Favourite 'Railway' confectionery

[WesternLancer]

My all-time favourite soft drink was Schweppes orangeade which used to be sold on draught in the buffet at Doncaster station and I consumed gallons of the stuff during my many days spotting there in the 1980s.

I bet that was one of the other post mix concoctions we had. I just can't recall it!
We also had 'fresh' orange juice - with bits in IIRC - which was amore expensive product line. I I think I usually chose that as my drink when selecting items to consume from the meal break allocation.

 

[37078xotTE]

My all-time favourite soft drink was Schweppes orangeade which used to be sold on draught in the buffet at Doncaster station and I consumed gallons of the stuff during my many days spotting there in the 1980s.

A favourite of mine too but consumed in can form as part of my "spotting" snap box for virtually the whole of my early 1980's spotting trips ................... If only I realised you could get it on draft, the wait at Doncaster for the deltic's of old would have been much better.

 

[Arglwydd Golau]

To be fair, the pic I posted was of one of their Fruit Pies.

Well, perhaps it was a Lyons Pie... I also remember an apricot pie which LNWR & GW Joint cites as a favourite. The memory playing tricks once again...and not for the first time!

 

[Busaholic]

The machine on Taunton's principal Down platform in my youth provided us platform enders with a Fry's (of Keynsham, Somerset) chocolate bar, divided into five sections and filled with a differently-coloured cream confection in each part. It was called something like Five Flavours or similar. Someone can probably come up with the right name. Even in my youth I pondered at the mechanical complexity of the machine at the chocolate factory which managed to achieve this.

Was this the same as Fry's Five Boys chocolate bar which I remember from the 1950s, with drawings of the five boys on the outside?

 

[WesternLancer]

Was this the same as Fry's Five Boys chocolate bar which I remember from the 1950s, with drawings of the five boys on the outside?

Intriguing - this gives a good history of it - but nowhere explains what it actually was - reading it gives me the impression it was just a chocolate bar (ie not filled with fondant centres) is that correct or not?

Whatever Happened to Fry's 5 Boys Chocolate? | Spring Chicken

Did you love Fry's 5 Boys Chocolate? Did you ever wonder what happened to it? When did it vanish from our corner shops? Well look no further...

www.springchicken.co.uk

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Intriguing - this gives a good history of it - but nowhere explains what it actually was - reading it gives me the impression it was just a chocolate bar (ie not filled with fondant centres) is that correct or not?

I would concur that it was just a milk chocolate bar.
Pic of Fry's 5 Boys Milk Chocolate Bar wrapper.

 

[D6968]

Loved these too.
View attachment 123601

They were the ones! Was there some sort of drug in them because they seemed to be rather addictive!

 

[WesternLancer]

I would concur that it was just a milk chocolate bar.View attachment 123648
Pic of Fry's 5 Boys Milk Chocolate Bar wrapper.

Thanks - that pic helps considerably!

 

[randyrippley]

Was this the same as Fry's Five Boys chocolate bar which I remember from the 1950s, with drawings of the five boys on the outside?

no

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Nov 2022 ==

If anyone wants to buy Five Centres or some of the other Frys Cream Bar variants, this mail order company has them back in production

Five Centre Chocolate Cream - Pineapple, Strawberry, Lime, Raspberry and Orange — The Shop Around The Corner - Vintage Confectionery Emporium

Why not take delight in an old pleasure? Five Centre! A bar of five pieces, and of course, the all important five flavoured cream centres, Raspberry, Orange, Pineapple, Strawberry and Lime. The five centre bar as it would have been sold and enjoyed in the 1970's.

shoparoundthecorner.co.uk

 

[AY1975]

In bygone days most stations had a vending machine selling chocolate, or even a kiosk selling cigarettes, tobacco, matches, etc and sweets to cater for Briton's notorious sweet-tooth.
What was your favourite purchase, and where?
Mine was Nestlé 'Superfine' chocolate bars out of the machine at Waterloo (Merseyside) station, supplemented by Parma Violets from the kiosk at the same station.

For me Nestlé red chocolate bars (not sure if they were the "Superfine" ones to which you're referring) out of the machine at Alfreton (or Alfreton & Mansfield Parkway as it was in those days) when I was a young kid in the late 1970s and early '80s. I seem to recall that the machine had an advert for those bars on it with the slogan "Take it as red". Alfreton also had a drinks vending machine that sold tea, coffee, hot chocolate, soup and orange or lime squash. I used to love the lime squash that it dispensed.

What confectionery did BR have in their buffet cars? Were they tied to a certain brand? I seem to recall Pepsi was generally on offer as opposed to Coke when it came to soft drinks.

Yes, and in 1979, the year of the centenary of on-train catering, they gave out children's colouring books that were presumably sponsored by Pepsi because they showed a family buying cans of Pepsi from the buffet on an HST.

