Tube platform vending machines.

[theblackferret]

I bet one of our erudite company has written a book on it, but if not.......


Personally, I can remember these from 1964-79 roughly, after which I had less time to keep my eyes open on the little things when on the Underground.

I can remember a lot of platforms had these, so any stations you can remember that did would be happily received on this thread.

Also think a few ticketing areas had them, mainly where the booking windows were mostly shut so the stations or entrances were lightly trafficked, as they said. Again, anyone who can name those that had them here, thanks.

Do NOT remember any on the way to the trains ie in subways or on side walls at the foot of escalator banks. Am definitely willing to be contradicted here, but thought they were the last place they'd be wanted, by management or punters!

Right, as to what they vended, I remember mainly chocolate, and:

1s or 5p, later 2/- or 10p for Cadbury's Fruit & Nut or Dairy Milk, Tiffin, Wrigley's Green or White packets of chewing gum, Smith's crisps when they finally went ready-salted and branched into Cheese and Onion etc, KP's salted peanuts in blue packs, Sun-pat's in clear packs & somebody's mixed nuts & raisins, plus Polos & Extra-Strong Mints.

So, was it only food, or do any of you recall anywhere that did drink, be that milk, Coke, Fanta or Fosters?

And where there ever cigarette machines on the Tube? I didn't start smoking until 1966 & in the early days usually purchased the traditional 5 flat-pack⁺ & book of matches at the offie or newsagent nearest to the embarkation station, so one returned home fagless and smelling of peppermints to Mum & Dad, who were never fooled, anyway, so was not looking for them on the Tube.

Finally, were there ever, or are there still, snack & drink vending machines on platforms, vide any hotel lobby or hospital corridors/waiting areas? I'd like to think that those who felt the need for a Pot Noodle or Coconut Flapjack at 21:15 on a wet Thursday in mid-November could have that urge quenched, thanks to LT?

There were TWO such entities on Twickenham station in May last year, when we stayed next to it.


⁺=Author's note:the traditional flat-pack, for non-smokers and smokers of more tender years, was either Untipped Weights or Tipped Park Drive-both equally disgusting;later supplanted by 10 number 6, when young lady on Tube journeys with me, or 10 Embassy, if said young lady was remotely sophisticated.

[metrailway]

Most platform vending machines on the Underground were removed in the late noughties (2007 or 2008 IIRC).

[brigham]

Weighing machines were also prevalent.

[theblackferret]

Aug 6, 2014 21:54:31 GMT brigham said:

Weighing machines were also prevalent.

Yes, indeed.

The question is not so much whether they worked, as to who on Earth needed to know that information, especially on a public place such as a Tube platform, presumably in a not very long interval before one's train came. Bit like pondering why birds migrate, but then there is usually a good explanation for that one-birds have common sense.

[superteacher]

I recall the older style vending machines which were around in the 70's / 80's. I can remember them selling Fruit and Nut bars because my mum would usually buy one! I remember that they had trays that you had to pull out in order to get your chosen product.

These, I think, were all gone by the late 80's. The next generation appeared in the 90's and lasted about 10 years or so. Does anyone know the official reason why they were withdrawn?

[pitdiver]

As an ex station supervisor they were more trouble than they were worth. Specially if someone lost money in them. The poor old station staff would get in the neck if this had happened and we had no control over them.

[Deleted]

There were two on the DR platforms at South Kensington in the 80s, both confectionery. The station staff (they were still around in the 'good old days') were convinced that the people who filled them deliberately fixed the coin chutes so that the bulk of the money ended up loose, in the bottom of the machine. As long as they paid some of that in to cover any claims, the rest was theirs.

Going back to the late 50s and early 60s there was a red Nestles chocolate machine on the NB at Tooting Broadway. I think they were the vogue in those days. Actually the tube looked very different then. Because the advertising rates were cheap the large track side posters literally stretched from end of the station walls. As soon as LT though 'Ah, we can make some money here' we lost at least 50% of them.

[norbitonflyer]

The chocolate machines were so unreliable they really should have required gambling licences.

[bassmike]

Is that weighing machine still on Uxbridge platform?

[miff]

I remember the draw machines sold something called Toffets in red cardboard boxes with a metal opening device on the side. Quite hard to chew. Never saw them anywhere else (except on a few websites today - which doesn't really count). And Bar Six - like a KitKat, but sideways.

[Deleted]

Aug 6, 2014 21:32:13 GMT metrailway said:

Most platform vending machines on the Underground were removed in the late noughties (2007 or 2008 IIRC).

