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Pvt-telco's Collection

Started by southernphoneman, March 22, 2013, 09:05:01 PM

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southernphoneman

#60
finally bought payphone,no photo yet. ebay item number 281097645186. :)

MagicMo

Nice! It looks like a good deal to me.  ;D
Mo
Practice Kindness :)

ESalter

That's certainly cheap, but I have a feeling you're going to have a fun time trying to get into it.  We just bought a green 1A1 payphone that doesn't have keys.  I'm thinking I can probably get an upper key to fit it, but there's no chance of finding a vault key.  I think the only option is to cut the vault door off.

---Eric

AE_Collector

#63
Certainly inexpensive enough! I wonder what they mean when they say "phone has no front cover"? The one pictured does unless they are referring to the lack of instruction cards on the cover.

Terry

poplar1

They could be referring to the missing vault door. So the only key needed is the correct 29A or 29B key for the upper housing. Different Bell companies used different 29A keys, depending on the geographical location. I don't know how many different 29B keys there are--the 29B locks were used on phones sold to others.
"C'est pas une restauration, c'est une rénovation."--François Martin.

AE_Collector

Oh that is probably it, the vault door. That should be easy to get.

Terry

G-Man

As already mentioned 29A keys were used by the Regional Bell companies.

There are about 100-different key combinations since each Bell company often used several different combinations within their territory, often divided into separate parts of the states and large cities they served.

Thus, 29A L-27, was used by Pacific Telephone to serve Northern California while another list number was used for Southern Cal. Their Nevada Bell subsidiary used yet another list number key.

NyTel's New York City had several list numbers assigned to the various boroughs as well as others that were used throughout the rest of the state.

29B keys had thousands of different combinations and corresponding list numbers since they were furnished to many different CoCots rather than telcos.

In the instance of the pay telephone in the eBay auction, it may be a crap-shoot as to whether you can find the right key on the first try if the number card with the area code and prefix is missing. Otherwise it should be rather easy to order the proper key.

Something does appear to be rather hokey since they state these phones were acquired at a government auction. How did a government body acquire and auction telephones belonging to a telephone company? And why would a government body remove the instructions cards, especially since most public employees would not know how to remove them. Someone must have had access to the coin box keys to remove the vault doors. It is also strange that they did not remove the upper-housing locks before they auctioned them.

Just my 2-cents worth!

poplar1


There are other posts either here or on the TCI or ATCA listserves that discuss how to loosen the lock screws without drilling the lock.

BellSouth got out of the pay phone business and sold all 140,000 pay phones to a scrap company in Alabama. (The owner sells things like BellSouth olympic vault doors on Ebay.)

Before BellSouth removed all their pay phones, the State of Georgia purchased already installed pay phones (SIP---sold in place) that previously had been owned and operated by BellSouth. These had the smart boards in them. The State paid a company to reprogram them so that they would work on Centrex lines with no money required.

I can't remember now about the upper locks. I think that the vault doors had been removed since the calls were free. (It is a tariff violation to charge for calls from Centrex lines.) I know we had to get inside them to swap out the handsets. The armored cords were supposed to withstand 400 lbs. of pulling on them, but the mental patients just twisted the handsets until the cords broke. (Then they complained about not having a working phone.)
"C'est pas une restauration, c'est une rénovation."--François Martin.

southernphoneman

newest phone to my collection.just bought it . model 4120 wooden rotary wall phone.

WesternElectricBen


southernphoneman

another western electric 302 from 1946 I just purchased off of ebay.

Mr. Bones

southernphoneman,

     Nice toys, thanks for sharing the pics. I like the County Line / Country Junction phones, but haven't tripped over a good deal, yet.

     Very nice 302, also! I like it a lot!

Best regards!
Sláinte!
   Mr. Bones
      Rubricollis Ferus

southernphoneman

thank you westernelectric ben and mr bones for your compliments

southernphoneman

#73
just bought 2nd payphone from payphones.com.photos when I receive it.just received it photo below.

southernphoneman

#74
just won a beautiful western electric 2500,ebay item number 300911558573,photo when I receive it. my thanks goes to magicmo who sold me this beautiful 2500 on ebay.