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Vintage Telephony and Telecomms Vintage Telephones, Telephony and Telecomms Equipment |
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17th Mar 2012, 11:46 am | #41 |
Dekatron
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Invercargill, New Zealand
Posts: 3,458
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Re: 'Button A-B' and grey payphones.
I remember A/B payphones being in common use here until they were replaced with Telecom cardphones, which must have been late 80's or very early 90's. Put in 6c (3x 2c - that dates it as 2c coins were demonetised in 1990), dial a number, then press the button on answer. Or, if you knew to subtract each digit from 10 thanks to our oddball dials, just tap dial
Of course no problem dialling 0 for the operator, or 1 so you could call 111 Emergency. Not sure if they were the same units, but seeing NZ seemed the follow the UK in phone-related stuff they probably were. There's some pictures here. |
17th Mar 2012, 11:53 am | #42 |
Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Ipswich, Suffolk, IP4, UK.
Posts: 21,289
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Re: 'Button A-B' and grey payphones.
NZ phones with the '0' before the '1' would sometimes find their way into Post Office Telephones stores. Often they would then get installed in rest rooms etc. Those not "in the know" would wonder why they got wrong numbers.
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24th Nov 2012, 8:26 pm | #43 | |
Heptode
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Flintshire, UK.
Posts: 707
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Re: 'Button A-B' and grey payphones.
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24th Nov 2012, 8:35 pm | #44 | |
Heptode
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Flintshire, UK.
Posts: 707
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Re: 'Button A-B' and grey payphones.
Quote:
There is another A/B box in an early kiosk - I recently restored the interior to what it would have been when the villagers were thrown out in 1943. See http://www.tynehamopc.org.uk/telephone_kiosk.html You can only visit the kiosk at the weekend as it is in the middle of the Army's Lulworth live firing gun range! See http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/Ab...orthRanges.htm for details of access times. |
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26th Nov 2012, 11:20 am | #45 |
Pentode
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Wigan, Greater Manchester, UK.
Posts: 147
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Re: 'Button A-B' and grey payphones.
The last black A-B type phone I recall seeing was on Morecambe Railway station C.1974, they were fairly rare by then most having been changed to the grey type.
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29th Nov 2012, 11:26 am | #46 |
Heptode
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Flintshire, UK.
Posts: 707
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Re: 'Button A-B' and grey payphones.
Correct. Morecambe was still a manual exchange until late 1974 and manual exchanges used A/B boxes. The grey STD payphones (Box Coin Collecting 705 in kiosks http://britishtelephones.com/bcc700.htm) were only introduced when an exchange was converted to STD working. The change of telephone happened just after the conversion as the STD payphones needed equipment in the exchange to enable them to function (Coin and Fee Checking relay sets).
That is why if you have one of these telephones, it will only work as a normal telephone and will not open the slots or give the 'pips' unless like some of us, you have a former GPO exchange still fitted with the relay sets. There were still exchanges without STD working after March 1978 - several in Wales and Northern Ireland. The PO's annual 'List of Exchanges' giving info about each exchange no longer listed whether an exchange had STD after 1978 as they all had it by 1979 - except for the one manual phone left on the Isle of Lewis. |
30th Nov 2012, 1:13 pm | #47 |
Hexode
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Weeting, Norfolk.
Posts: 465
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Re: 'Button A-B' and grey payphones.
If any of the forum members happen to visit or stay in Kinloch Castle, Isle of Rum, it still has a black A-B phone sited inside the guests entrance. Unfortunately it is disconnected and doesn't operate.
The castle has been available to guests since the 1970's (IIRC), so I guss this was originally for the use of those visiting the island? The Coronation style phone box (a local landmark it would appear) is still intact but its payphone is only capable of emergency calls. The island has a microwave link back to Mallaig carrying the castles modern payphone, a handful of lines and the islands first wireless internet connection (slow but bearable). Rob.
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30th Nov 2012, 8:21 pm | #48 | |
Heptode
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Flintshire, UK.
Posts: 707
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Re: 'Button A-B' and grey payphones.
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Ian J |
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