Old NCT bus tickets, can you remember them.


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When I put the Christmas stuff up in the loft, I came apon this old folder, my collection of bus tickets from when I was a kid, I thought you may be interested, the collection is vast including all the local bus companies, if there are any other local companies that you are interested in, I'll put them on here.

The first ticket on this first selection was supposedly from the original tram network.

nottik1.jpg

The others are a general selection from the times, probably early 50's and 60's.

nottik2.jpg

nottik3.jpg

These are interesting, an over print from West bridgeford for some reason, can anyone shed any light on this.

nottik4.jpg

I have so many local tickets in this folder, it would blow the network to publish them, well someone had to do it at the time, it was all good fun. Believe it or not, some of them were rescued from the ticket boxes from the trams at Crich, no-one had bothered to look in them, if they want them back, I'm quite happy to oblige.

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The coloured NCT tickets are Bell Punch types issued by the Ultimate machine until their eplacement by the TIM Autofare in 1973. Bell Punch had their offices on the corner of Boston Street and Lower Parliament Street.

Barton and Midland General favoured the Setright ticket system which I shall always associate with seaside holidays.

If you're interested there's a lot of sites dedicated to bus and tram tickets. Just Google.

Ting, ting.

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I particularly remember the ones in the second / third pics (The old bell punch jobbies) I also have a vivid memory of the smell they gave off if clutched in a tiny sweaty mit for a half hour journey !!!

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I always remember the '12 journey' tickets that you placed in a machine that punched a hole in them - must've been in the early seventies. Can anyone shed any light on these?

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Those Bell Punch ticket machines as I recall, had individual rolls for each value that were released by a downward click, it used to be fun when the higher denominations ran out and you ended up with a big line of 1d's.

The early Barton tickets were contained in a wooden rack held together with an elastic band, these were taken out and stamped in a different kind of machine that showed the date and fare stage.

They then went on to the more sophisticated type of machine as used by Midland General, Trent etc where everything was set with a dial on the top, we used to look forward to the end of the roll when a red stripe appeared.

tkt1.jpg

East Midland had the same method at first with tickets in a rack which were just shoved in a crude stamper which made a hole on the appropriate fare stage until they were superceded by the roll type.

tkt2-1.jpg

Some types were a bit strange, I don't recall what sort of machine produced these tickets from Felix.

tkt3.jpg

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Another memory re bus tickets . My brother and I used to try to get the tickets from the conductor , on this particular day my brother had been treated for his 'lazy eye' at the hospital and had a patch over it, the conductor must have taken pity on him , as I had snatched the tickets ,my brother started to cry the conductor did no more then to open up his machine and give my brother the whole role of 3d tickets !!!

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Nice one Beefsteak.

Another trick was to flip the catch on the used ticket bin near the door when you got off and they would all fall out, great when it was a rear open platform doubledeck bus because they would all stream out down the road as it roared away from the stop, particularly interesting if Rocky was driving.

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Boy - the Barton's tickets bring back memories! Adding to Beefy's account - I also remember that, when the red stripe appeared, the conductor would change the ticket roll - and would often give the remaining "red-striped" roll to some lucky youngster on the bus!

Happy days when a roll of red-striped paper was all it took for entertainment!

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Hey Beefy I know exactly what you mean by the smell of Bell Punch tickets.

The Twelve Journey tickets came in before the switch to Autofare in the early 70s. There was a yellow ticket cancelling machine just inside the front entrance on the right hand side. That was why for several years NCT buses had front doors that opened to the centre rather than the side.

The ability to jump the queue was the only reason for buying a ticket as there was no advance purchase discount.

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  • 5 weeks later...

