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Machines at railway stations

suemalings said:
Does anyone remember the machine when you put a penny in you could get a small metal strip with your name punched out. Also there was a BIG hole, I think it may have been lined with concrete. Never knew what it was, just another good place to pay!
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stamper1.jpg

Thank you Suemalings for bringing up this subject, when I was young I printed my name several times. What I had completely forgotten about until I saw the photo, was moving that large lever to select the letters. I think you pressed the handle on right to print each letter, and didn't the big lever at the back right cut off the metal strip when you had finished printing? Thanks for the memory.
 
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Morturn said:
I recall those machines on train stations. It had a dial and a hand with the alphabet on
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I remember when we had railway stations!

I am sure that the one at Carlisle Citadel was painted all in red. The machines used a thin aluminium strip and when it was finished the ends were rounded off like the old British Railways station signs but with a small hole at each end. With the invention of the Dymo label maker there wasn't the same attraction as Dymo labels were coloured and the letters stood out in white and the labels were self-adhesive.

My grandfather was a booking clerk at the terminus of a branch line and he would make up Dymo labels for us. At the end of their platform was a large weighing machine, half of which was built into a wooden cupboard. If we visited at a quiet period he would open up the cupboard and weigh us. (It was a scale for weighing large parcels). I'm pretty certain that Carlisle had at least one of those Avery personal scales with the huge circular dial and big red hand. For the numerate the trick was to weigh one child then add another because once the pointer started to go back to zero it had to be fed another coin.
 
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