London Telephones- The end of an Era Uxbridge goes auto...........

[JubileeCompact]

Brilliant GPO film showing the automation of the last manual exchange in the London Telephones area......
Enjoy
Seamus

P.S My local exchange(Dover) went automatic in the year I was born (1973) I believe the equipment was identical to this......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CASfXPDYORY

[twocvbloke]

Now that's confusing...

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=9759.0

It's the same video....

[JubileeCompact]

Yup I posted it in 2 places
This video raises a question and also answers one...
Why were the PO still installing phones with Alphanumeric dials in 1970 as AFN was complete by then?
Also apparently Alphanumeric 746s do exist- I always thought they were all bodged by Ebay sellers.
Also love the fact Plessey had Female installers in 1970- mind you they probably got paid less than the Men!!!
Seamus

[twocvbloke]

Why were the PO still installing phones with Alphanumeric dials in 1970 as AFN was complete by then?

Maybe the customer wanted them for aesthetic purposes, or people were still dialling with existing numbers written down as letters & numbers...

I could only make guesses though, I grew up in the pushbutton era, where most of them were just numbers and later with letters & numbers laid out in an american fashion...