Chris M
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Post by Chris M on Oct 3, 2006 13:22:50 GMT
When and where were automatic ticket barriers first used on the Underground?
What was the reaction, from staff and the public, to them?
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Post by CSLR on Oct 3, 2006 13:26:18 GMT
When and where were automatic ticket barriers first used on the Underground? What was the reaction, from staff and the public, to them? Stamford Brook second half of the 1960s. Odd looking thing with four flat padded gates set out like a '+' and rotating around a centre point. You had to walk up a slight ramp which covered the bicycle chain that operated the mechanical bits and pieces between one side and the other. The original gate and the first few prototypes were built in a shed on a piece of land adjoining West Kensington station. The first gate was pretty user friendly, but did not look spectacular. Of the other two prototype designs (installed at Chiswick Park and Ravenscourt Park - if I remember correctly), there were some complaints. A few women apparently made comments that the height of the tripod turnstile design caused some indiscrete pressure in the region of their upper legs, and I think that the height on later gates and the pressure required to turn the tripod was altered slightly. There were also complaints that the primary gates on the double gate version closed too quickly and smacked people on the backside. The electronics (transistors?) on the double gate version initially suffered from interference and the gates would open or close without warning. The problem was eventually found to be caused by the pedestrian activation of a button on a Panda Crossing (early version of a Pelican Crossing) immediately outside the station. Ticket staff stood by the gates and explained how they worked - and have been doing so ever since. |
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Post by CSLR on Oct 3, 2006 14:15:57 GMT
Following on from that.
The tickets used in the original gates were printed in 'magnetic ink' with a series of bars, something like a very simple bar code. This never worked very well and for much of the time the Stamford Brook gate was set to open when 'contact ' was made with anything of the right size and shape - the public were obviously never told this. I have a small collection of bits and pieces (including a bus ticket) that were tested on the gate to see what would open it.
The magnetic ink was eventually replaced by special ticket stock that had a thin brown coating on the back similar to recording tape. The bars were 'recorded' onto this by the ticket printing machines in the booking hall. When a gate rejected a ticket for no apparent reason, the engineers would often examine a ticket by spraying it with an aerosol spray which made the code visible. The spray apparently carried a fine carbon-type powder in a supension of carbon tetrachloride. The particles floated in the liquid and were attracted to the magnetised sections of the coating, after which the liquid quickly evaporated.
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Post by tubeprune on Oct 3, 2006 14:51:30 GMT
They were also tried out at Acton Town and were equally unreliable. A Picc driver there, who later became a trainmen's Inspector, asked an AET who was servicing the gates, if it would reject anything not a valid ticket. The AET unwisely said it would, so Jimmy put in a toffee paper folded into ticket size and the gate immediately opened.
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