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

[Taunton]

the old wooden departure boards on platforms at big stations before PIS came in. They may have changed to plastic towards the end, but you could read them as clear as day.

There was an absolute whopper at Waterloo, presumably dating from Southern Railway days, many columns wide and with plenty of depth to get all the stops in one column (modern video screen system designers please take note). Even the wood was kept nicely polished. It probably had its own full time operator round the back.

It was stripped out in a 1970s remodelling, replaced by a Solari board. Bizarrely, I saw the contractor on the project advertised the redundant board for sale in the Railway Magazine.

In 1980, in Los Angeles, California, I went to a restaurant near Universal Studios called Victoria Station http://www.oldlarestaurants.com/victoria-station/ . Apart from having part of the dining area in about four old Mk 1 SOs, in blue/grey livery,which were visible as you approached, on entering there, in all its splendour, was the old Waterloo departure board. All sorts of nonsense station combinations showing, of course. The themed restaurant moved on after some years, the Mk 1s were probably scrapped, I wonder what happened to the wooden departure board, so far from home.

 

[fowler9]

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

Liverpool Lime Street if we are thinking about the same kind of thing.

 

[fowler9]

Liverpool Lime Street having Cross Country Trains going to all kinds of interesting places instead of a half hourly Desiro to Birmingham.

The old platform shelters at West Allerton which were made out of hardboard or plasterboard or some such stuff. There was a toilet in one of them and for some reason they chose Platform 4!, probably the least used platform at least in latter years.

Casey Jones burger bars on bigger stations.

Those little chocolate bar machines people have already mentioned.

 

[Springs Branch]

A lot of posts have already touched on things I remember - Solari indicators, Nestle chocolate machines (you never knew whether you would get a bar of chocolate out or the machine would just rob your money) and those cool turntables at ticket office windows.

Speaking of booking offices, I remember the paper tickets which were issued at Inter-City stations in the 1970s and early 80s. These were after Edmondson, but before the familar credit-card-size, magnetic stripe APTIS tickets appeared in the mid-1980s.

The tickets I have in mind were a little larger than APTIS, had a "portrait" rather than "landscape" aspect, used a pre-printed paper with a yellowish background and were mechanically printed with destination and other details by the booking clerk.

I bought a fair number of this style at Wigan NW during the 1970s. It seems the destination printing block had to be selected by the clerk and inserted into the ticket machine. If you were buying for a common destination like Euston or Liverpool, these inserts were kept close to hand and the ticket issued speedily. If you wanted somewhere a bit unusual, he had to go over to a big rack at the back of the office, where a large number of blocks for less common destination were kept - presumably arranged alphabetically.

IIRC there was a pretty wide coverage of country-wide destinations - no hesitation when printing tickets from Wigan to Dún Laoghaire, Haslemere or Brodick, on the Isle of Arran. I think the only time I was issued a blank ticket with the destination filled in by pen was for Wigan to Datchet. I did wonder what fraction (if any) of destinations available in the rack at Wigan were pristine and had never seen printing ink.


The strange thing is, I have been looking for some info on these tickets and can't find anything on the Internet. Lots & lots of stuff and images for old Edmondson tickets and APTIS, PORTIS and the like, but I can't even find out what this generation of paper ticket was called. They weren't some local peculiarity, as I was issued with similar style tickets for longer-distance journeys from stations all around the country.

Does anyone remember this style of ticket, what they were called and if any images available on line?

 

[steevp]

Speaking of booking offices, I remember the paper tickets which were issued at Inter-City stations in the 1970s and early 80s. These were after Edmondson, but before the familar credit-card-size, magnetic stripe APTIS tickets appeared in the mid-1980s.

The tickets I have in mind were a little larger than APTIS, had a "portrait" rather than "landscape" aspect, used a pre-printed paper with a yellowish background and were mechanically printed with destination and other details by the booking clerk.

I bought a fair number of this style at Wigan NW during the 1970s. It seems the destination printing block had to be selected by the clerk and inserted into the ticket machine. If you were buying for a common destination like Euston or Liverpool, these inserts were kept close to hand and the ticket issued speedily. If you wanted somewhere a bit unusual, he had to go over to a big rack at the back of the office, where a large number of blocks for less common destination were kept - presumably arranged alphabetically.

