Classic Mode

Mechanical Memories Magazine

Issue: 2011-October - Issue 59

Sods' law then manifested itself in the image of Noel, resulting in the usual clip on
the ear and marching orders back out into the street, ear still stinging. In no-mans
land, my colleague and I lined up and let fly a couple of peas in Noel' s direction. He,
by this time, was sitting on his perch, chin resting on his folded arms on the jukebox.
As luck would have it, my pea hit Noel on the right ear. You could tell he didn' t
like it, because in an instant he'd vaulted over between the two pintables and was
approaching at a frightening rate. We ran down the high street and eventually got
ourselves lost in the crowd. We found refuge in another safe arcade, and for many
weeks, kept wisely clear of Noel's arcade.
Three floor-standing machines:
Ahrens Pile Driver, what app ears to be a large working model and a Laughing Sailor.
Page 12
The tale of the pinball glass
Idleness can be the mother of disaster, certainly this proved to be the case in a certain
arcade (The Empire). In the mid 1950s, machine attendants, perhaps to save
themselves work, 'forgot' to secure the nuts on the bolts that held down the wooden
strip at the front of a pintable glass. In the event of a stuck ball or guide spring, the
usual procedure should have been: unlock and open the front door, remove the cash
box, place hand inside, unscrew the nuts from the retaining bolts, lift off the wooden
strip, slide out the glass, un stick what was stuck and then do everything in reverse.
Not so in this case. With the long bolts being devoid of nuts, just lift the wooden strip
up and slide down the glass. No problem.
A row of (mainly al/win) wall machines. L to R: Brenner Ball Past the Arrow, Shefras
Chocolate al/win, Al/win Deluxe, Bryans Payramid, BMCo al/win, two Saxony al/wins
with top pediments and one unidentified al/win .
Page 13

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