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Erm, whoops, I bought a GPO 740 accidentally....

Started by twocvbloke, May 12, 2013, 03:53:22 PM

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twocvbloke

Well, I forgot I stuck an automatic bid on this phone during the week, and, well, I won it for a total of £12.79.... ::)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111064945082

I thought I had cancelled the bid, but I guess I didn't, and in a week where money is shorter than a short thing... :D

Still, it's another phone to play with, and if I can get a replacement 740 shell for it (it's fitted with a 746 shell which is cracked, the 740 had spaces for 4 buttons and two lamps which you could drill out), then that'd make for a fun restoration, though I haven't a clue what I'd do with it afterwards though... :D

Some info on the 740:
http://www.britishtelephones.com/t740.htm

And the obligatory pics, plus one from the link above to show what the 740 should look like... :)

Owain

If I'm not mistaken that single-tone brown colour case was released in the 1980s to co-ordinate with the Ambassador/Statesman and Pentara brown phones, so although it might not be correct for the base it's an interesting colour variant to have.

twocvbloke

Quote from: Owain on May 12, 2013, 04:04:13 PM
If I'm not mistaken that single-tone brown colour case was released in the 1980s to co-ordinate with the Ambassador/Statesman and Pentara brown phones, so although it might not be correct for the base it's an interesting colour variant to have.

I think that colour also coincided with the 746 line being named the "Yeoman", one of the lowest of the lowest ranks in a military ranking scheme, when they came up with the Inphone range... :D

But it just goes to show, they really did like to recycle back in those days, taking a 740 and dressing it up as a 746 "Yeoman"... :D

Owain

It was indeed the Yeoman, I was thinking along the lines of a Phoenixphone but knew it wasn't a Phoenix.

Anyway, I bought two display cabinets for phones this week (and 2 beds, and a fridge, and a new house to put them all in!!)

TelePlay

Quote from: Owain on May 12, 2013, 05:08:04 PM. . . and a new house to put them all in!! . . .

Funny!  :D I didn't know they sold houses on eBay . . .  ;)

twocvbloke

Quote from: Owain on May 12, 2013, 05:08:04 PMAnyway, I bought two display cabinets for phones this week (and 2 beds, and a fridge, and a new house to put them all in!!)

Well, if that ain't proof of phoneitis, I don't know what is... :D

That said, we'll be moving in a month or two aswell, cos the current landlord won't let us do anything useful with the house (e.g. decor, adding extensions from my 616) or repair faults which were existing before we moved in that they have yet to fix (loose mains cable dangling from the wall in the dining room, damp wall caused by an old internal wall being used as an outside wall, heating and hot water system that would be seen as old fashioned even at the open air old-time museum Beamish, etc.), but that's a whole other topic... :D


Owain

Quote from: twocvbloke on May 12, 2013, 05:16:25 PM


That said, we'll be moving in a month or two aswell, cos the current landlord won't let us do anything useful with the house (e.g. decor, adding extensions from my 616)

Yeah, I don't care about decor, but not being allowed to drill holes through walls for cables is a pain. Already planning routes for cable ducts and preparing an Internal Telephone Directory.  ;D

So far I've packed 6 removals boxes of Phones, this excludes bells/sounders/wiring and those I have to keep live.

twocvbloke

Well, it's arrived, with more damage than it set out with, where the crack in the case was in the pics above, it has turned into a gaping hole, as it seems Mr. Yodel Butterfingers had dropped it in transit, aswell as the phone being inadequately packed (a sheet of bubblewrap and a couple of those rather pointless bags of air)... :-\

Ah well, it wasn't the shell I was interested in anyway, I wanted it for the the 740 base... :D

I'll get pics shortly, the light's a bit dull at the moment here cos of the lovely weather we're having at the moment (I.E. pouring down with rain!!)... ::)

twocvbloke

Well, first two pics are obvious, the shell is broken, there's a missing chunk of the corner too, but that was missing in the auction pics, the dial ring is also toast (the bits in the middle were inside the phone, they used to hold it in place!), I've stuck some glue on the shell to hold it all together, but it's not going to be anything more than that...

The dial was actually loose, so must have took quite the bash for the base to flex enough to pop it out of it's locating lugs, it's also in need of a good lube job, so not a lost cause at least, it's missing the label cover though...

The guts have been attacked by Roger the bodger, as the line cable had been fitted with bare wires (looks like they used a lighter to strip the ends too!!), and they didn't even bother to remove the spades from the old line cable, even leaving the snipped red B wire inside the phone loose to find it's way to shorting on something. The ringer is also a 1kOhm ringer, an I see no 3.3k resistor to make it a 4kOhm ringer, so that must have been fun for the previous owner's phoneline!!

The cable grip on one side has been bent inwards too, so this phone really hasn't had a good life!!! One side of the hookswitch bar is missing the black button too, which is great for scratching plastic up!!

And the handset cable is all sticky and nasty, handset though is in good order at least, just the usual signs of use with small scuffs and scratches... :)

Soooooo, yeah, definitely spares or repairs, I think the former suits it best... :D

twocvbloke

Well, I gave it a clean up, glued the big chunk back in (and I would recommend NOT to use UHU's all-purpose glue on plastics like these, see the 2nd pic as to why!!), and glued the dial ring on given that the broken off bits would not hold even with gluing, restored the dial so it works well aswell as clean it up (and it's cleaned up nicely I have to say!), and cleaned off the sticky gak from the handset cable... :)

But despite the cleanup, it's staying as a spares phone, it's donated it's ringer to it's same-factory brother, the ivory 746 (which has been promoted from spares phone to being used as a Plan 4 phone), both are GNA, so built by Pye/TMC in Lanarkshire, I thought GNA was GEC in Newton Aycliffe, but that's GEN (which is confusing!!), I'll keep it as a sort-of display piece, but I doubt it'll ever see service again... :-\

twocvbloke

And here it is in it's temporary final resting place, temporary cos it'll be in another house in a month or two... :D

(and I was watching the Hairy Bikers' Food tour of Britain, cos they're just brilliant to watch!!)