I started a thread on four phones and returned to the antique mall for one then picked up this one as well:
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=27351
This phone was on top of a shelf so high I had to take a picture with my cell phone to see it. It was labeled Railroad Phone $98. I suspect it was used on a Train but cannot find a reference to it here or TCI. It has quite an array of internal parts which may have been upgraded in use--maybe starting out as a local battery phone station then upgraded in the late 1950's early 1960's? The phone on the left is an older logo'd AE Spacemaker with wide hookswitch. The handset is an unusual type 25 for noisy locations with a button to suppress sidetone. Internally the phone has a WE 98B lightening arrestor, 0.47mF capacitor and a "Lynch way station" filter behind the AE phone. The other side behind the giant switch has a square magneto, a spot for dry cells and a small mechanical switch by "Cherry Electric" that looks connected to a push button in the front to isolate the magneto. The main switch has a ceramic body marked Trumbull and poles on either side for "msg" and "disp" that either depress the pushbutton switch (left) or lock it open (right). This booth always has industrial items and also had three Bell system headsets and a 1970's beige WE 500. I got this item for $70.
that is different!
I like it, Different is a GOOD Thing! LOL!
That is interesting.
It looks much cooler from the front though...
Not aboard the train but the trackside booths.
One thing I think I learned since purchasing this is that railway technology lagged plus maintained more reasons for local battery service compared with residential applications. So maybe this "way station panel phone" might have all age appropriate components. For example, I am pretty sure the knob on the hand crank and the magneto are late AE designs found on other railway phones. same for the handset. The AE 183 should have a network? so I am not sure why the external capacitor and why a WE lightening arrestor versus an AE one plus the other components. BTW, I get dial tone that sure enough seems to require a reengagement of the big switch.
I have finished investigating and tidying up this phone. The loop holder on the dial card ring was crimped onto the standard underplate holder. It must have been installed that way to prevent tampering and then the entire cap screwed on from inside the phone. I wound up destroying the original AE dial blank trying to slide it's tab over from the locked position like normally done from the underside the ring. I inserted a black dial card instead. I don't really understand the circuit here but found that the two red leads in the back make the handset work when connected to tip and ring---both receiver and transmitter work only when the handset if off hook and push-to-talk button on the handset is depressed. The blue leads for the microswitch seem to cut the magneto on and off in connection to the AE Spacemaker phone and/or the filter behind it. The phone has four lines into it---the two red ones and two from the filter behind it--maybe to allow the hookswitch to work when signaling. I found the schematic in the phone and the model #=Z26498 which seems to suggest a local battery option. This model number and date of 1963 are stamped on the back. More pictures at:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/285245427047