GPO 746 - With Plan 105(A) buttons...

[twocvbloke]

Well, as alluded to in my Planset thread after failing to win the switches 5A-4, I got the next best thing, a 746 set up for Plan 105(A) (The "A" being a version where the extension can not be heard from the Main during a call), for a total of £24 (£20 buy it now, £4 postage):

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/123003024271

More than I'd really want to pay for one, but, impatience is not a virtue!! 

Being that it's set up for Plan 105 (Main Planphone plus two extension phones that can intercommunicate between each other, hence the "Main" and "2" buttons, 2 buzzes the other extension), it would necessitate buying another phone set up for Plan 105, but no, I'm planning to alter it to be a Plan 107 (Main plus one extension), just to ease the strain on my pocket, so that way I have the switches I needed, a somewhat matching phone to go with my ivory planset, and plenty of time to put it all together...

I don't know if that phone has had it's tail docked though, the pictures don't show the end of the cable, so may be missing the block terminal too, but we shall see on Friday, when Mr. Hermes says he'll be delivering it...

Anyway, pictures!:

[twocvbloke]

Well darn, just looking at the pictures while cooking sausages, and I spotted a docked tail at the top of one of the pictures...

Oh well, I'll have to use Cat5 cable I guess, got plenty of that...

[andy1702]

Are you looking for an original cable? If so, how many cores should it have? I might have got some somewhere in my big box of old line cords.

Andy.

[twocvbloke]

According to diagram N4509, a "Cord No. 6/61AT" is used for Plan 107, so looks to be a 6-way, oddly though for the terminal block, it calls for a 12-way 36B, when only 6 connections are used, so could use a 35A instead...

On the plus side, the connecting cable between the Planphone's terminal block and the extension's only requires 6 wires, so don't need to use my ethernet cable as I have 3-pair twisted telephone cable, so that's another piece of the puzzle sorted...

[andy1702]

I'll have a look. I'm sure I've got a 6 way cable somewhere. I was wondering what it was for. If I can find it and it's any use I'll send it over.

Andy

[twocvbloke]

Nice, I remember seeing a bunch of line cables a few years back that I wondered what they were for (they all had more cores than the standard 4-way ones), it's fun learning about all these other things the basic 700 phones were capable of with a bit of reworking here and there...

[andy1702]

I found the cord. The problem is it's black, if that matters to you. It's got the grommet for going into a 706 on one end, the other end has been snipped off though, so you'd need to remake the connections on that end. Drop me a PM if you want it and I'll stick it in the post.

Cheers,

Andy.

[twocvbloke]

PM sent...

[twocvbloke]

Well the telephone arrived this afternoon, and aside from being the usual dirty, it's all there, needs a damned good clean inside and out though!

And the outer parts of the plastics, they look odd, either they've been painted (the colour doesn't quite match the insides of the handset or shell) or exposed to some solvents, as there's crazing all over the thing, don't think this one will clean up on the outside as well as the 706 atop the N625, but we shall see...

And the buttons, they're there, the "2" button is a bit hard to press, the zebedee seems reluctant to slide along the microswitch button inside, and the "Main" zebedee looks to have been either worn down over time or sanded smooth to make it work properly with little resistance...

Pics later as I've got to deal with my cat who just broke a tooth and is being a grumpy little thing... 

[twocvbloke]

Pics time at long last, no more distractions of cats arguing and busting out their teeth!! 

Few more notes to add, the phone stinks, it smells like a damp old shed (I know the smell due to having a couple of damp old sheds!!), so I guess that's where it had been stored for several years, there's dirt all over the inside too aswell as what looks like mould on the inside of the shell, so like I said before it needs a good clean inside and out so I've dismantled it for cleaning parts...

Dial's in need of lubrication, it's slow and noisy, plus it's also missing the clip that holds the number plate on, so I'll be borrowing that off the brown 740 seeing as I seem to have demoted that to parts only, also in need of a good clean!! 

The dial card, despite having had a label previously removed from it and torn off most of the name, seems to have originally been for Shaftesbury in Dorset, (for those of us in the UK, that's the town in which Gold Hill is located, the steep cobbled street from the Hovis adverts!), so has come a long way up north from its original home, and of course makes me wonder where it was used in its past life...

The handset cable once again has a split, but this time it's by the grommet so might be able to be sneaky and try and pull that through a bit, saving the need to glue it up, it also seems to have a very tight coil, the N625 706 is pretty "normal" in coil size, so this one is very unusual in how small it is, and it's not easy to stretch, seems to be very resistant to being pulled away from the phone...

And a few other bits, the shell has managed to retain the case screw nut, something that tends to be missing on these as people remove them not realising that it's meant to be captive, and the shell appears to be a Mk1 746 shell with the sloped cradle, the pins for the push buttons are present, though weren't fully attached when I first opened the phone, but went back in with ease anyway, and the phone was made by Pye in Airdrie (who apparently became TMC in 1970, 3 years before the phone was built!), just outside of Glasgow in Scotland, so, it's a well-travelled phone it seems!!

But enough waffle, time for pictures:

[twocvbloke]

Missed out a couple of other pictures, the 5A-4 switches, which were somewhat locally made near to me (in Gateshead, about 20 minutes north from me), and the Zebedees, showing that the one has been shaved with a knife to make it easier to press the button...

[HarrySmith]

i was wondering what a Zebedee was, now I know!

[Owain]

i was wondering what a Zebedee was, now I know!

And this is why they're called zebedees:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZTBDnj0Cgc