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Ticket “crimper” devices

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Cdd89

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Years ago - in the late 90s - I recall tickets being marked as used/cancelled by guards using devices which “crimped” the ticket rather than piercing a hole. This would have been on Thames Trains.


They compressed a logo or circle into the ticket by squeezing the paper and I remember thinking they were an ingenious way to reduce litter and pen marks.

Then they vanished, and in a fit of recent nostalgia I wanted to look them up - but despite a fair bit of searching I can’t find any evidence of their existence, maybe due to using the wrong terms! Does anyone know any more about their use, and why they disappeared?
 
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swt_passenger

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Have you tried searching with “embosser”?

Perhaps they found it was possible to revert the ticket to a flat condition with care?
 

trebor79

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They were still in use in GA land until a few years ago. At that points all of the embossers and clippers disappeared and a pen is now used to scribble on the ticket. EMR is the same. I believe there was a potential issue with repetetive strain injury.
 

Cdd89

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Embosser! :smile: - Though just did a search and still seems quite elusive?

I can imagine RSI being a problem. I remember the results varied hugely, from barely visible impressions from some guards/devices, to nice firm imprints from others.
 

Horizon22

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Bit off topic, but how many TOCs are still using traditional clippers?

Not sure entirely but I know several guards like to have unique ones - such as festive stars or Christmas trees that like to do the rounds on social media. Not company standard issue though!
 

bunnahabhain

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Sounds a bit like the Zifa stampers, don't they peirce a small hole, crimp and print the date into the tickets?
 

trebor79

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Not sure entirely but I know several guards like to have unique ones - such as festive stars or Christmas trees that like to do the rounds on social media. Not company standard issue though!
Heart pierced with an arrow is the weirdest one I ever saw.
Sounds a bit like the Zifa stampers, don't they peirce a small hole, crimp and print the date into the tickets?
The devices the OP is referring to only emboss.
 

55002

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In the 80s you used to get clipped which left a shape like the number 2 on your ticket, at least on the east coast you did
 

Ken H

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Bit off topic, but how many TOCs are still using traditional clippers?
Aren't they not used now because they could interfere with the magnetic stripe on the ticket. or a badly made hole could jam in a ticket gate.
 

Ken H

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XAM2175

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I think the print top right on linky has been done by such a device

Those are the Zifa stampers I linked in post 9. The data they print can be customised when ordered, and ink ribbons for them are also available in black and red.

SBB have theirs print their logo above the stamper's identity number, which I've always thought to be a nice touch.
 

Ashley Hill

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I have a South Wales and West set of "punches" which emboss SWW onto the ticket. These never really caught on. The Dormy printers were thought to assist in fare evasion. The details printed the users depot and their unique ID together with the date and route code. The ink was messy and could be rubbed off but you could still identify that it had been punched by the dent the printing left behind. Traditional hole punches went out of favour due to litter and mag strip damage. Also some guards used other areas punches so identification of route could not be guaranteed.
 

Ken H

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Different routes had different shapes.

Stephen Fry said on QI that the punching bits of litter were called a didcot, and that someone had had 'didcots' used as confetti at their wedding. But then he admitted that he had made the whole thing up!
 

SargeNpton

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I think Stephen Fry pinched that from Douglas Adams' "Meaning of Liff", where names of various towns were ascribed to things that previously had no name...


My favourite was Ely: That first inkling you get that something is about to go horribly wrong.
 
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