Linotype Model 54 Looking for a Home - UK

[Ian Thomas]

I have recently purchased a property which has a Linotype machine in a back room I think it was used until relatively recently there is no other printing equipment in the building just the machine (Located in Yeovil, Somerset)

It looks like a really interesting machine and it would be a shame to scrap it, I am looking for a new home for it that is cost neutral for me. It would be great if someone was going to make use of it going forward and save it from the scrap heap.

[Dave Hughes]

It's certainly a nice machine, Ian.

Circa 1950s a 'Fleet 54' - not sure if the Fleet part was a reference to Fleet Street.

[Dave Hughes]

This machine was introduced in the UK 1954 and was specially designed for tele-typesetting operation, although the one Ian has doesn't appear to have any tele-typesetting equipment attached to it, apart from, perhaps, the extra switches under the keyboard.

This picture shows the same model with TTS equipment.

[Kenneth Stoves]

I operated a Linotype Fleet 54 at the Evening Gazette, Middlesbrough This would be from about about 1963 when they obtained it second hand from another Thomson newspaper (I don't think they ever bought anything new). I enjoyed operating on this machine, equipped with quadder, Mohr saw and a blower. I seem to recall that the magazines were at a steeper angle than on the Model 48, and the cams and motor ran slightly faster, so perhaps Fleet related to it being a faster machine, hence the need for a blower. All in all it was a nice machine to use. It lasted until computerisation reared its ugly head in the shape of the Linotron 202 and 303.