On Apr 1, 3:33*pm, Stephen Furley wrote:


Somewhat different here. *0 was not used for the operator, at least
not in my time, the operator was 100. 0 was used for subscriber trunk
dialing. *. . . [snip]

Your reply came through fine. Interesting information, thanks for
sharing it.


Out ringing current is 75 V 25 Hz., rather than your 90 V 20 Hz. *but
this is close enough for your straight line fingers to work here, and
ours will work over there.

I remember in imported British TV shows, ringing phones had the double
ring (ring ring pause . . .) as compared to our single ring. Our
office building was eventually set up so that outside calls got the
double ring while inside retained the single ring. Key system
telephone sets, which have tone ringers, can be programmed with all
sorts of ringing codes, including multiple tones.


As for the dials, 10 pps is standard in
both places. *The break ratio is different, I think ours is 66% and
yours is 60%, or have I got that the wrong way round?

The modem manual allows the user to issue AT codes to change that
ratio. When I had rotary service, I changed the pulse rate to 20 pps
(left make/break alone).

I believe US exchanges that had panel, crossbar, or ESS could handle
20 pps, while step was limited to 10 pps.


Well into the 1980s some US rail lines still had magneto (local
battery) phones for wayside phones. I think they were still made
until that time. Modern ones had a small crank in place of the dial.

On Apr 1, 10:01*pm, wrote:
On Apr 1, 3:33*pm, Stephen Furley wrote:

Somewhat different here. *0 was not used for the operator, at least
not in my time, the operator was 100. 0 was used for subscriber trunk
dialing. *. *. . *[snip]

Your reply came through fine. *Interesting information, thanks for
sharing it.

Out ringing current is 75 V 25 Hz., rather than your 90 V 20 Hz. *but
this is close enough for your straight line fingers to work here, and
ours will work over there.

I remember in imported British TV shows, ringing phones had the double
ring (ring ring pause . . .) as compared to our single ring. *Our
office building was eventually set up so that outside calls got the
double ring while inside retained the single ring. *Key system
telephone sets, which have tone ringers, can be programmed with all
sorts of ringing codes, including multiple tones.

As for the dials, 10 pps is standard in
both places. *The break ratio is different, I think ours is 66% and
yours is 60%, or have I got that the wrong way round?

The modem manual allows the user to issue AT codes to change that
ratio. *When I had rotary service, I changed the pulse rate to 20 pps
(left make/break alone).

I believe US exchanges that had panel, crossbar, or ESS could handle
20 pps, while step was limited to 10 pps.

Well into the 1980s some US rail lines still had magneto (local
battery) phones for wayside phones. *I think they were still made
until that time. *Modern ones had a small crank in place of the dial.

Are you finding that the inks which I pasted in don't work? I am, but
if I put the HTTP:// back in they do.

Sam Hallas whose site one of he links goes to worked in
telecommunications on the railways here. Many Leich telephones with
the magneto handle where the dial would normally be turn up on Ebay; I
suspect that at least some of those are ex railway.

On Apr 1, 5:34*pm, wrote:

Are you finding that the inks which I pasted in don't work? *I am, but
if I put the HTTP:// back in they do.

Yes, I got to it. Interesting stuff. thanks for sharing it.


Would you know if the British railway system ever had radio phones for
use by passengers as premier American trains did?

Also, at one time almost every US train station had a payphone, but
they are rare to find now. Some stations still have them mostly to
serve as an emergency phone (no charge to call police), though of
course one can still make a normal call. Overall, pay phones have
become rather rare in the US thanks to cell phones, and cheaper phone
rates.

Do British railway stations still have pay phones?

(In the old days, most large places of employment had a pay phone for
employees to make personal calls. Today, many employers allow
employees to use the office phone for a quick personal call.)

On Apr 2, 2:43*pm, wrote:
Would you know if the British railway system ever had radio phones for
use by passengers as premier American trains did?

Not until quite late.
HSTs sometimes had a BT payphone in the buffet car, I seem to recall
that coverage was patchy, they were not a huge success.

