Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Moll
One thing that surprised me was the use of wedges to disconnect the lines from the manual exchange prior to using a second set to connect them to the automatic.
In footage I've previously seen of electromechanical exchanges being replaced by electronic ones, the disconnection was performed by rows of technicians simply snipping the cables prior to the wedges being pulled to cut in the new exchange. To me, this seems the obvious approach, rather than preceding the cut-over by laboriously connecting equipment whose only purpose will be to perform that same effect of disconnecting the existing lines - unless, of course, these wedges were an integral part of the manual exchange to begin with.
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A lot depended on the type of frame - most of the 'video' that I've seen was shot by enthusiasts in the 1990's coming to the end of electro-mechanical exchanges. I've seen all sorts of methods for the exchanges I've seen cut over between the late 1950's (mainly manual to auto at that time) to the very last cutover of an electro-mechanical exchange to digital in mid July 1995.
Mentioned in '1995 here. That was an interesting one as the lines were moved over one at a time using an 'Inserter 2a' Krone tool on a 100 pair krone block! There were only 20 lines on the exchange. BT are after my video of the changeover for their website!