Info Needed - KS19206 Curved Door Booth

[ESalter]

Hi Everyone-

I got an interesting call yesterday morning.  A couple years ago we saw a phone guy cutting down an old payphone pedestal, so I stopped to talk with him.  He said if they ever took out anything interesting, he'd call me.  He actually did yesterday.  Next week he's removing what he said is a "round booth with a sliding door"  From that I believe it's a KS19206.  I looked around online for quite a while but couldn't find hardly any photos of this type of booth.  I have the BSP section covering them, which provided a lot of good info.  I guess what I'm looking for here are just photos or any other random info anyone has about them.  Anything anyone knows or has heard would be a great help.  I'm just hoping to know as much as I can in preparation for helping remove it next week.  (Also, how cool is it he's letting me help actually remove it!?)

Thanks!
---Eric

[paul-f]

Here are a few photos I've collected over the years.  I believe this is a fairly scarce and in any case quite interesting booth.  Great find!

[paul-f]

And another one...

[twocvbloke]

Reminds me of the sonic shower used in Star Trek: The Motion Picture...

[Dennis Markham]

That is a very cool phone booth.  Thank you for the photos, Paul.  Eric, keep us posted on your find.  That was nice of the guy to call you after so much time.  Good luck!

[ESalter]

Thanks Paul!!!  Those photos are exactly what I was looking for.  I know I've seen these for sale on Ebay and such over the years, but didn't save the photos and now that I went looking, I couldn't find any.  I really like the looks of the one with white front panel, not that I'm going to be picky.

I agree Dennis, it was very nice of him to call.  I remember when I stopped and talked to him a couple years ago he was extremely friendly.  It was HOT that day and he was more than happy to stop what he was doing and chat with me about payphones for over half an hour!  He told me on the phone the other day he wishes he had known me sooner.   He said 4 or 5 years ago he had to take out a set of two curved door booths like this, and it "was all he and a couple other guys could do to lift it up into a scrap dumpster".  He also said he just has a small service truck, so if we didn't come to save this one, he'd have to get out a sawzall and cut it up to make it fit in the back of his truck.  Just thinking about that makes me sick.  Anyway, he said this one is in pristine condition and he wants to make sure we can get it out without marking it up.  It was(technically still is) in the lobby of a now vacant retirement home.  When the place moved recently they didn't want to put it in their new building.  He mentioned another office building that has "an oak superman booth that looks like it just came out of the factory," but that's still being used.  I think it's really cool something like that is still being used!  Hopefully I get a call when the time comes for that one too.  ...we will see.

I'll be sure to post pictures and a story of how the day goes after we get it back.  Like I said before, I think the coolest thing is the fact I'm going to get to help the phone guys remove it.  I plan to take a picture of it still in the building to eventually frame and hang next to where I put the booth at our museum.

---Eric

[ESalter]

Yesterday was the big day.  We met the phone guys at the building around 9:30.  We walked inside and looked at it, and indeed it is a KS19206 in almost perfect condition!  I walked back outside to get a sheet of cardboard and my camera.  I took some pictures of it sitting there, then we tilted it back, stuck some cardboard under the front and slid it out.  Each of the phone guys brought a 4 wheel dolly , so we carefully laid the booth on its back on with one dolly at each end and rolled it out of the building.  Getting it in the back of our pickup was a little more difficult, but not too bad since there were 4 of us there.  It was loaded and ready to go by 10AM.  We took both of the guys out to lunch and afterwards they both dug up some other "extra stuff" for us which included several signs(newer style), some brand new vault doors, some coin boxes, and two complete WE payphones!  One of them is the phone that came from this booth.  The upper housing is still WE, but pretty recent.  The lower housing and vault door are both dated 12/67, so I'm betting they are actually original to the booth.

I called a friend of ours to come help us unload it, so when he showed up we got working on that.  Unloading it was WAYYYYY harder than loading it up.  It was all the 3 of us could do to get that thing in our building!  We had to take 3 doors off of their hinges, which made for some extra work.  Our building is old, so they're all old solid wood doors which means they're heavy!  It took a couple hours, but we got it inside and planted right next to our oak booth.

