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Old 29th Apr 2018, 8:25 am   #21
Boater Sam
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Default Re: AA/RAC phone boxes.

The Dunham Massey box in the lay by between the A560 and the A50 used to be a rest cabin for the AA patrols and customer service centre until a wagon shunted it out onto the A560 one day.
Just remembered that I still have an AA key on the car key ring, taken it off as it's pointless carrying it now. It's worn so much that there are no markings at all! It must date from the '60s.
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Old 29th Apr 2018, 8:58 am   #22
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Default Re: AA/RAC phone boxes.

Somewhere I have both the older style with a hexagonal head and the intertwined "A"s and the later squared-off version. I ceased carrying one on my keyring some years ago - I think after my encounter with box 137 above, on discovering that it no longer gave access!
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Old 29th Apr 2018, 9:55 am   #23
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Default Re: AA/RAC phone boxes.

This has been a fascinating thread: I hadn't realised that some of the boxes contained a fully-functional payphone rather than a "hotline" that connected you to the AA/RAC automatically.

My AA key was the type with the square head, though my late father (who had been an AA member since the late-1940s when he bought his first car) had a keu with the hexagonal style head.

Old "Ordnance Survey" maps used to mark the locations of AA/RAC phone-points with a blue telephone symbol, as opposed to the black symbol for conventional payphones. Looking at an early-1980s OS map I have here it shows the location of one box being on the A4 at Beckhampton - a road I drive regularly. The box (or more likely one of the phones-on-a-pillar) hasn't been there for at least two decades but next time I travel the route I may pull into the lay-by in question and see if I can find any vestiges of where it was.
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Old 29th Apr 2018, 10:23 am   #24
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Default Re: AA/RAC phone boxes.

Quote:
Originally Posted by G6Tanuki View Post
This has been a fascinating thread: I hadn't realised that some of the boxes contained a fully-functional payphone rather than a "hotline" that connected you to the AA/RAC automatically.
Every one I looked into was a payphone arrangement as described (but with separate telephone and coin-box). As a thirteen-year-old with an unhealthy interest in telephones, I insisted my dad stopped at EVERY AA / RAC box between Workington and Edinburgh (via Melrose and Hawick, the pretty way) when we went to Scotland to visit rellies!

Incidentally, the OS1:2500 maps give them out as 'TCB (AA)' or 'TCB (RAC)' - TCB being Telephone Call Box.
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Old 29th Apr 2018, 1:08 pm   #25
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Default Re: AA/RAC phone boxes.

Quote:
Originally Posted by G6Tanuki View Post
'... but next time I travel the route I may pull into the lay-by in question and see if I can find any vestiges of where it was.'
There are three bases extant between Penrith and High Hesket: stepped concrete plinths with a cable conduit in the corner. One of them has whitewashed edges on the steps.
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Old 29th Apr 2018, 3:12 pm   #26
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Default Re: AA/RAC phone boxes.

I would be happy to collate any reported sightings of surviving AA and RAC boxes that are reported by forum members - either in this thread or by PM - starting with those already mentioned.

OS grid reference and/or descriptive location (including county), along with the box no. if available, should enable me to identify the box in question.
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Old 29th Apr 2018, 3:40 pm   #27
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Default Re: AA/RAC phone boxes.

Garrowby Hill, East Yorkshire
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Old 29th Apr 2018, 3:59 pm   #28
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Default Re: AA/RAC phone boxes.

According to this list only 19 of the 862 AA boxes are left 8 of which are grade 2 listed.

I expect there is a similar list for RAC boxes.

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Old 29th Apr 2018, 4:02 pm   #29
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Default Re: AA/RAC phone boxes.

The one on the Sidmouth Rd is No 456 near the Halfway House.

http://www.sidmouthherald.co.uk/news...road-1-4100839

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Old 29th Apr 2018, 5:18 pm   #30
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Default Re: AA/RAC phone boxes.

Reading this post has reminded me that way back around 1990, I was offered a job with the AA down at Morley near Leeds as a mobile radio tech and I am sure that part of their responsibility was the telephone boxes. Exactly where the AA's responsibility ended in terms of maintenance and line distribution was never made clear. Unfortunately I didn't take the job so I never found out.
Alan.
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Old 29th Apr 2018, 6:11 pm   #31
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Default Re: AA/RAC phone boxes.

Looks like there are no surviving RAC boxes in their original locations but the Listed AA boxes are 137, 372, 442, 456, 487, 530, 573 & 817.

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Old 29th Apr 2018, 6:49 pm   #32
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Default Re: AA/RAC phone boxes.

Thanks Keith. That certainly goes a long way to answering the question of what remains. So there are potentially eleven survivors without the protection of being listed - but which eleven?
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Old 29th Apr 2018, 6:58 pm   #33
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Default Re: AA/RAC phone boxes.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Biggles View Post
Reading this post has reminded me that way back around 1990, I was offered a job with the AA down at Morley near Leeds as a mobile radio tech and I am sure that part of their responsibility was the telephone boxes. Exactly where the AA's responsibility ended in terms of maintenance and line distribution was never made clear. Unfortunately I didn't take the job so I never found out.
Alan.
I'm sure I read somewhere that AA-boxes in some really-remote locations used radio rather than a landline as their comms-link. Given that the AA/RAC had a very extensive low-band VHF network for their vehicles I can see the logic in them doing this rather than trenching miles of moorland or similar to install a hardwired connection.
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Old 29th Apr 2018, 7:34 pm   #34
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Smile Re: AA/RAC phone boxes.

Hi,
When but a lad, we often went to visit grandparents in Cornwall. My mother was always amused by an RAC telephone near the hamlet of Hatt. The box in question carried a sign declaring it 'Hatt Box'.
Cheers, Pete.
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Old 29th Apr 2018, 10:40 pm   #35
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Default Re: AA/RAC phone boxes.

Hi.

I was always intrigued with those AA/RAC emergency call boxes and but never saw the inside of one despite being an AA member. My late father's new Mini 1000 bought in April 1980 included AA membership and I've just found the the AA key, see attached pics.

Regards
Symon.
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Old 29th Apr 2018, 11:20 pm   #36
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Default Re: AA/RAC phone boxes.

That style of key was a right pain on the pocket compared to the older shape and the more usual roundheaded types.
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