My GPO Rotary Telephone Collection

[air-waycharlie]

Two older Trimlines with the larger 212 handset plugs different from the modern modular plugs. The line cord is also the larger 212 into the phone. The blue one has suffered some major fading/discoloring---however true to form with Western Electric/AT&T, it works just great!

 

[delaneymeegan]

That's a sweet collection, Charlie

 


 


I'm glad you mentioned the larger modular, handset cord.  I remember discovering them, years ago, but not understanding how to remove them. It was apparently just for ease of manufacturing that they made them modular.  Then they later discovered they could make the cords removable and save even more resources.


 


Those all look great !

 

[midcenturyfan]

I love the look of those Princess phones. Does anyone know whether they can easily be wired for use in the UK?

Robin.

 

[alexhoovers94]

If you get your hands on a modulr one, you can put a modular cord woth a UK BT plug on and it will work just as normal on a UK BT landline.

 

[midcenturyfan]

Thanks for the information. I would quite like one of those phones for my bedroom. I will keep an eye out on Ebay for a suitable example.

 

[midcenturyfan]

I have just acquired another telephone. It is a 332F model, dating from 1946.

Robin.

 

[alexhoovers94]

Very nice.

 

[alexhoovers94]

I got myself another GPO 746 in Topaz Yellow.

This one is Brandnew and never used, it was rented out from the post office in 1978, but never got connected and remained in someones loft ever since.
I converted it with the new BT plug and moved about some of the internals to accomidate the modern BT system.

This first pic is a before photo, see, had the original line cord with the GPO terminal block.

 

[alexhoovers94]

After conversion, now with modern BT plug

 

[alexhoovers94]

The base.

With Post office released stamp and dated 78.

 

[alexhoovers94]

Here is the internal parts of the dial.

 

[alexhoovers94]

The bells.

 

[alexhoovers94]

The internal wiring.

 

[alexhoovers94]

Finally, here it is in my living room set up ready to use.

 

[delaneymeegan]

 


 


 


Very nice.  I like the pastel colors of the 60s.


 


What did you have to rewire internally?


 


Do you have a crimper and plugs, or did you have someone put on the modular plug?

 

[alexhoovers94]

No, it is an entire new line cord in the original matching colour (yep, you can still get hold of all the colours!) with BT plug already fitted, all that has to be done with the wiring is as follows...

Remove the strap between T4 and T5 and replace it with that 3.3k resistor, remove the strap between T6 and T7.
Then remove the strap between T8 and T9 and insert inbetween T17 and T18. Replace the line cord with the new BT plug type and that is it, converted.

The rectifier between T1 and T2 should already be fitted but I changed it out for new one incase it has degraded over time, which is why it looks different on this pic...Anyway, this is what an unconverted phone looks like (how it was originally) and if you compare it to the other pic of the wiring I posted, you can see what has been moved about.

Just as a note "T" means Terminal and all the terminals are numbered from left to right...Top row, T1-T9 and bottom row T10-T19

 

[alexhoovers94]

Unconverted on the left (old system) and converted on the right (new/modern system)

 

[midcenturyfan]

That is a nice looking phone. Topaz yellow is a lovely colour.

It is a shame that the range of colours from the GPO and BT was fairly limited.

Robin.

 

[alexhoovers94]

It is indeed a lovely colour!

Infact, I have a Hoover Senior in that colour, lol!

 

[alexhoovers94]

Fanulous!

 

[midcenturyfan]

I like some of those slightly strange 1970s colours.

 

[delaneymeegan]

Alex need your help in AW forum

 


Alex, our dapper lad, what type phone did Hyacinth have?


 


 

 

[alexhoovers94]

I just posted on there, take a look

We had one in our kitchen a few years back...BT Minstrel.

 

[sebo_fan]

Actually those Princess phones were available in the UK. Wild n Wolf have also done similar ones but not half as good quality.

When I was growing up my parents had Trimphones, including the garish one in leatherette. Here's the Wild n Wolf Princess

Wild n Wolf also brought out a repo Trimphone a few years ago. I have a white one.

http://https//www.amazon.co.uk/Wild-Wolf-Princess-Telephone-Cream/dp/B001LM5XBW

 

[alexhoovers94]

That is a replica princess phone, not a Western Electric, the original princess phone was never sold, or should I say, rented, in the UK.

What we had that was similar, was the GPO Trimphone. We never got the Trimline phones either, we did get varients of them in the late 80s and 90s.

 

[sebo_fan]

Thats interesting to know Alex. So in theory since we didn't have those GPO Princess phones, I guess the replica REPO ones that Wild n Wolf sell must be pretty unique.

 

[alexhoovers94]

Here are some more additions to my phone collection...

GPO 782, a Touchtone, push button version of the GPO 746.

Here it is in Ivory.

 

[alexhoovers94]

BT Snoopy And The Woodstock rotary dial telephone...This was a part of the BT "Telephone Special Range" which I believe the TRS range came out in 1978...This Snoopy phone is a little later, from 1981.

 

[alexhoovers94]

finally (for now) my Trimline based phone...

My BT Minstrel 5011 Slimline telephone, incidentally, this was the same phone Hyacinth had in "Keeping Up Appearances" in Series 1...She had the Minstrel plus in Series 2 and then a different one for the rest of the series, not sure what that was though, but this was her original phone (bellow) only, Hyacinth had it in "pearl white" and not "Coral pink".

 

[alexhoovers94]

Of course, can you spot it? Last number redial!!! hahaha.