The Felix tickets were the Willebrew system (think that's the right spelling). The machine guillotined a section out of the ticket which showed all possible fare values, and the highest visible value remaining was the fare paid. Audit consisted of retrieving all the cuttings from the conductors' machines, laboriously totting up each fare and comparing the total with the takings. OK perhaps for a smallish operator, but not much fun for a bigger operator. If I remember correctly Skills used the same system on their Nottingham-Shelford-East Bridgford route operated jointly with Trent. Talking of Trent, they actually kept the older pre-printed tickets longer than Bartons. When we moved to Long Eaton in 1954, Bartons were already using the "Setright Speed" (tickets on a roll). But on journeys by Trent to see my grandparents in Hucknall it was still the old "Insert Setright". I think they changed over about 1957. I can well remember travelling on the 60B, my dad asking for "Two and a half returns to Hucknall market, and two and a half singles from Hucknall market to Beauvale Estate" (reason - there were no 60Bs in the evening when we were coming home, so had to use Midland General C9 down to Hucknall town centre, and a 61 from there on). That gave a good fistful of tickets for a youngster - yellow returns, grey/white singles, and a strip of MG tickets off the roll.

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  • 2 years later...

The WB overprinted tickets were used on NCT buses for journeys that were entirely in West Bridgford. The "Ultimate" ticket machines held five separate rolls, and on the West Bridgford joint services one track was loaded with these 1d tickets. It was to do with revenue allocation between the City and West Bridgford operators. West Bridgford UDC had machines that printed fares with a letter at the end - C for journeys wholly in the City, T for through journeys from the City to WB or vice versa, and W for wholly in West Bridgford.

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I wonder what happened to all those old ticket machine,

they always fascinated me as a child.

Probably Pownalls?

As far as I recall they were like this?

ultimatebusticketmachine.jpg

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I don't recall any of my bus journeys (That involved a conductor) requiring a £1 fare !!

I therefore deduce that the picture is of a machine in modern usage somewhere, vis a vis , they didn't all end up Pownalls ...........LOL...................smile2

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  • 7 months later...

Many of the Ultimates were printed by "HUNT NOTTM" - which was Hunt and Colleys on Hucknall Road, left hand side just north of Haydn Road. I had an uncle who worked in the wages inspectorate of the then Ministry of Labour. He had cause to send some sort of enquiry regarding the company, and being a comparatively small firm the managing director himself completed it. One of the questions asked for "Main and any subsidiary businesses of the company" to which this chap replied "Main business : filling in ****** stupid government forms; subsidiary business : printing tickets for the transport industry."

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I remember the old 40p Childs transfere tickets, I used to get the 44 from Gedling comp and even though it would drop me off at the top of my road, with it being a massive hill id have to walk down it, so i used to get off in town and get the 21 into carlton valley and it was practically drop me off at the door.

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  • 2 weeks later...

To issue a ticket from the 'Ultimate', say 3d, you depressed the lever to the stop. To issue a double ticket say 6d you pressed the 3d lever simultaneously with the button below, freeing the stop to allow a full downward stroke, issuing two tickets. The conductor/ess carried a steel box containing machine and spare ticket rolls.

481.jpg?gl=GB

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Bus tickets, especially the last post, reminds me as a naive schoolboy of always adding up the serial numbers of your ticket and if it was 21, you gave it to your girlfriend to indicate true love! If you didn't have a girl, you gave it to a mate who did.

Oh to go back to those days and know what I know now.

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Cor! I'd forgotten all about adding up the numbers. We used to pick up discarded tickets and do the same :o)

As an aside, there used to be one particular conductress and I used to look forward to her being on my bus in the mornings on my way to school. She was always bright and cheerful and had a jolly word for everyone. A treasure is an appropriate term for her; she set up the day for many.

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I honestly cannot remember her name Trevor. She was often on the 64 route from the Nell Gwynne, Oxclose Lane to Trinity Square in the mornings on the 07:55 departure. I would say that she was the best and most cheerful member of NCT staff. I seem to remember her being short to mid height, around 5' 3" or 4ish with darkish curly hair. It's a long time ago, early/mid 60s.

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