IIRC there was a pretty wide coverage of country-wide destinations - no hesitation when printing tickets from Wigan to Dún Laoghaire, Haslemere or Brodick, on the Isle of Arran. I think the only time I was issued a blank ticket with the destination filled in by pen was for Wigan to Datchet. I did wonder what fraction (if any) of destinations available in the rack at Wigan were pristine and had never seen printing ink.


The strange thing is, I have been looking for some info on these tickets and can't find anything on the Internet. Lots & lots of stuff and images for old Edmondson tickets and APTIS, PORTIS and the like, but I can't even find out what this generation of paper ticket was called. They weren't some local peculiarity, as I was issued with similar style tickets for longer-distance journeys from stations all around the country.

Does anyone remember this style of ticket, what they were called and if any images available on line?

On the Southern we had NCR21 tickets which were the small portrait card tickets which were pre-printed or hand written destinations, there were the NCR51 which were red and white thinner card and larger, mostly pre-printed destination, but the machine put the origin on.Used on the Eastern Region. I think what you are talking about were called multiprinter or flexiprinter - I can't recall which but they were only really London Midland

 

[Springs Branch]

......... I think what you are talking about were called multiprinter or flexiprinter - I can't recall which but they were only really London Midland

Thanks steevp, using the keywords you suggested and following clues from there, it seems the machines I was thinking of were called "Handiprinters" and the destination inserts were called "slugs".

Still only sparse info readily found on the web, but here's an image (showing that familiar purple ink)

 

[BurtonM]

Flourescent tube light holders with the station name on the glass area in black vinyl letters, so the lights doubled as illuminated station signs at night.

 

[Requeststop]

I don't know why but this old item came to mind and I cannot recall where I saw it.

A mechanical machine to stamp letter onto a piece of metal. About four feet high, painted red, if I recall correctly, and a huge circular dial on the top with an indicator that you turned around to letters and numbers. I think a foot pedal punched the chosen letters onto a metal strip.

The time I used the machine, it didn't work properly.

Anyone else remember this type of machine at stations?

 

[swt_passenger]

I don't know why but this old item came to mind and I cannot recall where I saw it.

A mechanical machine to stamp letter onto a piece of metal. About four feet high, painted red, if I recall correctly, and a huge circular dial on the top with an indicator that you turned around to letters and numbers. I think a foot pedal punched the chosen letters onto a metal strip.

The time I used the machine, it didn't work properly.

Anyone else remember this type of machine at stations?

Me and the chap who wrote post #9, at least...

 

[randyrippley]

What I miss most is the reliability of the Warships on the Waterloo-Exeter line.
It was so much fun to play the sweepstake known as "Where are we going to break down today?"

 

[6Gman]

Flourescent tube light holders with the station name on the glass area in black vinyl letters, so the lights doubled as illuminated station signs at night.

A few of those survive at Chester (General). On the unused bay platform next to Plat. 1

 

[yorksrob]

A few of those survive at Chester (General). On the unused bay platform next to Plat. 1

The ones at Diss have been turned into flower pots !

 

[MidnightFlyer]

A few of those survive at Chester (General). On the unused bay platform next to Plat. 1

And at the north end of platform 8 at Carlisle IIRC.

And for whoever mentioned it before, there's plenty of booking offices left with the rotating portion. The only time I could imagine they'd replace them is if it got refurbished, and that rarely happens at smaller stations.

 

[a_c_skinner]

As of four hours ago Alnmouth had one of the little turntable things.

Andrew

 

[Skipness]

Darlington station with Locomotion and Derwent plinthed at the end of the southern bay platforms. The waiting room towards the north end where passengers were expected to put lumps of coal on the fire whilst waiting for their train. Why did we always seem to be waiting for the mail/parcels train that was composed of mostly full brakes and just two or three passenger coaches ( with an A3 at its head)

 

[Pinza-C55]

"..Deltic on a diversion"? Grantham was their stomping ground for all of their lives.

I meant Lincoln Central - probably had too much wine when I posted

 

[Pinza-C55]

I don't know why but this old item came to mind and I cannot recall where I saw it.

A mechanical machine to stamp letter onto a piece of metal. About four feet high, painted red, if I recall correctly, and a huge circular dial on the top with an indicator that you turned around to letters and numbers. I think a foot pedal punched the chosen letters onto a metal strip.

