Hello! I'm fact checking for a novel.

[Simple_Simon]

Hi

I'm Simple Simon and I'm writing a detective novel set in the mid 1950s. I'd be really grateful for some help with facts and terminology. It's a bit in the book where the detective speaks with two railwaymen, and learns that a train cancellation made it impossible for his suspect to have been at the crime scene.

First he talks to the chap who punches the ticket actually on the train. Is that person called the train conductor? (Ramsgate branch of the Chatham Main Line, out of Victoria.) Then he speaks with the ticket man at the platform at Victoria – who I suppose is the ticket inspector? The end of the platform – would that be called the ticket gate or maybe the platform gate?

Also, am I correct in thinking that the locomotives to Ramsgate for that period were SR V Schools Class?

Lastly, if anyone has a Southern Region timetable for approx 1955-58, I'd much appreciate consulting on one or two train times. (Timetable World have 1950 only)

Thanks in advance

Simple Simon

[wyvern]

I cant answer all your questions but:

Originally Posted by Simple_Simon

First he talks to the chap who punches the ticket actually on the train. Is that person called the train conductor? (Ramsgate branch of the Chatham Main Line, out of Victoria.) Then he speaks with the ticket man at the platform at Victoria – who I suppose is the ticket inspector? The end of the platform – would that be called the ticket gate or maybe the platform gate?

In the fifties the chap on the the train would be called a guard, or sometimes there would be a ticket insoector, not a conductor. Even small village had staff and ticket offices, so buying a ticket on the train was a rarity.

Check if Victoria was an open station in the fifties (though this was something still coming in). The chap on the exit gate (?) would be a ticket collector if I remember rightly.

A slow train to Ramsgate might be a Maunsell L class CLICK: Ramsgate railway station geograph-2682277-by-Ben-Brooksbank.jpg I wonder why they weren't electric?

[boilersuit]

The gate at Victoria would have been called the ticket barrier, where the staff member was the ticket collector. Trains to Ramsgate could have been in the hands of any of the SE section's 4-4-0s – D, D1, E, E1, L, L1 or Schools – or a mogul (U, U1, N or N1) or even a Bulleid pacific. Electrification of that route didn't come until the early sixties.

[wyvern]

I was going by what appears to be conductor rail in the photgraph. Perhaps they were in the process of installing it all.

[Simple_Simon]

Many thanks chaps, that's very useful. Thanks also for the link to the Ben Brooksbank photo - I've just been looking at some of his others on the same site.

If anyone has a Southern Region timetable for approx 1955-58, could you tell me first train from Victoria to Ramsgate? (weekdays) Otherwise I'm betting it was the same time as 1950, whose timetable I have seen.

Cheers

S-S

[Sentinel]

Welcome to the forum, Simon - and good luck with your novel!