Trivia: Odd Old Station (or On Train) Items You Remember.

[fgwrich]

A bit of an odd one this, and it's a thread I don't think anybody else has done before. So here goes, What items do you remember from either on stations or on trains from the past that you remember (and slightly miss).

Oddly enough, I had a dream last night and a few NSE Flashbacks came up in my mind. One of which is actually those chunky old Ascom Quickfare ticket machines - I vaguely remember the endless number of green and orange buttons! And those early PIS Screens as well.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Those nice chunky small tickets printed on extremely thick card. When I was a child I made a point of keeping all my tickets - until I must have had dozens of them from the 70s and early 80s. Then at some point as a teenager I decided I'd grown out of such childish things. Oooops! I can't recall whether I threw them away or whether my Mum later figured they were not wanted and threw them away after I'd moved out. Either way, even aside from the lost emotional value, I dread to think how much those lost tickets would have been worth today.

And ditto the timetables. I also acquired a massive collection of the free pocket timetables that BR did in the 70s - the ones that, when folded, the front cover was white with a BR sign on the left and coloured, listing the main stations on the route on the right. If only I'd thought more about how I might want them again one day in the future...

 

[Strathclyder]

I remember the chunky old C.R.T passenger information screens that my local station (Singer) used to have. I occasionally wistfully look back at them and the simpler time in my life they embody; day-trips to Largs, Ayr, Balloch, Helensburgh and sometimes Edinburgh. What I would give to go back to those times for just one day...

 

[takno]

Those nice chunky small tickets printed on extremely thick card.

I think I still have a couple of those. I have a pile of the old big-format BR tickets which were pre-printed with the destination so that the clerk could just put them in the machine and punch on the class/single-return/price/child-adult info. I miss those slightly

 

[Firesprite]

Full English Breakfast served in the buffet car (4Rep) on the 6.40am Bournemouth-Waterloo Express (1 hour 39 mins) stopping only at Southampton and the airport. None of this slower bus service on rails that we have today where even the so called fast trains are 20 mins slower.

 

[PaulJ]

Hmm. As I am now 51 I very much remember travelling with my parents between Ramsgate and Canterbury West and being fascinated by the lineside telegraph wires seemingly go up and down as we passed through the Chislet Marshes; that and the old Chislet Colliery Halt - no longer there now of course. The station at Ramsgate also had a model Rocket in a glass case that worked if you popped in a penny. The ticket office sold badges of Deltics and Mallard etc to raise funds for Woking Homes. Anyone remember those badges?

 

[Clip]

I vaguely remember that at Ramsgate.

The old Wagon that used to be there at Margate by plat 4. Was there for years then it was gone.

 

[pdeaves]

BRUTEs. 'Undreds and 'undreds of BRUTEs. Every station seemed to have them. I always enjoyed watching the 'tractors' taking a run at subway ramps heaving a train of them up onto the platform, always secretly hoping that it would stall and have to back down again!

 

[a_c_skinner]

Big machines that wrote your name on a short strip of (IIRC) aluminium.

AS

 

[yorksrob]

The very old clock on the wall at Canterbury West springs to mind. Also, the vintage chocolate machines at Ashford, Kent (vintage machines, the Cadbury's chocolate was fine.

 

[yorksrob]

The little conservatory against the main building at Falmer (it housed a lever frame and lots of plants).

 

[yorksrob]

On other thing that springs to mind, at Tonbridge, the base of the old water column on the downside was visible well into the 80's (and possibly the 90's). I always wondered what it was when I was a child.

 

[Pinza-C55]

At Kings Cross in the late 70s - the old departure indicator with the green letters, the seedy buffet in the corner which had Bowyers pies under a hot glass cover and the prostitutes and drug dealers huddled over a cup of coffee.
At Newcastle, the huge cone shaped pendant fluorescent lights which hung from the roof and swung about in a strong wind. Clouds of diesel clag. Seeing trains lit up on the OCS panel in the signalbox. The Searchlight signals which took a long time to clear so if you were going to Middlesbrough from Platform 7 they would clear one after the other.
At Grantham the coal fire which you could feed with coal as you slept in there waiting for a Deltic on a diversion.


55014 Newcastle 8.4.79 par PinzaC55, on ipernity

 

[gg1]

Old fashioned chocolate vending machines dispensing nestle dairy crunch via an invariably rather stiff metal drawer. I don't remember ever seeing them anywhere other than railway stations.

 

[sprinterguy]

One of which is actually those chunky old Ascom Quickfare ticket machines - I vaguely remember the endless number of green and orange buttons!

There was something satisfying about the chunky look of those illuminated green and yellow buttons when pressing them. There was also something pleasing about the warm yellow glow that illuminated the polished aluminium of the ticket dispenser tray as the tickets were printed.

It's been mentioned before, by myself and several others, but the large, red backed segment clocks that tick-tick-ticked so soothingly at stations across the network were an indelible part of the railway atmosphere during quiet periods.

The wooden plank platforms at Seaburn station: They still are formed of some sort of board of a different type, but it's not the same since the station was modernised for the Metro extension.

