And Now For My Princess's & Trimlines

[GusHerb]

Here's my Princess phones including the mint-in-box beige Princess 701B from 5-60, I discovered it on Ebay and the winning bid went for about 60 dollars.
The White rotary Princess is from 1970, and then I have the 2 TT ones that I actually bought as a pair from Ebay, both factory refurbished in boxes and plastic, one of them I decided to take out and use & display which also is the one that came with a bad keypad that I had to replace and it still needs a new jack in the back since the one there is broken.

[GusHerb]

Here's the Trimlines. I have 2 of them mint-in-box here, one of them is made 4-66. and the other NIB phone is made I believe 1983.
The Rust colored rotary dial was an Ebay find, it was made in 1980. the White TT one was made in 1978 and carries one of those newer keypads that aren't very mechanical (dated 1991)
Then there's the smoke damaged what I think is white but could be Ivory round button one from my grandma's dated 11-74, and the light blue one also from her dated 1-75. those are the ones that I noted have very different insides and they are only made 2 months apart.
The beige TT was an Ebay find and I did the worst possible thing to it and dropped it in the driveway and it now suffers a crack in the corner of the handset

[Craig T]

WOW! I love that Lt. Beige princess and in the box too! The box is just as cool looking as the phone, never seen one before. Nice collection of princesses and trimline phones Gus.

I have had Trimlines in the box, but the boxes were newer than yours. They did not have all the cool designs on the outside of the box.

[GusHerb]

I do love my Trimline phones, those were the first WE phones I was exposed to as a younger kid.
I remember as a 6 year old knowing EXACTLY the difference between a 210 and a REAL Trimline. The Trimlines that I loved were all in my Grandma's house.... Red White and Blue. It was about 7 years ago I got my hands on those blue and white desk models, the first thing I did was take them apart at her kitchen table, the insides and wires were all very fascinating to me. I just loved it!
The red one was a hardwire wall mount I'm thinking it was made in 73 or something but it is older then the white and blue phones. I DO have that one but sadly it's laying in a box in pieces and I don't think it's salvagable, it was used ALOT and is very worn down.


The Princess NIB is my most favorite phone find to this day. I feel quite lucky to have it.
Funny thing is I didn't have to fight anyone for the NIB 66 Trimline on Ebay.

[McHeath]

Just spent the last 2.5 hours sanding on my 66' Trimline.  The tobacco yellowing was pretty bad on the moss green plastics, so I had to go down to 400 grit.

The printed circuit board will need some attention, the traces have come loose in some areas and will need to be reglued.  The parts in this phone range from 10/65' to 04/66', which is the date on the base and the reason I bought it as that's my birth month and year.

An article I read in the Bell System magazine from early 66' on the Trimline said that production started in September of 1965 and the phone was only gradually rolled out in various areas of the country.  It was not until late 66' that they expected the Touchtone version to be ready.  

I've been considering buying an AT and T 210 Trimline, they have them down at the hardware store for 15 dollars.  It would be cool to have it to compare to my early version, and it's pretty neat that a 43 year old design is still in production, albeit with lots of cheaper parts and construction.  

[Tonyrotary]

Nice Trimlines! And also the Princesses

[GusHerb]

Just spent the last 2.5 hours sanding on my 66' Trimline.  The tobacco yellowing was pretty bad on the moss green plastics, so I had to go down to 400 grit.

The printed circuit board will need some attention, the traces have come loose in some areas and will need to be reglued.  The parts in this phone range from 10/65' to 04/66', which is the date on the base and the reason I bought it as that's my birth month and year.

An article I read in the Bell System magazine from early 66' on the Trimline said that production started in September of 1965 and the phone was only gradually rolled out in various areas of the country.  It was not until late 66' that they expected the Touchtone version to be ready.  

I've been considering buying an AT and T 210 Trimline, they have them down at the hardware store for 15 dollars.  It would be cool to have it to compare to my early version, and it's pretty neat that a 43 year old design is still in production, albeit with lots of cheaper parts and construction.  

