translation problem

[Pierre]

Pierre Bondil : I'm Jim Thompson's French translator (a new translation, unabridged) on "The Getaway" and I wondered if I could find someone on the world wide net who could help me.
In the middle of chapter 9, Doc is in the train with the robber he has just killed and Carol. Here comes the conductor. This all has to do with conductors in the 50s in America ! The text goes ("he" being the conductor) :
"He jabbed a train check into the window clip, yanked a coupon from the ticket book and tossed it down on to the seat."
What use is that "train check" ? What is this "window clip"? I suppose "the ticket book" means "his" ticket book, the conductor's.
One page later, I find : "The conductor glanced at his watch, took out a receipt book"
Is this the same as the ticket book, or is it a booklet containing receipts for money taken on the train when passenges board without a ticket ?
I, as you can imagine, would be delighted if you could help, perhaps give me a link to an American specialist on train conductors (hard to find) or Jim Thompson...
With many thanks
Pierre Bondil(less)

[Andrea]

Hi Pierre
No luck from the world wide web yet, huh? For what it's worth, I'd guess that a 'train check' would be like a slip of paper that the conductor would stick in the 'window clip'(une sorte de pince?) up on the window to "mark" where he'd already checked tickets. And I'm guessing the receipt book is what you figured, (un carnet à souche?) since he used one of their tickets for the dead guy and bought 2 others for Carol and himself on the train (and was reprimanded for it by the conductor.
Well, I don't know if this helps you at all, but en attendant les experts....ou au moins qq qui prenait le train en Amérique à cette époque (pas moi)!
Bon Courage!

[Pierre]

Thanks a whole lot, Andrea
Your message helps confirm more or less what I thought. My mail being retructured it took time answering. I just sent a mail to someone who takes the train everyday (not 1958) from New York (not Kansas City) who is bilingual just as you are and might help. I think I will have to use a footnote in the book. I think the kind of "pince" is called a window clip because it's close to or above the window seat. In some trains it's a kind of "élastique sous lequel on glisse le récépissé de contrôle/titre de droit à occupation d'un siège". Bref, je verrai d'ici dix jours car la traduction est rendue, acceptée et les épreuves arriveront d'ici quelques jours. Once again, thanks a lot for your help and kind answer.
Pierre