Page 1 of 1

Bus tickets from the 1950s and 1960s.

Posted: 14:00 Tuesday 19th February 2019
by TimBrown
I have had most of these since childhood, ashamed to admit that many came from the ground picked up in the street in and around Worcester, and the waste paper bins in the gardens of St Andrew's Spire the 'Glover's Needle' :oops: A couple are dated 1956 so all things considered they are in remarkable condition and an indication of the norm' half a century ago - glad I did the dirty job all those years ago.
Bus Tickets one 001.jpg
Bus tickets two 001.jpg

Re: Bus tickets from the 1950s and 1960s.

Posted: 17:15 Tuesday 19th February 2019
by chason
What a super collection covering almost all the different types of tickets of the period, including one of the auxiliary tickets used, I think, when the ticket machine had broken down. In my childhood days, it used to be the thing to ask the conductor if we could have one of the remains of the old ticket rolls when he had replaced it with a new one. Most were happy to oblige but I never really knew why we wanted them because they were of no use whatsoever!

Favourites of course were the Bell Punch tickets which were colourful and had real character.

Re: Bus tickets from the 1950s and 1960s.

Posted: 19:09 Tuesday 19th February 2019
by TimBrown
chason wrote:
17:15 Tuesday 19th February 2019
What a super collection covering almost all the different types of tickets of the period, including one of the auxiliary tickets used, I think, when the ticket machine had broken down.
Most drivers hated the emergency tickets and would try all sorts of measures rather than use them, I was lucky enough to carry a handle for use on Setrite ticket machines if the power pack failed on a National. Sometimes the machines wouldn't line up with the power pack drive or wouldn't stay in position over road bumps so folded cardboard cigarette packets, or whatever was to hand, was pushed underneath until another machine could be swapped back at the bus station. Dozens of Setrites were sitting under the counter waiting for the repair man to visit and rectify them, sometimes as many as two or more machines wouldn't line up with some of the power packs, they were so worn it was pot luck to have good fit. It was also not a good thing for an inspector to jump on and find more than one test ticket on the platform floor, therefore it paid to destroy all these as soon as the trial had worked. Occasionally the power pack went berserk and issued a line of tickets before you could pull the plug out. If the dial was showing a value we had to collect all the tickets and pay them in with the cash bag to justify the 'shortage' - it could lead to disputes as a shortages sheet went up each week with disciplinary if your name appeared too frequently!

The worst scenario was using emergency tickets on a peak period 144 or the like, it took an age to count up the values punched in each ticket at the end of the trip and log them all on a sheet of paper to find the total, this then had to be added to the ticket machine figures which should then equal the money taken - if you were lucky. :(

Re: Bus tickets from the 1950s and 1960s.

Posted: 20:24 Tuesday 19th February 2019
by MattW
I wouldn't be too ashamed Tim, that's a piece of social history as good as any other :)