Up to sectorisation, each region had its own supply contracts, so it would have depended on where the buffet car was based and took on supplies. But since Cadburys/Frys/Nestle/Rowntrees were distributed nationally, they seemed pretty much universal.

Yes, I remember getting Milky Bars and Penguin bars from buffet cars. I also seem to remember getting Club bars (Club Fruit, Club Plain etc).

 

[Halwynd]

Nestle Dairy Crunch out of the platform vending machines for me. As I think someone else said, you had to be careful they didn't break your teeth they were so hard. I once knew someone who had the knack, having purchased one Nestle bar, of being able to return the little mechanical drawer back to exactly the point where he could apply pressure in a certain direction and make the machine release another bar without having to give it another 20p - he was a rascal!

I also acquired a taste for the InterCity giant chocolate chip cookie - lord knows how much sugar was in them..

Not confectionery but I do also miss being able to buy Golden Wonder crisps from the buffet. I think they were, and remain, far better than anything you can buy today. They're still made but very hard to get hold of unless you're prepared to pay a silly price at Amazon. Walkers seem to have done their best to strangle the competition.

 

[Lloyds siding]

For me Nestlé red chocolate bars (not sure if they were the "Superfine" ones to which you're referring) out of the machine at Alfreton (or Alfreton & Mansfield Parkway as it was in those days) when I was a young kid in the late 1970s and early '80s. I seem to recall that the machine had an advert for those bars on it with the slogan "Take it as red". Alfreton also had a drinks vending machine that sold tea, coffee, hot chocolate, soup and orange or lime squash. I used to love the lime squash that it dispensed.

I think that the red wrapper Nestlé was the milk chocolate whereas the dark brown wrapper (the one that I bought) was the plain chocolate.

 

[Taunton]

I once knew someone who had the knack, having purchased one Nestle bar, of being able to return the little mechanical drawer back to exactly the point where he could apply pressure in a certain direction and make the machine release another bar without having to give it another 20p - he was a rascal!

That was indeed a certain skill, in overcoming the vending machine's controls. A fellow schoolfriend had a similar ability.

The vending machines were commonly provided by small-time entrepreneurs, who visited periodically, stocked them, and collected the proceeds. The machines were supplied, pretty much free, by the manufacturers of the contents. There was in the 1960s a Soviet spy, Gordon Lonsdale, whose cover in Britain was being a vending machine supplier. I think he did bubble gum machines. I don't recall those on stations, but there were a number around outside. I never actually patronised one. My mother would go absolutely loopy if she saw a child blowing a bubble; what would have ensued if I had done so myself passes all comprehension.

 

[Halwynd]

That was indeed a certain skill, in overcoming the vending machine's controls. I knew someone myself who had a similar ability.

The vending machines were commonly provided by small-time entrepreneurs, who visited periodically, stocked them, and collected the proceeds. They were supplied, pretty much free, by the manufacturers of the contents. There was in the 1960s a Soviet spy, Gordon Lonsdale, whose cover in Britain was being a vending machine supplier. I think he did bubble gum machines. I don't recall those on stations, but there were a number around outside.

Great stuff - I've enjoyed reading this thread and the memories it has brought back. Yes, I remember the chewing gum machines too!

 

[Rescars]

That was indeed a certain skill, in overcoming the vending machine's controls. A fellow schoolfriend had a similar ability.

The vending machines were commonly provided by small-time entrepreneurs, who visited periodically, stocked them, and collected the proceeds. The machines were supplied, pretty much free, by the manufacturers of the contents. There was in the 1960s a Soviet spy, Gordon Lonsdale, whose cover in Britain was being a vending machine supplier. I think he did bubble gum machines. I don't recall those on stations, but there were a number around outside. I never actually patronised one. My mother would go absolutely loopy if she saw a child blowing a bubble; what would have ensued if I had done so myself passes all comprehension.

Once upon a time Travellers-Fare employed a Vending Machine Manager. Presumably BR stations were off-limits to Taunton's entrepreneurs!

 

[Lloyds siding]

Great stuff - I've enjoyed reading this thread and the memories it has brought back. Yes, I remember the chewing gum machines too!

Yes indeed! Beech Nut and Wrigley's Arrowmint and Doublemint!

 

[Taunton]

Once upon a time Travellers-Fare employed a Vending Machine Manager. Presumably BR stations were off-limits to Taunton's entrepreneurs!

Were they not a commercial manager, who oversaw and let out the leases for all the machine operators?

The various machines were quite a range, including cigarette vending machines. Hot drink dispensers came along in the 1960s (with variable success).

There was a "Speak your Weight" machine in the passenger subway at Bristol TM, which I implored my mother to use, until one day I succeeded. Coin inserted, it duly boomed out "Twelve stones nine". "Liar!!!" echoed around the subway. This was long before the Tiswas sketch about such machines, which were the butt of many jokes, but I was there for this one.