WE Fire & Police Call Box

[Nilsog]

I made another thread regarding this in the troubleshooting and repair section, but my question was answered there so I thought it would be more appropriate to start a topic here regarding it.

I was just wondering if anyone could point me to a little more information on this phone. I got it on eBay, and its latest date is 4-1976. I had to pick it up when I saw it, my inner firefighter made me do it!

It works great, I cleaned it up and wired in a line. Right now it works like a regular phone, just without a dial. How would it have worked while it was in service? I can't imagine seeing a fire, picking up an emergency phone and just listening to a dial tone. It must have been set up to ring another phone when it was off the hook or something, am I correct?

I made a video and posted it on youtube, for anyone who wants to see it. Its the pride of my collection, at the moment. I know its not that old, but the fact I know there were hundreds if not thousands of calls placed over it during its lifetime means something to me. This is a prime example of something that served a long useful life, and deserves a restful retirement.

The handset has hundreds of scrapes on the back where it was lifted from the hook switch and bashed into the casing. Literally hundreds. Who knows how many lives this phone could have saved. I'm proud to have it!

To see the video, click here

[gpo706]

It would be a a private circuit, just lift and someone would answer the other end, I assume, a bit like railside track phones or motorway breakdown phones.

Then they would ask for the number of the "booth" and know where you are.

http://www.samhallas.co.uk/railway/post_hixon.htm