Quote:
Originally Posted by Test Desk
I was apprenticed to the GPO in 1967 and after training, became a T2A on subs app and line maintenance.
All the bakelite phones I encountered were black and it was only when we got a colour television in the late seventies that I discovered the 200 type phones came in a range of colours!
So I'm wondering if (at some point in the phasing out process) only the black 200s were sent to wipe-up and people with posh coloured bakelite phones were offered 700 types as replacements if beyond repair due to damage?
This might explain my experience.
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By the mid 1960's, only the black Bakelite phones were still available for issue and then some versions such as a Tele232 mounted 'atop' a Bellset 26 weren't to be issued. However stocks of 'pillar' phones (better known as 'candlestick' phones) were still available to replace faulty ones (according to the Telephone Service Instructions of 1965 !). Both the 200 and 300 series came in Ivory, Red and Green and in the early days a mottles brown Bakelite colour known as 'Walnut' was also available but didn't last for long. Also available in painted Gold and Silver for a period Subscribers (as they were until PMG Ernest Marples changed them to be referred to as 'Customers' circa 1958/59) could also have a 200 type painted (at their expense) to any colour so long as they undertook to cover the cost of reverting it to its original colour when they cased to have the phone. A 'Modern' phone (colour didn't come into it) would be used to replace a Bakelite but sometimes it was chargeable as a 'Modern' phone but not under other circumstances. Quite complex working out exactly what the circumstances were! However as I looked after the system on MOD premises (another Government department), I just ordered what I wanted. Senior officers usually had coloured Bakelite ones from before the days of the 700 series but if a new senior officer wanted a different colour, I usually ordered a 700 type of the appropriate colour. Still got several unused coloured Bakelite 300 types in their boxes in my Moggie van!