Tickets
Bobby does not collect tickets. He doesn’t collect anything with alacrity.
Bobby: “Blimey! Where did that come from?”
Bertie: “Oxford Concise.”
Bobby: “Clever Dick! Are you ever going to stop wearing that bleedin scarf?”
Bertie: “Nope. I am still celebrating Sutton United. And don’t forget it was knitted by ‘mother-in-law’ thirty years ago. Mary, who loved Sutton United.”
Bobby: “But it’s summer!”
Bertie: “May I remind you that another famous bear, your favourite Rupert, wore his all year round. And… his is also Sutton United. More or less.”
Bobby isn’t very good at throwing things away either. Or flogging them. Andrew is. Particularly on eBay. When Bobby’s old van had to go, Andrew sold it for him.
Oh how he loved that van that was immortalised in LWV. Little White Van. It was the ‘third person’ in a romance. They went everywhere in LWV.
LWV and bike. Snowdon in the background.
Bobby: “Bertie… what are you going on about? This is supposed to be about tickets.”
Bobby is distracted, lying spread-eagled on the bed thinking he can’t stand the heat. Lovely this morning, but too bleeding hot now.
Bertie: “Tickets!”
(Don’t think too hard about him spread-eagled on the bed)
Bobby: “I nearly collected London Transport bus tickets. The type punched by a bus conductor back in the 1950s. At the end of the 93 route in North Cheam, the bus would stop for a while when the driver and conductor would go off for a fag. I emptied the ‘used ticket’ bin into a bag and took it home to put in an album. Hundreds of tickets. My mum, Dorothy, told me they were bloody disgusting and a health hazard and threw them away. Just imagine if I had them now. At the very end of this blog is an item on bus tickets. Be sure not to miss the video and never moan about your job again!”
The 93 in North Cheam around 1959.
Some of those tickets. All 1½d and, therefore, all the same colour. Once again, make sure you see the British Pathé video at the end to see why the colour relating to each fare was important.
Bertie: “Tickets.”
Bobby: “I love tickets for future events. Something to look forward to. The Ballet, the Theatre, nowadays an Airshow. Everything needs advance booking now. Even an afternoon at Wisley Gardens. That’s how it is with the pandemic. And they are all etickets you print yourself or simply show on your phone.
Bertie: “Tickets.”
Bobby: “In my memorabilia boxes, there are one or two tickets from shows. But I can’t be bothered looking for them.”
Bertie: “And?”
Bobby: “Well, I always had a fascination for those old card tickets you used to get on the railways. Many of the heritage steam railways issued them as part of their nostalgic presentation. In recent years many have changed to boring paper tickets. Somehow or other, the old card tickets ended up in drawers, trouser pockets, glove boxes. And I couldn’t throw them away and chucked them in the bottom drawer. When I finally tidied that drawer up I realised I had a small collection. A bit moth eaten, but presentable. They remind me of the lovely times we have had on steam trains. With the grandchildren and Diddley sometimes and now with you Bertie. And here they are sorted into individual railways.
Bluebell Railway
Our nearest heritage line and the one we have visited most.
Autumn gala. Double header 2006.
Santa Special. Diddley, Layla and Sonny. 2009.
Santa Special in the snow, 2009.
Autumn gala. Demonstration goods train, 2010. Horsted Keynes.
Watercress Line (Mid Hants Railway)
Bobby’s brother Tony’s Railway. Still strong family connections.
Days out with Thomas. Kyla, Layla and Sonny. Plus the Fat Controller. 2012.
Days out with Thomas. Layla, Sonny, Kyla & Diddley on board the “Troublesome Truck”. 2012.
Tony’s Engine 506. 2019.
Days out with Thomas. Great grandson Little Jay. 2019.
Flying Scotsman
Watercress Line 2017.
Alresford. Flying Scotsman. 2019.
North Yorkshire Moors Railway
We love the NYMR. Always an important day or days out with holidays in Whitby.
Near Whitby.
Grosmont.
Pickering.
West Somerset Railway
A beautiful railway that takes you to the seaside. The longest heritage railway.
Bishop Lydeard. Autumn gala. 2006.
Blue Anchor. 2006.
Ash trays. Stogumber 2017.
Autumn gala, Crowcombe Heathfield. 2017.
Autumn gala, Washford.
Isle of Wight Railway
A really dinky little railway, more commonly known as Havenstreet.
Queen Victoria’s Carriage. Layla and Sonny. Haven Street. 2010.
Diddley’s birthday. 19 August 2014. (See signboard) with Sonny and Kyla. Wootton.
Wootton 2014.
Swanage Railway
The wonderful Isle of Purbeck and its steam railway.
Corfe Castle. 2013.
Corfe Castle (library).
Towards Swanage triple header (library).
Severn Valley Railway
Only been to the Severn Valley once. Diddley treated Bobby to a Footplate Experience that included driving the Black 5 engine from Bewdley to Bridgnorth. And staying at a pub in Bewdley for three nights!
Easter 2006. Great weekend. She didn’t drive it!
He did, with his Black Country teacher!
Welshpool and Llanfair Railway
Welshpool and Llanfair Railway. One of the Great Little Trains of Wales.
Welshpool 2017.
Towards Welshpool (library).
2017. Try pronouncing that station name!
Great Central Railway
Never ridden it. Dropped in on our way north and bought a platform ticket. No trains for two hours…
Loughborough (library).
Leaving Loughborough (library).
Ffestiniog Railway
Another Great Little Trains of Wales Railway, 2007. Special metal rover ticket.
Portmadoc 2017.
Portmadoc 2007.
Bratislava Slovakia Public Transport
Day ticket.
Skoda trams 2005.
Mountain Railway Bad Kleinkirchhein. Carinthia, Austria.
This is without doubt the most fantastic railway we have ever been on. In writing this, we feel an Austria season coming on when we can tell the story of this amazing engineering achievement.
More later. No seats, You stood holding a handrail. Unforgettable.
Paris Metro
Day tickets 2018.
We love the names of Paris Stations. This one Stalingrad.
This one Arts et Metiers. A Jules Verne fantasy.
Day tickets cover trams as well. This one took us to the Eiffel Tower.
Bus Tickets
This story started with bus tickets and we end with them. We haven’t actually got any. Dorothy threw them away. But we are both members of Brooklands Museum. Within the museum is The London Transport Bus Museum that has just been refurbished. A display of old bus tickets took us all the way back to the 93 at Priory Road.
So here is a bus conductor clipping a ticket.
The bus conductor’s kit box. Holding the ticket machine, ticket holder and spare tickets.
Each ticket price was a different colour. YOU MUST WATCH THE VIDEO THAT FOLLOWS.
The ticket machine that pinged each time the conductor clipped a ticket. Bearing in mind it was all cash in a leather bag. Up and downstairs on a double-decker as it bumped along. Helping passengers on and off. Controlling stopping and starting by dinging the bell. London Transport had 8,000 buses. All with two man crews. New modern buses and fare collection led to one man operation and 8,000 jobs that had lasted for a century just disappeared. As did many other jobs. LIKE THE ONE BELOW.
How it used to be!!!!!
Lighting a Candle for Diddley
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Ah! Card tickets with an R on them. Woe betide if you lost the R bit!!! What wonderful nostalgia!!!
I didnt even collect them. Just through them in a drawer
Can’t believe they used to count the “punchings”. I’ve learnt something new! Happy days – the joys of an analogue age.