Identifying a 1969 bus ticket

[Ostrich]

An old school colleague has been pruning his archives and has discovered a bus ticket which may help resolve a long-standing argument we’ve been having concerning a Youth Hostelling holiday we undertook 50 years ago!

The ticket is a TIM type bus ticket from an unnamed company’s bus route 198 costing 3/6d issued on 30th August 1969. We know on this day we started from Ingleton YHA and travelled to the K&WVR before journeying onwards to watch a game at Bradford City FC, but we don’t know whether we caught a bus or a train from Ingleton (High Bentham station) to Keighley, or how we got from Keighley to Bradford.

My friend can’t find any references to a 198 bus route in that area from that era. He can only think it might possibly be Pennine Motors, but from where to where? He is also wondering - because of the value of the ticket - if it might be anything to do with the K&WVR itself. Are there any archivists out there who might be able to shed any light on it, or point us in the right direction to enquire further?

Finally, he has also unearthed a small selection of other bus tickets from the 1960s and 1970’s. Would these be of any value or interest to a collector?

Thanks!

 

[michael Bell]

An old school colleague has been pruning his archives and has discovered a bus ticket which may help resolve a long-standing argument we’ve been having concerning a Youth Hostelling holiday we undertook 50 years ago!

The ticket is a TIM type bus ticket from an unnamed company’s bus route 198 costing 3/6d issued on 30th August 1969. We know on this day we started from Ingleton YHA and travelled to the K&WVR before journeying onwards to watch a game at Bradford City FC, but we don’t know whether we caught a bus or a train from Ingleton (High Bentham station) to Keighley, or how we got from Keighley to Bradford.

My friend can’t find any references to a 198 bus route in that area from that era. He can only think it might possibly be Pennine Motors, but from where to where? He is also wondering - because of the value of the ticket - if it might be anything to do with the K&WVR itself. Are there any archivists out there who might be able to shed any light on it, or point us in the right direction to enquire further?

Finally, he has also unearthed a small selection of other bus tickets from the 1960s and 1970’s. Would these be of any value or interest to a collector?

Thanks!

At that time Pennine used setright and obtained most of there ticket rolls from Ribble who they had a close working relationship with, especially on the main Skipton to Lancaster Morecambe Route. They shared an outstation at Ingleton, the property I believe belonged to Pennine.

 

[steamybrian]

I would recommend contacting the Transport Ticket Society who could give you the answers.

THE TRANSPORT TICKET SOCIETY – A world-wide association of students of tickets and fare-collection systems (transport-ticket.org.uk)

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Obvious question, is it possible to link to a photo of the ticket(s)?

 

[Ostrich]

Thanks all, especially for the specialist website link!

I'll report back to my colleague and see if I can get him to register and upload a photo on here ......

 

[madannie77]

My husband is a member of the Transport Ticket Society and tells me that the K&WVR used TIM tickets in their early days (he adds that the K&WVR have used a lot of different tickets over the years, but that is another topic). He promises to do a bit of searching in his collection tomorrow morning.

 

[Wilmington]

It is my ticket that prompted this query.
By extracting it from my album and turning it over to scan I have discovered that I wrote "worth valley" on the reverse.
If correct, it is indeed a K&WVR ticket.

I can't deduce the significance of the 198 or the 2865 printed on it.

 

[madannie77]

The 198 printed vertically is the ticket machine number. I assume this has been replicated in the route number box, although I don't know why.

2865 is the ticket number, i.e. the 2865th ticket issued from that machine since it was made or reset to 0001.


EDIT - added several hours later :

A bit more detail springs to mind about that ticket. The space above the number 2865 would normally have the operator name or initials. That this one doesn't, and the use of the word route, suggests to me a second-hand machine from a bus operator.

 

[TTS]

The ticket is from an ex-PMT TIM machine. PMT sold many off when they converted entirely to Setrights. In most cases, they erased the P-M-T title from the plate to prevent misuse.

TIM machine users often set the route number to the machine number.

Pennine MS never used TIMs to the best of my knowledge. For many years, in fact since before WW2, they had an arrangement with Ribble MS whereby the latter did their accounting and supplied Pennine with ticket machines and (Ribble) ticket packs / rolls, first Willebrews, later Setrights. It was only after deregulation / privatisation that the arrangement came to an end and Pennine then had to obtain their own (secondhand) Setrights and rolls. They subsequently went onto Almex A's, and then Almex A90's.

I suspect this ticket was issued by the K&WVRly as they are known to have used secondhand TIM machines for a time. These were fitted with new title plates but this ticket may have been issued from a machine before that was done.

David
Transport Ticket Society
www.transport-ticket.org.uk

 

[madannie77]

Mr Madannie has several TIMs from K&WVR, all from machine number 202, with dating from 1970 and the others unknown date as the printing is rather faint. The title on these is K.W.V.L.R. The Stage boarded box has also been changed to STA'N BOARDED.

 

[Ostrich]

Mr & Mrs Madannie, that's brilliant, thank you both! I suspected someone from this forum would quickly put us straight.

Ticket mystery solved - but we are still left arguing as to how we actually departed from Ingleton on the day ..... one which, I suspect, will run and run

 

[madannie77]

It was quite satisfying to find some information from part of my husband's large collection of little bits of paper & card .

Not that I can complain about how much space it takes up in our house, as I suspect that my bus timetable collection takes up rather more

 

[philthetube]

for loading speed I think the TIM was the fastest machine ever, possibly closely chased by the Almex, current drivers would not believe how quick these machines were compared with the current electric stuff.