From various old things I saw I think the TT Trimline wasn't actually out until 68.
Once you have and see the 210 you probably be bored with it. Many years ago when I was only about 3 or 4 my dad put a couple 210's around the house... Needless to say I knew they weren't the real thing and didn't like them.

Speaking of you restoring your trimline, my blue TT Trimline from my grandma's has been a PITA for quite awhile. Back some 5 or 6 years ago the ringer in it stopped working for no apparent reason. it had worked very well before and then after that NOTHING. So I replaced it, but for some extremely annoying reason the housing screws touch the bell on the replacement ringer and when there's nothing touching it the ringer still doesn't sound quite right and it's not loud as it should be. I imagine the new ringer for it was a tad higher then the old one even though they look exactly identical.
When I get around to it I'm gonna locate another replacement ringer and see if that works.

[Jim Stettler]

The TT trimlines were being field tested in Chicago in Jan. 1966.

Here is a good article about trimlines from "Bell Laboratories Record" magazine.
https://download.yousendit.com/S1VDRm8zTWNKV04zZUE9PQ

It is a yousendit link and is only good for a week.
I believe "Doc Remco" has a copy on his site.

Jim

[GusHerb]

Thanks for that article! I just downloaded it so I have it indefinitely... I'll be reading up on it VERY soon.

[McHeath]

That's a very useful article and has lots of good info.  The Trimline really went on to influence most of our modern phone designs eh?  The dial in handset idea continues with cutting edge stuff like iPhones and Blackberrys.  It would be interesting to see someone cook up a method to turn a vintage Trimline handset into a working cell phone like has been done with the Sparkfun.com model 500 conversion.

I too notice that the space in the base for the ringer in my Trimlines is tight, and the shell can end up touching them and messing up the sound.  I've done a fair amount of tinkering to get the ringers to sound "just right" to my ears, and it involved fine tuning the set screws to make sure that nothing touched anything before tightening them down.

My 66' Trimline has a brass gong and metal clapper, and I think a much nicer sound than my newer Trimlines with aluminum gongs and plastic clappers.

Hopefully you can dig into the ringer on yours' and find it's a simple fix.  That's a very nice collection you have, especially like the NIB.

[Jim Stettler]

The trimline really is ignored a lot. It was very cutting edge in design and an influentual design. I feel they are well worth collecting.

I used to pay up to $3.00 for WE trimlines. I still see them in thrift store at the rate of 1 every 1-2 months. I pass them up at $6.00 unless they have some redeming value, such as rd button or early dial, scarce colors and exceptional condition will also get me to pay $6.

A few years back I bought 70-80 from Vern P. He doesn't beleive in any phone beyond HW  10 button sets. I point out that his clear 2554 doesn't fit his collection, but he ignores me.

I also collect old cell phones $1.00 par value. Non-working display models are worth $2.00.

I also buy replacement cell housings in clear. I have been able to assemble about a dozen clear cell phones.


Jim

[McHeath]

A clear cell phone??  Cool, how about a picture?

Trimline prices are pretty low overall it seems, and I like the earliest models with the fat cords and colored line cord as they have a unique look.  Love Gusherbs new in the box beige wall one, that would be fun to find. 

My parents never had a Trimline as it would have been too much money on rent to spend and dad hated the whole idea of phones anyway. 

[Dan]

I  have heard the ericophon was the inspiration for the trimline.

[GusHerb]

Notice that my 66 NIB wall phone doesn't have the fins protruding out from the housing like all later Trimline wall bases do, that seems to be the biggest Trimline change overall.

[McHeath]

I do notice that now that you mention it.  It was interesting to read where Donald Genaro talked about his disappointment with the evolution of the Trimline design to where they had a single universal base for wall and desk, and how that removed a lot of the artistic feel of the design.  I've even felt that way about the move to the modern modular cords, which are smaller and not really integrated into the housings. 

I assume that your NOS wall version was to be hardwired to the wall.