AA/RAC phone boxes.

[G6Tanuki]

Oldies will remember these - wooden roadside "sentry-boxes" which were openable by a special key that was issued when you joined the appropriate motoring organisation. Later superseded by smaller pillar-mounted phone-housings but with the same members-only access mechanism.

Never having used one (though I had an AA key) my questions are: was the phone inside a normal one or something special? I'm guessing that it wasn't just a traditional of-the-period payphone.
Did they have dials so you could call any number or was it something where you lifted the receiver and that automatically put you through to AA/RAC operators? I would guess the latter.
What was the supporting infrastructure - did the AA/RAC have their own private phone-network or was it piggy-backed somehow onto the GPO/BT network by way of dedicated leased-lines?

Like the old GPO/BT phone-boxes and Mercury kiosks, the motoring-organisation phones are now just a dim and distant memory for most people: a technology rendered utterly obsolete by the cellphone.

[JohnBHanson]

The latter phone boxes were telephones connected to the GPO/BT network usually of the metal type but I cannot remember which one. However they were wired through an autodialer such as http://www.britishtelephones.com/auto402.htm but hardwired rather than plug/socket. So it would dial a pre-programmed number on lifting the handset.

[Peter.N.]

I remember one on Dartmoor that had a Lucas Freelight wind turbine on the top.

Peter

[russell_w_b]

I recall the ones I've been in having a coin mechanism and a 711 wall-mounted telephone, same as you might find in a pub (say). There was also a double-gonged extension bell (bell 64) on the outside too.

There were a list of numbers on the wall applicable to AA members. Round here on the A6 there are still the bases of such call-boxes by the roadside.

[emeritus]

The one I used in the 1970's had an ordinary coin-operated phone as far as I can remember. I found my old AA key a few days ago when we were having a clear-out.

About 20 years ago I used the emergency phone in a lay-by on the A12 to report having seen a crate of empty milk bottles in the middle of the A12 that must have just fallen off a milk lorry. The phone only had a line of buttons that connected you to the police or various recovery organisations. When I pushed the one for the police, they asked me what number I was calling from, which of course I didn't know. I had thought that there would be something to show them where the call was coming from, but evidently not.

[Dai Corner]

I remember my sales rep uncle who worked from home telling me that he used a local AA box to make his business calls while waiting for a phone to be installed in his house. This could take months in the 1960s

[Biggles]

At work we have certain dedicated telephone extensions which on lifting the handset, the pabx automatically connects you to a particular number. This is configured in the exchange, so I am not sure if the BT network could be configured in the same way, rather than the telephone having an autodialler. As you can imagine, an intermittent leak across the pair caused by wet conditions can cause chaos with "silent" calls.
Alan.

[Richard_FM]

There are a few of these boxes preserved, one is near Dunham Massey.

I still have my parents AA keys somewhere, from when they were members in the 1970s.

[Cobaltblue]

There is one between Exeter and Sidmouth as well Cheers

Mike T

[russell_w_b]

Originally Posted by Richard_FM

There are a few of these boxes preserved, one is near Dunham Massey.

Another is at the top of Dunmail Raise on the border between Cumberland and Westmorland.

[KeithsTV]

That box at Dunmail on the A591 is a listed building.

I've still got my RAC key from 1976. I believe the AA and RAC keys were identical.

Keith

[M0FYA Andy]

I believe both organisation's boxes were available to be used by members of either organisation, logically by having identical keys.
Andy

[Dave Moll]

Unfortunately the remaining boxes are just architectural features (as Keith says, some listed structures). They are securely locked and no longer openable with a member's key.

[Sparks]

I used to have keys for both AA and RAC boxes and can confirm they were identical. I may still have them somewhere.

There was a callbox at Buttersyke Bar near Harrogate. I think it was AA.

[Dave Moll]

When I was in North Devon a few years ago, I encountered AA box no. 137 between Lynton and Porlock.

Incidentally, the one at the top of Dunmail Raise is box no. 487.

No. 54 at Buttersyke Bar was RAC according to the list in the THG documents web site.

[Sparks]

I stand corrected - from a 50/50 chance !

[OscarFoxtrot]

Originally Posted by Biggles

At work we have certain dedicated telephone extensions which on lifting the handset, the pabx automatically connects you to a particular number. This is configured in the exchange, so I am not sure if the BT network could be configured in the same way, rather than the telephone having an autodialler.

It can be now, and is used for taxiphones and similar applications. The service is called BT Direct Connect.

[kalee20]

Originally Posted by Dave Moll

When I was in North Devon a few years ago, I encountered AA box no. 137 between Lynton and Porlock

It's still there, well-looked-after, on the A39. Actually it's in Somerset, a few miles from the Devon border (and the Somerset authorities actually signpost the road, correctly, to Lynmouth, as the A39 goes through Lynmouth but misses Lynton by half a mile).

[Oldcodger]

From memory- the call box I looked at ( Loch Ness side) had a standard modern call box fitted. But auto dialer equipment existed long before BT got round to it. I remember working on an old UK design type in Zimbabwe in the late 70's, where the numbers were assigned to keys ,and number programming was by threading a wire through ferrite loops.

[Dave Moll]

Originally Posted by kalee20

Actually it's in Somerset, a few miles from the Devon border (and the Somerset authorities actually signpost the road, correctly, to Lynmouth, as the A39 goes through Lynmouth but misses Lynton by half a mile).

I, too, stand corrected. In my defence milud, I was on my way home from Lynton (in Devon) at the time! And the document in question states "AA box No 137... 'A39 twixt Porlock and Lynton'".