Quote:
Originally Posted by Brigham
As far as I am aware, the internal exchange at Beamish Open Air Museum, Co. Durham, is still a Strowger type.
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Correct ! It is a UAX13 - a C rack and two A racks, fitted late 1980s/early 1990's. Sadly not on display to the public as it is in the roof of the tram depot above the workshop. Not suitable for public access
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They've also got a UAX14 A rack plus a Group selector rack and a relay set rack which I took there in 2016 to be used to build a typical exchange to serve the 1950's town for which they have had a rather large lottery grant.
There are quite a few other Strowger exchanges preserved I've got a UAX5 dating from 1929 that was in use until 1950 and miraculously survived until I found it. Also got several UAX12's - photo of Kingshouse just as it was finishing in service in 1992 - the penultimate UAX12 - the last one 'Cabrach- finished in 1993 an I recob=vered most of that, BT press office got the story of the closure wrong thinking it was the 'last electro-mechanical exchange' and I ended up with my picture in the 'Sun' peering through the C rack on page 5 - not 3 I must add ! Also got a UAX13 plus an Island Automatic eXchange No 5 (IAX5). I was at the change-over of them all including the IAX5 on the UK's most remote inhabited island - way out in the Atlantic to the west of the Shetland Islands - population only 30! There are a number of other UAX racks in private hands.
Avoncroft Museum at Bromsgrove has a working UAX13 (the last Strowger exchange from the London Region) plus a working MNDX. There are other museums with
UAX racks such as the Museum of Internal Fire in West Wales
A number are connected to CNet so can be dialled into by those who are connected.
Ian J