Saxmundham former BT exchange to go on view after 50 years
 

Re: Saxmundham former BT exchange to go on view after 50 years
 

Looks like an interesting visit ,if it was nearer to me i would almost certainly have a look . like a time vault really .

Re: Saxmundham former BT exchange to go on view after 50 years
 

It looks like a pretty typical 50s exchange. I wonder what's still inside the huge Oxford regional exchange in Speedwell Street - I wouldn't be surprised if it was a complete time warp. There used to be a museum in there maintained by one of the BT managers, and it may well still be there for all I know, covered in decades of dust.

It's been a lights out operation for many years now.

Re: Saxmundham former BT exchange to go on view after 50 years
 

Oxford Museum closed many years ago at the same time as all other local IBTE run museums. Most sold off at the 'BT Museum Auction' held in 2002. I'm sat next the the CBS2 manual board that was in the Taunton Museum.

Re: Saxmundham former BT exchange to go on view after 50 years
 

Good to know it didn't all finish up in a skip anyway.

Re: Saxmundham former BT exchange to go on view after 50 years
 

unlikely to have any real equipment left in it. the strowger equipment was removed before 2000 to get the best scrap value, relay contacts and coils
the photos show racks of old 24 and 30 can pcm equipment with no cards.

unlikely to be allowed near the line concentrators or MDF.

Re: Saxmundham former BT exchange to go on view after 50 years
 

But they show a picture of 'The router used to connect callers' ;)

A good story though !

Re: Saxmundham former BT exchange to go on view after 50 years
 

They also show the level measuring set recently referred to in a sale thread, so it was GPO / BT, not BBC as I had thought.

Re: Saxmundham former BT exchange to go on view after 50 years
 

Hours spent with oil dag and relay adjusters at London Faraday…

Re: Saxmundham former BT exchange to go on view after 50 years
 

Saxmundham was a Strowger GSC (Group Switching Centre) with a manual board (switchboard) attached. The ground floor was the equipment room and Post Office counter along with the mail sorting office. Upstairs was managers offices,rest room and manual board and stores. This floor was sold taken over by an insurance company years ago.
When I had the need to visit/work there back in the 60/70s I was led to believe that in the basement were kept a set of preformed concrete blocks to cover the equipment room street level windows in the event of the "cold war" getting hot. How these were expected to be moved I never found out!

Re: Saxmundham former BT exchange to go on view after 50 years
 

The other end of the Exchange did indeed used to be the post office I know it is my home town...used to walk passed fascinated at all the relays you could see through the windows. My Friends father who was there when they dismantled Bletchley also lived there and worked at BT Research centre in Martlesham, not a million miles away from Woodbridge either.