Old NCT bus tickets, can you remember them.


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  • 2 weeks later...

Talking of bus tickets, did you hear about the "wee Glasgie laddie" who ran hame tae his mammie, and shouted "mither, mither, ah hev just run hame behind a tram and saved twopence." Belting him across the ear-ole, she replied, "Och, yer gret haggis-brain - why did ye nae run hame behind a taxi - ye'd hae saved five bob?"

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  • 9 months later...

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.

With those Twelve Journey tickets, the cancelling machine would chop a piece off at the side each time, similar to those Felix tickets shown on an earlier post. There was space for 12 bits to be snipped off, but if you were careful about inserting the ticket into the machine and only did so barely enough for it to operate you could squeeze a 13th journey out of it!

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I remember as a young un some of the N.C.T. bus tickets had an advertisement printed on the back advertising Turners Bread, by folding the ticket we used to alter Turners Bread into Turns Bad. Strange what I can remember from 70 odd years ago but forget what I did yesterday.

Dennis

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i remember buying 12 jurney tickets when i worked at boots i would buy 2 every friday night on my way home from workthis ment that i did not worry as to if i had got my bus fair to get me to work come thursday or friday morning but also had tickets for going out four nights as most of my journeys ment 2 buses each way and as no time span as to when they to be used by unlike later travel cards you could buy in advance and use them when you needed too when they first came out plain white with nct and twelve litle boxes the ticket machine cliped as you used them and sometimes if the bus driver knew you he let you get on with out using machine and if the inspector got on you had got a valid ticket.

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  • 3 months later...

With those Twelve Journey tickets, the cancelling machine would chop a piece off at the side each time, similar to those Felix tickets shown on an earlier post. There was space for 12 bits to be snipped off, but if you were careful about inserting the ticket into the machine and only did so barely enough for it to operate you could squeeze a 13th journey out of it!

I thought I'd still got a couple of those Twelve Journey tickets somewhere (used to use them as bookmarks!) and I've dug them out:

12JourneyTickets_zpsb4181214.jpg

If the column of figures furthest left was supposed to show the route number - which was probably the 17, as I would have used them to and from work - it seems they often didn't bother putting the correct number into the machine.

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There were some NCT tickets on earlier in this thread, but here's some more from me: 8d, 1s, 9d, 4d and 7d. Some printed by Hunt & Colley, some by Bell Punch, who were the makers of the ticket machines.

NCTTickets_zpse5c4d213.jpg

And here is a South Notts ticket of the Insert Setright type. Possibly for a journey to/from Loughborough sometime in the mid/late 1960s:

SNottsTicket_zpsbf5a16ae.jpg

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I seem to remember the 12 journey tickets were not that popular and few people used them, possibly because they offered no discount for buying journies in advance. Different to today where the Mango Card definitely works out cheaper than a cash fare.

I have a vague recollection of seeing a yellow cancelling machine on one of the old rear entrance vehicles, or am I dreaming?

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I have a vague recollection of seeing a yellow cancelling machine on one of the old rear entrance vehicles, or am I dreaming?

You could be right. I've no recollection of that myself, but those tickets were in use from 1970 to 1972 and the last of the old 'open back' buses weren't withdrawn until a few years after that.

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Gets his anorak out.

The last open platform buses were withdrawn from regular frontline service in 1972-73. There was a car park full of them on Pennyfoot Street. The 12 journey ticket machines were designed specifically for use on OMO (one man operated) routes.

For a time new NCT buses were fitted with front doors designed to separate the flow of those tendering their fare from those using the 12 journey ticket machine.

The idea never caught on and was abandoned with the introduction of the Autofare/no change system in 1973.

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Does anyone remember the ticket racks conductors used to use when their ticket machines broke down? I have a clear recollection of one on a Trent bus when I was very young, but think I remember one on an NCT trolleybus too.

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Does anyone remember the ticket racks conductors used to use when their ticket machines broke down? I have a clear recollection of one on a Trent bus when I was very young, but think I remember one on an NCT trolleybus too.

Trent used the insert setright type tickets (like the South Notts example shown in #33) up to the late 1950s, and the blank tickets were held in a rack. NCT used the old pre-printed, individually priced tickets up to about 1950, and these were also carried in a rack and clipped when issued - supposedly to show the fare stage where you got on. However some routes also had TIM machines from pre-war up to 1950. These issued a thin paper ticket, and the fare was selected by a dial on the machine. Both the TIM and clipped tickets were replaced by the Bell Punch "Ultimate" system (also shown in #33). In addition to Hunt & Colleys and Bell Punch, another printer of the Ultimate ticket rolls was "Oller Ltd. London" (whoever they might have been).

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  • 8 years later...

With reference to the multi-journey tickets which were inserted into a machine that cut off a piece each time:

I can remember these in the 1970s and have a vague memory of kids at my school trying to make their own but don't  know if any were successful LOL

 

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