I couldn't find rust anywhere on this booth except for the bottom and front edge of the floor plate and it's very minor just on the surface, so I'm not going to worry about it.  The only piece missing is the advertisement frame and mounting.  If anyone happens to have an extra one, let me know

Here are several pictures of it, 3 inside the original building and 2 once we got it to our place.  Another interesting thing about it, the sign panel looks to be white with black lettering.  The letters actually appear to be very very dark blue.

I'd say this booth was definitely worth all the work and the cost of taking the guys out to lunch.  I still can't believe the one of them actually held onto my card all this time.  Goes to show it's always worth taking the time to stop and ask.

---Eric

[paul-f]

Congratulations Eric!

It's in stunning condition.  I hope you'll share more photos of some of the details as time permits.

[Dennis Markham]

That IS a beautiful booth, Eric.  Congratulations and good job!

[Doug Rose]

Eric.....that is just an amazing find. I have never seen a payphone both that was not destroyed or in the process of being destroyed by its patrons. Yours looks like it just rolled out of the factory. Not to mention the rarity of the design. Congratulations. ....Doug

[ESalter]

Thanks guys!  We feel very luck to have it, that's for sure!  I was busy doing actual work today, so I didn't get to spend too awful much time working on the booth.  We plugged it in, the fan comes on when you close the door, nothing lit up at all.  I discovered the light/fan assembly is the exact same as what's in our oak KS19340 booth, so I took the light/fan cover off and put the round florescent blub out of the oak booth in the new one and it lit up!  It's wired for that light to be on all the time, regardless of the position of the door.  I'm going to change it to come on when the door shuts.  I had it lit for about 30 seconds before taking it out.  When I took it out I discovered one end of the blub was extremely hot.  I've got a feeling it has a bad ballast.  That should be easy enough to replace, I just didn't have time to dig into it today.  The only other thing I did was take the sign panel off of the top.  The oak booth has that front sign lit by that same round florescent blub that goes around the fan.  This booth isn't like that, it has a separate fixture that takes a single straight florescent blub right behind the sign panel, which I thought was interesting.  That's all I know for now.  I'll definitely post more pictures as I disassemble and clean it.  If anyone is interested in close ups of anything on it in particular, just let me know and I'll be happy to take them.  Paul, one of the photos you posted a few days ago was of the "builders decal" on one of these booths.  I can't for the life of me find that decal on my booth!  I can't see any outlines or residue where it maybe used to be either.  It's probably just MIA, but I can't see any evidence of it ever being there.

---Eric

[ESalter]

Just in case anyone is interested...  A couple days ago I finally got that Circline ballast replaced.  That ballast turned out to be a rather tough one to replace.  I took the original to a local appliance shop, he was able to locate a replacement.  It's an electronic type, but it works.  He also had one of the 30" appliance bulbs that goes behind the sign panel.  I moved the hot for the ballast from terminal 1 to terminal 4 on the connecting block of the light/blower unit to make the inside light operate with the door switch.  After doing that, it came on only when the door was closed, however the sign panel stays lit continuously.  I hunted out those wires(it was a piece of lamp cord hooked right to the input outlet in the roof) and moved them to be operated by the door switch as well.  Now it works the way I want it to. 

The phone in it is the original 12/67 dated lower housing with a new upper housing.  I was able to find a nice 1A2 type upper housing(dated 72), so I put that on it.  I just a few days ago bought an advertisement frame on Ebay, it should show up in tomorrow's mail.  After I get that put on it, all that should be left is to make the phone work!

Here's a photo of it I took right after we got the lights working, I think it turned out pretty neat.  When lit you can definitely tell the TELEPHONE letters are blue and not black.

---Eric

[Dennis Markham]

Very nice Eric.  Congratulations.  Your hard work has paid off.  Looking forward to more photos.

[MADhouseTelephone]

Got one for myself, now! In the process of patching up rusted spots from being stored outdoors, but it is all there and the price was right.

[MADhouseTelephone]

More progress on the booth. Got the light and fan working with the door switch. Still looking for a 30" light for the front sign and a grill for the fan.