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Railways
Metal Nameplate Stamping Machine |
'Print Your Own Metal Nameplate'
© Reproduced with acknowledgement to Douglas Bryce, Pilton, Edinburgh
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Recollections 1. Douglas Bryce Pilton, Edinburgh |
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Caledonian Station Metal Nameplate Stamping Machine In his recollections of what he did in Edinburgh, without spending any cash, Bob Sinclair wrote about Caledonian Station at the West End of Princes Street: "You could go and look at the 'Stamping Out' machine which had a pointer on it that you could set to different letters of the alphabet or symbols. If you were flush, you could print your name out on a metal strip. The cost, as I remember, was one penny. A couple of times I tried it and was successful. Somebody must have put their penny in and, for whatever reason, they had not got it to work. Other times I just stared at it in wonder." Bob Sinclair, Queensland, Australia: January 6, 2010 Douglas Bryce read this comment and replied: "I visited the National Railway Museum at York at the beginning of December, and took a photo of the nameplate machine that Bob was recalling in the Caley Station." Douglas Bryce, Pilton, Edinburgh: January 12, 2010 |
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'10 letters for 10p'. This notice on the machine in the photo above says '10 letters for 10p'. That sounds, to me, to be reasonable value for money. However, as far as I remember, when I used to use these machines in the 1950s, the cost was 'Up to 22 letters for 1d (i.e. for one old penny)' Peter Stubbs: January 14, 2010 |
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Recollections 2. David Jackson Taylor Suffolk, England |
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Thank you to David Taylor who also remembered this machine. David wrote: Metal Nameplate Stamping Machine "I, too, remember the Tinny machine in the Caley Station. I would cut through from the side entrance on Lothian Road and the machine was on my left, with its red surround and grey dial. I used it once, having saved some pennies from my bus fare from Ferry Road Grove to Fountainbridge via the West End. At age 8 or 9, I was taking a bus (single decker under the double bridges near Crewe Toll) to the West End then a bus up to Fountainbridge for Tollcross School." David Taylor, Suffolk, England: March 30, 2010 |
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Recollections 3. John Marsden Sale Cheshire, England |
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Thank you to David Taylor who also remembered this machine. David wrote: Metal Nameplate Stamping Machine "I remember using these machines at the Central and City stations in Leeds, back in the late 1950s or early-1960s. I recall that they were (old) penny machines and we discovered that if you pushed the coin slide in just far enough, but not all of the way, it was possible to print as many letters as you liked and then recover your coin again afterwards." John Marsden, Sale, Cheshire, England: October 26, 2011 |
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Recollections 4. Keith Sheldon, Birmingham, West Midlands, England |
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Keith tells me that he is now aged 68 and that he remembers using the Metal Nameplate Stamping Machines. He'd like to use the picture above in a book that he is writing about growing up in Sheldon, Birmingham, in the 1950s. (I'm pleased to say that Douglas Bryce, who sent the photo to me, has agreed to that.) Keith also sent the snippet below, that he described as: "one of the naughtier things that we used to get up to". |
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Public Telephones Free Phone Calls "The phrase 'phone tapping' had a different meaning to us when we were ids. We found out that by tapping the cradle or receiver that the phone sat on we could get free calls from a phone box. The local telephone numbers in those days had three letters first followed by a four digit number , for example Sheldon exchange would be SHE and the corresponding numbers on the dial wolud be 743 followed by, say, 1234. If we wanted to dial 743 1234 you would lift the phone and when you got the dialling tone we would tap the cradle 7 times in quick succession and then pause for 2 seconds and then tap the cradle 4 times in quick succession and then pause for 2 seconds and carry on until you had tapped all the numbers out. We would then be connected and wouldn't have to pay." Two Buttons "The old phones had two buttons, button A and button B. Then anyone wanted to make a call they would drop four pence in the slot and dial the number. - When the person on the other end answered the caller would push button A. The money would drop into the box and then they could have their conversation. - If no one answered the phone the caller would press button B and their four pence would be returned via a little chute. To supplement our pocket money, we would go on a tour of the local telephone boxes and we would roll up some newspaper and wedge it as tightly and as far up the button B chute as we could so that when button B was pushed the money could not fall out because the paper was stopping it. Then in the night time we would go around all the boxes and release the paper using a bit of wire with a hook on one end to pull the paper down the chute and all the coins would drop out. This sounds like real criminals with what we got up to! We thought we were really clever tapping the phone and free phoning a zoo and asking for Mr C. Lion! Keith, Sheldon, Birmingham, West Midlands, England: 12 February 2016
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Recollections 5. Arnold Schwartzman Los Angeles, California, USA |
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Thank you to Arnold Schwartzman who wrote: |
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BAC Machines "Some time ago I was pleased to receive a photograph of one of those BAC machines from the Bradford Railway Museum, as I wished to include this in my frequent lectures to art students, as this machine was my first introduction to typesetting. As I child I loved to set my name, letter by letter, onto the tin strip. I recall that my problem was that I received only 10 letters for a penny. However, my name was not short like Smith, but was Schwartzman, eleven letters long. Thus, all I got out of the machine each time was Schwartzma! Arnold Schwartzman, Los Angeles, California, USA |
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Reply "When I first came across these machines around the mid-1950s, I believe that they gave far more letters for a penny, possibly 22. However, that did not guarantee success. 22 letters were ample to print both my names, but very frequently I ended up with a label displaying an incorrect name, as a result of either machine error or operator error!" Peter Stubbs, Edinburgh: December 27 2016 |
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