 

[sprinterguy]

BRUTEs. 'Undreds and 'undreds of BRUTEs. Every station seemed to have them.

Yes, I remember dozens of the things illuminated by the yellow glow of the station lights at Carlisle on an evening. Given how numerous they once were, and fairly recently, they represent a sizeable absence from the stations of today.

 

[sprinterguy]

At Newcastle, the huge cone shaped pendant fluorescent lights which hung from the roof and swung about in a strong wind. Clouds of diesel clag. Seeing trains lit up on the OCS panel in the signalbox. The Searchlight signals which took a long time to clear so if you were going to Middlesbrough from Platform 7 they would clear one after the other.

That's a wonderfully evocative image of Newcastle at the bottom of your post, thanks for sharing it. Really illustrates the "clouds of diesel clag" that you describe: The acrid tang and visible haze of diesel exhaust is something that once seemed to be a compulsory feature of major railway stations, along with a general coating of grime on every surface, that you don't come across as often any more. It's incredible how much cleaner, brighter and airier stations generally are these days, particularly when they have benefitted from a major refurbishment in the last decade or so, which creates a much more welcoming environment for the passenger, even if it does lessen the 'atmosphere' for the minority of enthusiasts!

 

[gg1]

It's been mentioned before, by myself and several others, but the large, red backed segment clocks that tick-tick-ticked so soothingly at stations across the network was an indelible part of the railway atmosphere during quiet periods.

That reminds me of the sound I miss the most from today's stations, the flapflapflapflap of a solari board changing.

 

[EM2]

When you bought your ticket, the clerk put it on their side of a little turntable, you put your payment on your side, then they pressed a little lever or switch and it whizzed round 180 degrees.
Much cooler than those troughs we have these days.

 

[Thebaz]

There was something satisfying about the chunky look of those illuminated green and yellow buttons when pressing them. There was also something pleasing about the warm yellow glow that illuminated the polished aluminium of the ticket dispenser tray as the tickets were printed.

It's been mentioned before, by myself and several others, but the large, red backed segment clocks that tick-tick-ticked so soothingly at stations across the network were an indelible part of the railway atmosphere during quiet periods.

The wooden plank platforms at Seaburn station: They still are formed of some sort of board of a different type, but it's not the same since the station was modernised for the Metro extension.

They always made satisfying grindy noises followed by the resounding clunk of your ticket hitting the dispense tray.

 

[sprinterguy]

They always made satisfying grindy noises followed by the resounding clunk of your ticket hitting the dispense tray.

Yes, that as well.

 

[yorksrob]

When you bought your ticket, the clerk put it on their side of a little turntable, you put your payment on your side, then they pressed a little lever or switch and it whizzed round 180 degrees.
Much cooler than those troughs we have these days.

Oh yes, they were good. Does anywhere still have them ?

 

[Requeststop]

Old fashioned chocolate vending machines dispensing nestle dairy crunch via an invariably rather stiff metal drawer. I don't remember ever seeing them anywhere other than railway stations.

It's what went through my mind too. Putting in an old three penny bit or a "silver" sixpence for a Dairy milk etc.

 

[snowball]

Big machines that wrote your name on a short strip of (IIRC) aluminium.

AS

How long or short the strip was depended on what you told it to write. It didn't have to be your name. The strip was cut to length.

 

[gg1]

It's what went through my mind too. Putting in an old three penny bit or a "silver" sixpence for a Dairy milk etc.

I wasn't quite thinking that far back

They were still pretty common in the late 80s not sure when they eventually disapeared.

 

[Kite159]

The old "Welcome to Hampshire" signs at Grateley.

The old portacabin used in the mornings for someone to sit in with an portable ticket machine to sell tickets when the Permit to Travel machine was in use.

 

[urbophile]

I remember nostalgically the enormous departure board at Victoria (I think there was a similar one at Waterloo) with hundreds of blue-and-white enamel station names flipping over and rattling every few seconds, and the punched cards that the operators used to work them. The modern electronic ones are not half as much fun.

Fortunately the train indicators on the District line platforms at Earls Court are listed so are still in use, with faintly illuminated arrows pointing to the appropriate enamel name.

 

[Firesprite]

The 'W' club

For many years until the 442's were removed. In the buffet car on the 4REP's and later in the "Snug" 442's on the 5.30pm (Later 5.35pm) Waterloo- Weymouth train on Fridays. They was a group of drinkers who would order a round of drinks every time the train went through a station with a name that started with 'W', which on this route there is quite a few.

 

[sheff1]

The huge manual departure display at Glasgow Central where large boards were ferried back and forth into windows (one for each platform).
https://www.railscot.co.uk/imageenlarge/imagecomplete.php?id=17775

 

[6Gman]

BRUTEs. 'Undreds and 'undreds of BRUTEs. Every station seemed to have them. I always enjoyed watching the 'tractors' taking a run at subway ramps heaving a train of them up onto the platform, always secretly hoping that it would stall and have to back down again!

BRUTEs were great!