1970s/80s Bus Ticket Machines

This is my first venture into the Forum – so please bear with me if I’m going over old ground.

I’d like to know if anyone remembers the automatic ticket machines on the buses that gave you a ticket with a picture of the actual coins that you’d put into the machine. Moreover, does anyone out there know how on earth they worked?? They were quite rare and only turned up occasionally, but I know this isn’t just a figment of my imagination as my Mum can confirm their existence.

I remember them as being big yellow boxes with a hole in the top to throw the money into and a large green button (rectangular or circular?) that you pressed to generate the ticket. Whatever coins were put in were pictured on the ticket and showed either the ‘head’ or ‘tail’ of the coin, depending, I suppose, on which way up they landed in the machine. It was almost like a brass rubbing or something like that. The genius of this machine was that you couldn’t use foreign coins that might be the same size/weight as our coins and it was such fun to use that you wanted to pay the fare with as many coins as possible! (Difficult when it was just 2p to go anywhere).

I left Sheffield in 1989 and don’t recall having seen one of these ticket machines for a few years before moving away, so I don’t suppose they still exist except in some bus-ticket-machine-museum. Perhaps, alas, they disappeared at the same time as 2p bus fares.

Somebody mentioned these in a thread last week (or I read it last week)

Did you see that post?

welcome to the forum:wave:

I remember the ticket machines,didn't seem to last long though

Would use all the reel of paper ,cost of bus fares these days:D

Stick around

I remember the Videmat machines. The buses that utilised the mechanisms had a green sign on their front, beneath the windscreen which stated - I guess what you would call the obvious - Videmat. (I don't recall there being a mad scramble for the number 60 simply because it displayed such a sign.)

Most that I remember were grey with a big green button on the top. You threw your coppers in, pressed the button and you got a monochrome copy (or was it more sepia tinted?) of your pennies (fare) printed back-to-front on the little paper receipt that was vended. The receipt begot a jagged edge as you tore it from the machine.

It was a quick and convenient way to board a bus, pay and belt upstairs. I'm thinking about school days (which is probably when I last went on a bus).

Their re-introduction, far from being a retrospective step, could be a very forward thinking way of getting buses moving quickly, instead of the driver having to take the money off passengers whilst sat at the bus-stop, with the nine mile tailback behind him becoming somewhat agitated (in which no doubt I am sat).

My brother worked on the buses late 60s to early 70s & I remember his ticket machine & the reels he had to put in.he said it was great working on the buses back then,pity the vandals have spoilt the buses & the job.

my dad used to call them "pay as you like" machines.

any change you had in your pocket that was your fare.

How naughty.....

Thanks for all your replies . I saw a reference to the machines in an earlier thread but, having no idea they were called Videmat machines, I didn’t know if they were the same thing or not. I like the idea of ‘Pay as you like’ machines – naughty but nice!

Looking back now, from the perspective of PCs, digi cameras & home printers, these machines are even more remarkable when you consider the context of technology at the time. Photocopiers were few and far between - I don’t think we even had a photocopier at school because teachers used to give out worksheets that had been copied on some contraption that printed in pink/purple writing that had a distinctive smell. I think they had to write the master copy on some special material then it was duplicated. Any ex-teachers out there (particularly Marcliffe School), please enlighten me!

Originally posted by oopspardon

Photocopiers were few and far between - I don’t think we even had a photocopier at school because teachers used to give out worksheets that had been copied on some contraption that printed in pink/purple writing that had a distinctive smell.

Think of me as strange but I loved the smell of that copying ink! Always a bright pink or purple and very often 'hot off the press'.

Nice memory.

HI, OOPSPARDON & WELCOME TO THE MAD HOUSE,

i remember the 2P machines, id drop my 2p in the slot get my ticket, and put the ticket on my tongue to get a print on my tongue!

i know, im sad.

Originally posted by oopspardon

Photocopiers were few and far between - I don’t think we even had a photocopier at school because teachers used to give out worksheets that had been copied on some contraption that printed in pink/purple writing that had a distinctive smell. I think they had to write the master copy on some special material then it was duplicated. Any ex-teachers out there (particularly Marcliffe School), please enlighten me!

Theses copiers were call banding machines and I think it used colour carbon papers either light or dark blue, purple or a bright pink in colour. The machine was a drum like contraption with a handle which when turned brought the A4 paper round the drum and over the carbon type paper and printing the image, and yes they had a distintive solvent type smell and often when the carbon paper was wearing out you got poor prints and your teacher had to tell you to fill in the missing blanks.

those machines were called Banda or Bander. In my first job, as a junior clerk, I had to print all the work sheets off on them ... it was like using a treadle sewing machine ... later when I got my RSA Stage 2 typewriting I was "promoted" to typing them.

The Videmat, I'd forgotten all about them until you posted ... we used to try to get different combinations of coins for the fare and save the tickets ....

Originally posted by madowl

HI, OOPSPARDON & WELCOME TO THE MAD HOUSE,

i remember the 2P machines, id drop my 2p in the slot get my ticket, and put the ticket on my tongue to get a print on my tongue!

i know, im sad.

I never knew you could transfer them onto your tongue!! If an inspector came on the bus, did you show him your ticket or stick your tongue out?