Yes. I am sure it was Tim O'Toole who ordered their removal. I have a photo dated August 2007 with them in place but a sign saying out of use, so 2007 seems to be about right.

[castlebar]

@ miff

"Payne's Poppets"

6d a box

But when you looked in the box, it was half empty on opening it

[Deleted]

I can remember from the early 40s during the war there were empty chocolate machines at Upminster Bridge. Back in the days when they were working they must have dispensed liquid chocolate during the summer.

I was wondering as an extra thought. When were the first ones introduced.

John

[theblackferret]

Thanks everybody-fascinating replies so far. Keep 'em coming!!

I remember losing a filling to Toffets when I still had teeth--------

Poppets I remember in orange, mint & mixed boxes flavours-yes, all often half-empty

Bar Six in a Chelsea/Royal blue wrapper??

As for when they FIRST appeared: Herewith from JE Connor's London's Disused Underground Stations, LORDS(closed 1939):



However, if you can find the blasted station name in all that advertising, It didn't change FROM St John's Wood Rd to St John's Wood until 1925, so the penny chocolate slot machines were there before 1925-the photo is London Transport Museum copyright, so I can't guess when it was taken, but after 1912, when The Blue Hall Cinema,194 Edgware Road, was opened.

And I hope, johnw, if you sheltered in the Tubes during the War, you didn't have to go to Aldwych on Sundays during October-December 1940, otherwise you might have been part of a captive audience to Mr George Formby in concert.

[Deleted]

I never sheltered in the tubes during the war. We had our own air raid shelter in the garden, which my father used to carry me out to when the sirens sounded, so I often went to bed in the house and woke up in the shelter. Being there probably saved my life when a nearby bomb smashed my bedroom window covering my bed and everything with glass, and shrapnel damaged the walls.

Early in the war we used to travel from Upminster Bridge to my grandmother's house in Hornchurch, towards the end my father and I went up to London for days during the holidays. One day they started throwing torn up telephone directories out of the office windows, it turned out that the war in Europe was over.

[roythebus]

Tiffin Bars, Paynes Poppets with raisins or peanuts?

The reason they done away with the machines was becuase they done away with froopnee bits and tanners.

[miff]

They were still there long after decimalisation, I'm sure of this because I wasn't around for very long before decimalisation!

[abe]

Tim O'Toole indeed ordered their removal, on the grounds that they cluttered the platforms. There was also an incident around the same time in which one started producing smoke, and as I recall this hastened their demise.

Going back about 100 years, the Great Northern & City Railway introduced cigarette vending machines on board their trains; apparently they were very popular and required regular restocking. I have no information on how long they lasted though...

[John Tuthill]

Aug 13, 2014 9:53:07 GMT abe said:

Tim O'Toole indeed ordered their removal, on the grounds that they cluttered the platforms. There was also an incident around the same time in which one started producing smoke, and as I recall this hastened their demise.

Going back about 100 years, the Great Northern & City Railway introduced cigarette vending machines on board their trains; apparently they were very popular and required regular restocking. I have no information on how long they lasted though...

From the photos I've seen the vending machines were flush to the wall with an illuminated sign above saying 'AUTO SALES'
Maybe the idea of 'self service' was anathema to Mr. TT?

[Tubeboy]

Aug 7, 2014 19:32:27 GMT @reganorak said:

Aug 6, 2014 21:32:13 GMT metrailway said:

Most platform vending machines on the Underground were removed in the late noughties (2007 or 2008 IIRC).

Yes. I am sure it was Tim O'Toole who ordered their removal. I have a photo dated August 2007 with them in place but a sign saying out of use, so 2007 seems to be about right.

Yes, it was a measure to reduce 'platform clutter'. I think one or two caught fire at the same time, which hastened their removal.

Oops! Abe got in before me.

[Tomcakes]

If only there was a similar crackdown on audible 'clutter'!

I wonder how long it'll be before vending machines appear on (BR) trains in place of a staffed buffet?

[rincew1nd]

An interesting thought, but I suspect that sometimes the personal service aspect is still required. Having spent the weekend travelling around the West Country by rail it seems that FGW seem to take great pride in their on-board services, particularly the "Pullman" dining service they offer; I'm not sure you could replace that with a vending machine!

[1018509]

Now between 1971 and 1998 I was based at Rayners Lane station and took over the filling of the vending machines from South Harrow to Uxbridge in the mid 70's early 80's. All the stock was stored at Rayners Lane in two large, metal, bins in a room behind the staff accommodation on the Westbound platform. The stock was delivered monthly in boxes of 36 bars or trays of 18 packets of gum.

