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Vintage Telephony and Telecomms Vintage Telephones, Telephony and Telecomms Equipment |
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20th Sep 2021, 10:39 pm | #1 |
Heptode
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: LEEDS.......North of the River Aire.
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Saxmundham former BT exchange to go on view after 50 years
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21st Sep 2021, 7:37 pm | #2 |
Nonode
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Gloucester, Glos. UK.
Posts: 2,150
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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 .
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Oh I've had that for years dear!! |
21st Sep 2021, 8:04 pm | #3 |
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Oxford, UK
Posts: 27,947
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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. |
22nd Sep 2021, 5:25 pm | #4 | |
Heptode
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Flintshire, UK.
Posts: 707
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Re: Saxmundham former BT exchange to go on view after 50 years
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22nd Sep 2021, 5:41 pm | #5 |
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Oxford, UK
Posts: 27,947
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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.
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23rd Sep 2021, 12:11 pm | #6 |
Triode
Join Date: Nov 2016
Location: Frinton on Sea, Essex, UK.
Posts: 45
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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. |
23rd Sep 2021, 12:46 pm | #7 | |
Heptode
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Flintshire, UK.
Posts: 707
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Re: Saxmundham former BT exchange to go on view after 50 years
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A good story though ! |
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23rd Sep 2021, 4:18 pm | #8 |
Octode
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: Morden, Surrey, UK.
Posts: 1,558
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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.
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24th Sep 2021, 5:57 am | #9 |
Hexode
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Helston, Cornwall, UK.
Posts: 303
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Re: Saxmundham former BT exchange to go on view after 50 years
Hours spent with oil dag and relay adjusters at London Faraday…
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24th Sep 2021, 9:15 am | #10 |
Heptode
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK.
Posts: 643
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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!
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Dave G1AGK. My perception is my reality! Last edited by davidw; 24th Sep 2021 at 9:16 am. Reason: spelling |
26th Sep 2021, 8:34 pm | #11 |
Hexode
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Greater Manchester, UK.
Posts: 373
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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.
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