The time I used the machine, it didn't work properly.

Anyone else remember this type of machine at stations?

Prior to being demolished in 1965 Sunderland station had one of those machines plus a "penny in the slot" Rocket locomotive like this one I photographed at Bridlington in 1978.
The NRM has one of the Stamp Your Name machines in working order.


Bridlington Station {8} 17.12.78 par PinzaC55, on ipernity

 

[stut]

The "three red stripe" logos inside the Mk3s. I spent hours staring at these.

Self-filtering coffee cups, and superheated tea that would take your entire journey to cool.

The "next train to Glasgow" indicator at Gilmour Street - and always getting to the top of the steps just to miss it (and as a bonus, running across and missing the next one too).

Those semi-effective "the train's about to leave" barriers at King's Cross, and those, on late-night trains, who would vault them (their mates reopening the door for them to dive in).

The rather more effective "the train's about to leave" barriers at Waterloo - particularly annoying when you're going for one on the adjacent platform.

The cameraderie of those let into the guard's van on packed Waterloo services.

The drunk-sounding host who announced the availability of "llllllllicensed refreshments" on board Edinburgh trains with infectious joy.

The fascinating dereliction of Manors station in the late 80s.

 

[Taunton]

I remember the paper tickets which were issued at Inter-City stations in the 1970s and early 80s. These were after Edmondson, but before the familar credit-card-size, magnetic stripe APTIS tickets appeared in the mid-1980s.

The tickets I have in mind were a little larger than APTIS, had a "portrait" rather than "landscape" aspect, used a pre-printed paper with a yellowish background and were mechanically printed with destination and other details by the booking clerk.

Tickets I remember from the early 1970s were different again, larger than those, on thin card, with red "Inter City" basic printing. Particularly because one of the first stations for them was ... Taunton. And believe it or not the television news sent a crew down to record the first day of operation, and several faces we knew appeared in the background.

Someone can probably identify what such tickets were called. They later spread nationwide, I remember being issued them in Edinburgh.

 

[steevp]

Tickets I remember from the early 1970s were different again, larger than those, on thin card, with red "Inter City" basic printing. Particularly because one of the first stations for them was ... Taunton. And believe it or not the television news sent a crew down to record the first day of operation, and several faces we knew appeared in the background.

Someone can probably identify what such tickets were called. They later spread nationwide, I remember being issued them in Edinburgh.

NCR51?

http://picclick.co.uk/Three-more-unused-NCR-51-tickets-to-3-302084371002.html

 

[Blindtraveler]

The enormous bording pass style tickets issued by many booking offices in the early 2000s for long distance travel anyway. Phill sayer at many stations like BHm,
158s on Scotrail Express services, the amazing and unusual destinations reachable in early virgin XC days, 158s doing Scotland Manchester turns, 90s on North Berwick turns and the spells of 321s and sometimes the odd 318.

 

[Taunton]

NCR51?

Thank you, yes, although I somehow recalled them as being landscape rather than portrait format. Notable is that, despite being part of booking office automation, the good old clerk's scissors would have to come into play if you bought a single.

 

[Bevan Price]

Too many memories to list them all, but:
1. Watching trains at Thatto Heath, with up to 3 freights each evening. And, when I got taller, being "volunteered" to turn on the platform gas lighting.

2. Travelling for many miles without ever seeing a diesel.

3. Wigan North Western with 5 through platforms and 5 bays, and slowly getting more tatty until they rebuilt it in the 1970s.

4. Liverpool Lime St. & Manchester Piccadilly each having manned ticket barriers for each pair of platforms.

 

[Pinza-C55]

Leather straps on droplights.

I remember in the early 80s travelling in a Mark 1 coach near some bashers. One of them came in from the vestibule brandishing a metal strip so they asked what it was ? "It's a Beclawat" he replied. "A what ?" they said. "It's the metal strip off the top of the window, it came off in my hand when I pulled it !".

https://www.flickr.com/photos/36844288@N00/4467072214

 

[hassaanhc]

I hated the pre-refurbishment D Stock, but I always wished I was tall enough to use the old hanging straps which were on springs (I was only 13 when the very last D Stock were refurbished)