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Vintage Telephony and Telecomms Vintage Telephones, Telephony and Telecomms Equipment

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Old 17th Dec 2009, 10:43 am   #1
Mister C
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Default UK rotary dial Trimline

Just wondering if someone can help with a spot of UK telephone history...I've just acquired what appears to be a Trimline phone (http://www.phone-pages.org.uk/minstrel.htm#Trimline) but with an old 420 jack plug on the end of the lead.

The only label on the bottom says 'CAT 8002' which initially threw me off the scent as it appears to be the model number of the Contempra, but it's definitely the same design as the Trimline in the link above (but with numeric rather than alphanumeric dial back plate).

Does anyone know if these were issued by BT (or GPO) or is it more likely to have been an import?
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Old 17th Dec 2009, 9:15 pm   #2
AndiiT
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Default Re: UK rotary dial Trimline

Hi,
At a guess I would say that it may be an import.

One thing to check is the Jack plug - does the wiring look as if it has been factory soldered to the plug or done by hand, as it were. If it looks hand done the phone has most likely been imported and "modified" for use (on a Plan 4 plug and socket system) in this country. Only two wires connected in the plug are almost a definite sign that this is an import.

Even before it was legal to fit your own extention phones there were many export models that crept in to the market and were connected to GPO/BT lines, this was especially apparent around 1981/2 as the "New" plug and socket system was introduced.

Regards
Andrew
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Old 18th Dec 2009, 3:13 pm   #3
Mister C
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Default Re: UK rotary dial Trimline

The soldering inside the plug looks very neat, as do the connections inside the phone itself.

Intriguing piece of kit, given that both a rotary dial and a mechanical bell are fitted into a relatively small handset and base. (And I notice that although this dates from around the 70s there appears to be a push-button version still on sale in the US which still looks to be ostensibly the same handset design!)
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Old 18th Dec 2009, 11:01 pm   #4
kirk1955
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Default Re: UK rotary dial Trimline

Quote:
Originally Posted by mister c View Post
just wondering if someone can help with a spot of uk telephone history...i've just acquired what appears to be a trimline phone (http://www.phone-pages.org.uk/minstrel.htm#trimline) but with an old 420 jack plug on the end of the lead.

The only label on the bottom says 'cat 8002' which initially threw me off the scent as it appears to be the model number of the contempra, but it's definitely the same design as the trimline in the link above (but with numeric rather than alphanumeric dial back plate).

Does anyone know if these were issued by bt (or gpo) or is it more likely to have been an import?
the gpo issued these
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