My phones saved the day, for real!

[Nilsog]

I know I haven't posted here in a while, but I have to share this story with you guys. If anything, it will make you smile.

For those of you who don't know, I'm a career firefighter. I work in a shared public safety building with the local police department.

Today while we were eating lunch, the phones started malfunctioning, and eventually the entire phone system (Based on a Vertical DX-120 PBX) died. We had no phones at all in the PSB.

Being a quick thinker and knowing I could bypass the PBX with a straight line telephone, I called my wife and had her bring in two model 500s and my only model 2500. I managed to hook them all up and contacted our dispatch center to advise them we could be reached again but we had no voicemail, hold, or transfer capabilities.

We have been running on my old phones since noon time and it's now just past 6pm my time... The tech that arrived brought the wrong equipment and I don't expect him to return for another 4 hours, so we will continue using them. The phones have performed admirably, just as I suspected.

So there is my story, I expect I'll be able to take the phones home at the end of my shift tomorrow at 7, but for now I will enjoy the fact that I managed to save the day with my collection of old telephones!

[Phonesrfun]

Great story, Ken.  You give too much credit to the actual phones, however.  I think you should take an great deal of the credit for your thinking and putting the plan into practice! 

Hopefully, you won't have any trains derailing in your area and need to really put the phones to use.  Ha ha

[Nilsog]

The police have been running steady all day, I don't think the phones have seen this many calls in a couple decades!

I can tell you though, it's really nice to hear those bells ring here at work!

[Dennis Markham]

Great story, Ken.  Thanks for sharing it. 

[AE_Collector]

Good going Ken. Now you can do some shopping in our new "Telephone Switching" area on the CRPF and pick up an electro-mechanical PABX for the next system failure you have there!

Terry

[Dennis Markham]

Ken, if you haven't you should take some photos of your phones at work for posterity.  It's always fun to say remember when.......

[Nilsog]

Here's what I took earlier:

This is in the back of the apparatus bay where the PBX and incoming lines are located. We had to hang out back here all day to make sure the phones were answered because of what the PD had going.



Closeup. I'm pretty proud of my homemade dialcards.



These photos looked a lot less blurry when I took them... Here is our kitchen where I strung the blue 500 so we could hear it if we were in the office portion of the station.





The fried PBX:



Believe it or not, the tech just showed up and BOTH of the replacement cabinets he brought are fried as well... these phones may be in use for a while more.

[Owain]

it's slightly worrying that the system doesn't have automatic cutover for power or equipment fail.

And what would you do if the incoming lines were ISDN?

[Nilsog]

To put it plainly, we would be boned.

It will be Monday or Tuesday before our replacement unit will be in from California. So far the game plan is to continue using my phones. The tech redirected the trunk lines into the extensions in our office so now the phones are set up in the secretary's office as well as our office and the kitchen. At least now we can be a little more comfortable.

[Bill]

Nice work, Ken -

I knew that a Maine boy would be up to the challenge! And as I recall, you are reasonably new to the whole telephone thing.

Bill

[twocvbloke]

Just goes to show, Analogue phone lines save lives...

[LarryInMichigan]

That's a great story and an excellent rebuttal to those who dismiss anything old as being worthless.  It would have been more fun though, if you had brought some candlesticks

Larry

[TelePlay]

That is a great story. Reminds me of a time in the late 80s when our Merlin system failed and with the help of a 2500 from home and a 100 foot long line cord extension, put a working phone on the receptionist's desk to save the day. That was pre-cell phone times.

Back then few, if any, people knew of the POTS jack in front of the Merlin cabinet and being 30 years later, probably nobody does today.

Now, I deliver stuff to hospitals, right to the surgery control desks and enter by way of loading docks so I walk past security offices. They all have a red 2500 or two on their desks in case the PBX, or whatever digital system they are using, fails. The nurses have no idea of how the old phones work, just that they do in case their phone system goes down and they need to make a life sustaining emergency call.

Low information users . . . 

[LarryInMichigan]

My favorite is when I have tried to call people during a power outage and nobody answered.  Later, when I finally reach them, they tell me that they couldn't get any phone calls because they had no electricity, and some have wondered how I could call them without power.

Larry

[Nilsog]

Nice work, Ken -

I knew that a Maine boy would be up to the challenge! And as I recall, you are reasonably new to the whole telephone thing.

Bill

I've only been collecting for maybe 2 years now!

That's a great story and an excellent rebuttal to those who dismiss anything old as being worthless.  It would have been more fun though, if you had brought some candlesticks

Larry

I thought about grabbing a couple 302s so we could tell the difference between which line was ringing, but I decided to stick with 500s because I didn't want the guys here mucking up my 302s :p