Edmondson Ticket Dating Machine

[Wexford70]

A quick question relating to the ticket dating machines.

Would the illustrious community know:

1) When these machines stopped being used?

2) How the machines were set up with type?  Was there only numbers such as (170321) or were there letters (17MAR21)?

3) If there are any spare type faces / ribbons available?

4) Where did CIE purchase the tickets?

Edited March 17, 2021 by Wexford70

[Galteemore]

We had one of these when I was a kid and I well remember the inky ribbon. Yes letters were available as well as digits. Preserved railways on the Big Island use them so I imagine some form of consumable supply is in place. Might be worth asking some of the bigger concerns like Severn Valley etc. BR stopped using them c1990. 

[minister_for_hardship]

1. Late 60s possibly?

2. Two digit date, abbreviated 3 letter month, two digit year.

3. As above, a lot of preserved lines have them still.

4. Mix of railways printing their own or contracted out to printers. The GSR were known to have printed their own and the GSR, for a while at least, printed tickets for the CDRJC for their stations in the south to avoid customs duties.

[jhb171achill]

CIE & NIR used them well into the 1980s.

Inchicore had its own printing press - I think there were two. They bought card and cut their own blanks.

In the 1950s to 70s, the UTA and NIR curiously got tickets from the NCC lines printed in Britain; a throwback to the NCC, while those for the Bangor line and GN section (what was left of it) were printed locally.

The SLNCR got many tickets printed by the GNR, tough I am unsure if it did the rest itself or got them done by Inchicore.

You could set up Edmondson machines to do whatever letters or numbers you wanted, but the typical style was 14MAR56.