That ticket machine mad babs is talking about was a new thing. i remember the tickets been a set ready made ticket and the different priced ticket where held in a long wooden thing like a narrow tray that had clips on it to keep the tickets in place till the conductor gave you one. A clippy was a woman, the condutor was a man. If you called the conductor a clippy you would have been thrown off the bus { and thats without the bus stopping]
Last edited by uptoncx; 17th Dec 20119:01am.
Ships that pass in the night, seldom seen and soon forgoten
If you insist ! The first tickets jimbob refers to were called Bell Punch tickets or just punch tickets. Each value ticket was a different colour for quick indentification. Down each side were printed numbers which indicated fare stages. They were in blocks of a hundred tickets, placed in a ticket rack. Imagine 6 or 8 mouse traps side by side, tickets held by the spring. You pays your fare, appropriate ticket taken from rack, punched by a Bell Punch (Crosville) or Williamson Punch (Corpy) at the fare stage you boarded. A "ting" showed the passenger it had been just punched and not a used ticket being "recycled" by the conductor. A very reliable and difficult to fiddle system but slow.
Until very recently, when not driving a tram, I was the conductor with a Bell Punch and rack. A double deck car full up was a challenge to get all fares before the terminus. I think the "new" B'head Trams use that system now.
Corporation and Crosville both changed over to Setright Speed machines in the early '50's. These printed the whole ticket on a blank roll. Fares, stages, date, class, number being set by the conductor turning a dial, then turning a handle at the side and tearing off the ticket as it emerged.
I have a large collection of ticket machines of most types and zillions of tickets, new and issued. One day I'll post some pics to bring the memories back for some.
i remember the 64/64A before they changed it to the 464/465, i remember getting the 64A from the "new" birkenhead bus station about 96/97.sadly the 465 was withdrawn sometime in 06/07 and it was bus i got home from beb high, i used to get it to new ferry and hide at the back of bus and go around the terminus and back with a few mates and if it was the good driver he let us stay on and if it was not we used to get off the bus and wait at the stop and get back on (the terminus of the 465 was circular dr new ferry)
Talking about tickets, when my dad worked on the buses in the 50s he use to give us complimentary tickets to get home from school on the bus. if my memory serves me right they were 1/4d 1/2d 1d. d being old penny. If my fare was 2d i could end up handing over 4 1/2d tickets to make up the fare. Thanks everyone for the reminder on Alfresco.
God help us, Come yourself, Don't send Jesus, This is no place for children.
Forget the Bell Punch Co. and Williamsons, these tickets were locally produced! See bottom middle of each. I got these a few weeks ago on eBay. They fitted in the mouse-trap type holder.
And those lovely blue buses! In cold weather, best to sit at the front downstairs, next to the chrome fan heater on the front bulkhead! Mine were the 50 and 58 to Lower Beb.
Back in the "blue bus" era, Birkenhead had one of the best maintained fleets in the country. Not like the smokey heaps of pop rivets and Formica that are around now.
The Guy Arab (on the left) is one of the earliest buses I remember. Built as a utility vehicle during the war with wood slatted seats ! Re-bodied after the war. The Leyland Orions (on the right), although pleasing to look at seemed a bit "tinny".
My favourite were the Daimler CGV6's. They had fluid flywheels with pre-selector boxes. When revved up in low gears they sounded like an Air Raid Siren on steroids !
How many folk today could drive a crash gearbox (double de-clutching) or for that matter a pre-selector jobbie ? Not many I bet.
Very true! The real wood window sills and those art deco lamp shades of 'Massey Bros., Pemberton, Wigan'; why do I remember those things? I must be an anorak!
Here on the Island we still have a few double-declutchers operating the oldest in-regular-service bus. It's a pretty steep drive to the Needles Battery, the Western point of the Island. It's a hairy ride if on the top deck of the open-top conversion!
Learned to drive on a 1 ton Bedford with a crash box; wonder if I could still cope. Some of my fellow members of the High Performance Club do at least expect you to rev match accurately when driving their exotica.
Anorak No.2 here ! Yes, Massey Bros., Pemberton, Wigan. The transfer on the lower saloon. Birkenhead seemed to place most of their orders with them. I have one of the white opalite art deco window pillar lamps wired up in the garage. Came from a B'head Titan scrapped in the late 60's.
A late friend, Stewart McCrone, invented the Cronapress Contact Strip which the corpy had on the lower saloons of their buses. This sad specimen has a length as a door bell - with "BELL" tranfer of course ! (Sterilise the straight-jacket)
Is the open topper a Bristol ? Looks well cared for.
I used to drive for MPTE before Arriva took over in the "old" depot in Lard St. Great old building, used to house the overflow of buses from the transport museum in Birkenhead! I learned to drive in an Atlantian and then they got the Olympians. Murder on a Sat night if you were on the New Brighton run. Bus drivers on a night out used to flag you down on the corner by the Boot Pub and pile aboard for Liverpool!! Not funny when there are about 50 of them!!! The olympians were top heavy and when you went round the cornere in the tunnel all the drivers on the top deck used to pile over to one side, tipping the bus!!!! Very scary!! The good old bad old days eh!!