster of the station concerned. The bag was then given to the driver of a specified train and collected by the New Romney signalman or stationmaster when it got there. Nobody signed for anything - and in fact what was called "The Hythe balance" (the only station to pay in twice a day) was sent in an unlocked bag on the second Down of the day!

The prospect of about £4,000, mostly in cash, travelling on the same train each day throughout the summer used to worry me a bit when I was the stationmaster at Dymchurch. Despite Michael Bentine's spoof on his TV programme "It's a Square World" we never did have a "Great Little Train Robbery" though.

[61070]

By coincidence, in the lower picture on page 56 of the current issue of Steam World (Nov 2010, Issue 281) there's one of these boxes on in the background.