BR Computing (as it probably then wasn't) created PBM - the Parcels Business Machine - to run on networked PCs for Red Star - printing despatch labels, and (I guess) specifying routes and notifying arrivals. When it was reaching the end of its useful life, the NRM asked for a working version on a standalone machine. My colleagues who had worked on the thing had distinctly mixed feelings: pride that something they had built was going into the national collection, while feeling rather old in that something they had done as part of their day job was ancient enough to be in a museum.
For a while one of the IBM mainframe transaction processing services I looked after was PBMCICS - the mainframe back-end for PBM. I was responsible for the systems programmer side, not the application code but I remember there was some special assembler exit code for it that I had to adapt for a new version of CICS (IBM's high speed transaction processor). We were quite glad when it went away because it was a 'non-standard' service, i.e. a bit of a pain in the bum!
I used Redstar to send my Atari 520 ST microcomputer (as they were called in pre-PC days) to Preston for a memory upgrade.
The Redstar office was round the back of the BTP offices at Nottingham station.
I remember at that time there were four variations on the Redstar service:
Station to Station (cheapest)
Collect from address, then station to station or Station to station then delivery to address (medium price)
Collect from address, station to station, delivery to address (most expensive)
I didn't get a discount despite being BR staff but I seem to remember the price wasn't unreasonable.
) for printing labels, as well as a set of scales though in later years those were mostly used for weighing the odd guide dog at the request of volunteers...! There were very few users of the service at this location by the mid - late 90s.