I recall a trip to Scotland in the 1950s where a payphone was wheeled
into the restaurant car whilst at Waverley, much as we used to drop
one into ships arriving at Boston Docks.

On Apr 2, 8:51*pm, bobharvey wrote:

I recall a trip to Scotland in the 1950s where a payphone was wheeled
into the restaurant car whilst at Waverley, much as we used to drop
one into ships arriving at Boston Docks.

These were merely tied in by extension cords to a landline, right?

The US used to do that with premium trains when at major stations or
terminals.

Also, on premium trains there was a train secretary who would take
telegrams from passengers and send them off at the next station, and
also receive telegrams for passengers on the train. In the US, until
about 1960, brief messages were cheaper by telegram than by long
distance telephone. After roughly 1960 telephone rates continued
downward while telegraph rates went up.

In the 1990s long distance telephone rates made it cheaper to phone
than mail someone a letter.

On 03/04/2012 03:12, wrote:
On Apr 2, 8:51 pm, wrote:

I recall a trip to Scotland in the 1950s where a payphone was wheeled
into the restaurant car whilst at Waverley, much as we used to drop
one into ships arriving at Boston Docks.

These were merely tied in by extension cords to a landline, right?

The US used to do that with premium trains when at major stations or
terminals.

Also, on premium trains there was a train secretary who would take
telegrams from passengers and send them off at the next station, and
also receive telegrams for passengers on the train.

I wonder if any trains were actually fitted with a telegraph operator
who knew how to use a key.

On Apr 3, 3:12*am, wrote:
I recall a trip to Scotland in the 1950s where a payphone was wheeled
into the restaurant car whilst at Waverley, much as we used to drop
one into ships arriving at Boston Docks.

These were merely tied in by extension cords to a landline, right?

Oh yes. There was a fairly lenghty layover while they changed
engines, filled water tanks, and replenished the galley.

The US used to do that with premium trains when at major stations or
terminals.
It's a good thing. They could do with it now, there are huge chunks
of the praires where I can't get a cell signal!

On 02/04/2012 14:43, wrote:
On Apr 1, 5:34 pm, wrote:

Are you finding that the inks which I pasted in don't work? I am, but
if I put the HTTP:// back in they do.

Yes, I got to it. Interesting stuff. thanks for sharing it.


Would you know if the British railway system ever had radio phones for
use by passengers as premier American trains did?

Also, at one time almost every US train station had a payphone, but
they are rare to find now. Some stations still have them mostly to
serve as an emergency phone (no charge to call police), though of
course one can still make a normal call. Overall, pay phones have
become rather rare in the US thanks to cell phones, and cheaper phone
rates.

Do British railway stations still have pay phones?


London Underground stations used to have pay phones, though no longer. I
can't understand why they would do that, however, because one cannot get
a signal on their mobile phones on the tube lines.

They also used to have to have Candbury's vending machines, though those
disappeared around 2006/07.

On 03/04/2012 23:06, wrote:
On 02/04/2012 14:43, wrote:
On Apr 1, 5:34 pm, wrote:

Are you finding that the inks which I pasted in don't work? I am, but
if I put the HTTP:// back in they do.

Yes, I got to it. Interesting stuff. thanks for sharing it.


Would you know if the British railway system ever had radio phones for
use by passengers as premier American trains did?

Also, at one time almost every US train station had a payphone, but
they are rare to find now. Some stations still have them mostly to
serve as an emergency phone (no charge to call police), though of
course one can still make a normal call. Overall, pay phones have
become rather rare in the US thanks to cell phones, and cheaper phone
rates.

Do British railway stations still have pay phones?


London Underground stations used to have pay phones, though no longer. I
can't understand why they would do that, however, because one cannot get
a signal on their mobile phones on the tube lines.

They also used to have to have Candbury's vending machines, though those
disappeared around 2006/07.

Too many people figured out how to get an extra free bar out of those
machines.

--
Graeme Wall
This account not read, substitute trains for rail.
Railway Miscellany at http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail

Graeme Wall wrote:

Too many people figured out how to get an extra free bar out of those
machines.

I figiured it was all the melting chocolate each summer...