IIRC I received a percentage of the sales in, cash, per month. I took over as the red and white machines were being installed replacing the black and god machines.

They sold Cadbury's Dairy Milk bars, Fruit & Nut, Whole Nut, a Cadbury bar called Country Style and Wrigley's Spearmint gum.

When the machines worked they worked well and needed filling several times a week. One machine in particular, at Uxbridge, always had a fault and the blocked coins would spill out when the machine was opened.

The machines took 10p coins (the old, large ones) 20 pence coins and the old, large 5p coins. They may have taken the large 50p coin as well, I can't remember. No change was given.

This cash was banked and entered as blockages on the monthly sheet (yeah, right). To bigal's remark above (As long as they paid some of that in to cover any claims, the rest was theirs.) no comment.

Thankfully not many punters customers realised that most machines would vend a whole column easily with a little attention to the open drawer after making a purchase.

I cannot recall the demise of them. I was moved from Rayners Lane suddenly and can't even remember handing the keys over. I have a feeling the company just stopped and the machines were gradually removed and replaced with electrical, refrigerated ones which I had nothing to do with.

I don't remember the stock being removed - it certainly wasn't removed by me AFAIK.

When I first started filling the machines I believe it was an independent company but later was based at 55 Broadway under the control of what ever London Transport had become by then.

If you've ever stood on an outer London underground station and wondered about the odd alcoves in the wall here and there that is probably the place where the machines were mounted. Most of these alcoves have probably been refurbished out of existence by now.

I can't believe I am recalling events from 40 or so years ago - where's the time gone?

IIRC Uxbridge had three machines, none at Hillingdon, 2 at Ickenham, Ruislip, Ruislip Manor and Eastcote, 4 at Rayners Lane and 2 at South Harrow. I am now getting the feeling that I may have done Sudbury Hill and Sudbury Town as well but my memory is hazy.

[theblackferret]

Aug 13, 2014 19:46:53 GMT 1018509 said:

Now between 1971 and 1998 I was based at Rayners Lane station and took over the filling of the vending machines from South Harrow to Uxbridge in the mid 70's early 80's. All the stock was stored at Rayners Lane in two large, metal, bins in a room behind the staff accommodation on the Westbound platform. The stock was delivered monthly in boxes of 36 bars or trays of 18 packets of gum.

If you've ever stood on an outer London underground station and wondered about the odd alcoves in the wall here and there that is probably the place where the machines were mounted. Most of these alcoves have probably been refurbished out of existence by now.

I can't believe I am recalling events from 40 or so years ago - where's the time gone?

IIRC Uxbridge had three machines, none at Hillingdon, 2 at Ickenham, Ruislip, Ruislip Manor and Eastcote, 4 at Rayners Lane and 2 at South Harrow. I am now getting the feeling that I may have done Sudbury Hill and Sudbury Town as well but my memory is hazy.

Well, when on holiday last October, we stayed at Uxbridge & one night coming back from the theatre, we had to change at Rayner's Lane & then Ruislip Manor(unscheduled). Supper was in the Travel Lodge room at 23:45, which we'd purchased from Victoria NR station concourse.

But, guess what? At both those stations, your alcoves were still clearly visible. Wondered what they were there for, or were they part of the Art Deco styling?

Thanks-great to know!!

[stapler]

Have only just seen this thread. As late as 1982, there was a non-functional, very clunky cast-iron cigarette vending machine on Loughton station (up island platform). It had been painted over the same colour as the walls, took shilling coins and looked as if it had been out of use some 20 years. And at Leyton WB there was a pressed steel light and dark blue Senior Service vending machine till later than that.

[phillw48]

Sept 23, 2014 8:17:48 GMT stapler said:

Have only just seen this thread. As late as 1982, there was a non-functional, very clunky cast-iron cigarette vending machine on Loughton station (up island platform). It had been painted over the same colour as the walls, took shilling coins and looked as if it had been out of use some 20 years. And at Leyton WB there was a pressed steel light and dark blue Senior Service vending machine till later than that.

If telephone booths can become 'listed buildings' why not vending machines? They possibly could be included in the listing as part of a building.

[Deleted]

I have been trying to cast my mind back to whether the empty machines I remember on the platform at Upminster Bridge during the latter years of the war were ever used or replaced, but can't I am afraid.

John