Opening a Melbourne cable tram bell punch

By Russell Jones. First published 2020.

Bell punches – or more correctly, alarm registering punches – were used by the Melbourne Tramway & Omnibus Company from the beginning of its cable and horse tram system in 1885. Manufactured by the Railway Register Manufacturing Company of New York, they were carried by conductors to register the taking of fares.

Advertisement for the Railway Register Manufacturing Company of New York. Landing the exclusive contract for bell punches for the Melbourne Tramway & Omnibus Company – the largest cable tramway system in the world – was a major coup for the company.

From the Street Railway Journal (1889).

Bell punches were not replaced on Melbourne’s cable trams until November 1921, when they were phased out on the Richmond line and replaced by flimsy tickets. Other lines followed rapidly.

A couple of times a year a visitor arrives at the Melbourne Tram Museum to show us a genuine bell punch that has been passed down the generations of their family, or has been purchased from a deceased estate, or picked up at an antique store or auction. Invariably, the owner wants some assistance in finding out how to open the bell punch.

The museum is pleased to publish the following instructions, to assist the fortunate owners of original bell punches in learning how to operate a part of Melbourne’s forgotten tramway heritage.

The combination to unlock a Melbourne bell punch consists of four letters. Unfortunately, the records showing the bell punch serial numbers and the matching combinations have not survived. Therefore, if you don’t know the combination, the only way to open a bell punch is to try each of the following known combinations until the correct one is found.

• HOSE
• FINE
• FILE
• IFMO
• BORE
• KARO
• BRKF
• EKON
• FIRE
• IDMA

These combinations were a matter of great secrecy. Only highly trusted employees of the company were permitted to know the combinations to bell punches. If a conductor became aware of the combination of a bell punch, such knowledge opened the potential for them to commit fraud against the company.

Melbourne Tramway & Omnibus Company bell-punch, front view.

From the Melbourne Tram Museum collection. Photograph courtesy Noelle Jones.

Instructions

1. Hold the punch in the flat of the left hand, with the ring towards you, and the handle on the right.
2. Two small lines ‘=’ will be noticed alongside the lettered combination lock.
3. Turn the letters five complete revolutions towards you, until the first letter of the combination is exactly opposite the two lines ‘=’.
4. Turn the letters away from you until the second letter of the combination twice passes the two lines ‘=’, then turn a third time until the second letter is exactly opposite the two lines ‘=’.
5. For the third letter of the combination, turn the letters once towards you until the third letter passes the two lines ‘=’, then turn again until it rests opposite the lines.
6. For the fourth letter, turn the letters away from you until the fourth letter is opposite the lines. Pull the milled edge of the cap to the right, and the bell punch will open.

Please note that if the letters are moved after the bell punch has been opened, the same process must be followed to close the punch – so we strongly recommend that you don’t move the combination lock of an open bell punch.

Opening the barrel

To remove the barrel in order to take out the clippings, use a small nail or steel punch to tap lightly in the hole between the hinge and the barrel. This will push out the spring at the back and enable the barrel to be lifted off.

It may be that your bell punch is very worn, and none of the combinations will work. They are all well over a century old, after all. We hope you aren’t disappointed.

Good luck!

And if and when you find the right combination, don’t forget to write it down!