Christmas Gift Phones

[McHeath]

Well the food has been eaten, the wrapping paper is out in the recycle bin, and the kids are off playing with their toys.  (I Love Lucy videos, Crock Pots, and books these days)  I was the lucky receiver of two model 500s this Christmas, a picture of which follows.

The orange one is a Stromberg Carlson 500 dated March of 1967 with a refurb most likely in 1974.  Looks like it lived it's service life in Iowa, and was sold to the owner in May of 1983.  It's courtesy of Richard Rose's great Ericofon site and is one of his very nice refurb jobs.  I love these orange phones and it's a great compliment to the SC 1654 wall phone that I found earlier this month.  More pics of the works will follow later.

The other 500 is a Crosley replica that was new in the box.  I've wanted one of these to compare how a modern reproduction stacks up against the original.  On first impressions I note that it's surprisingly heavy, it weighs something over 4 pounds on the kitchen scale, and even the handset is close in weight to an original.  The handset cord is a fairly decent attempt at a thick hardwired cord, and it passes off pretty well sitting next to the SC 500, the lines and dimensions are about dead on.  I will take it apart and see what makes it tick and post the snaps here.

[bingster]

Nicely done, McHeath!  I really like the fact that the repros are using hardwired cords, rather than cheap modular junk.  They don't look exactly original, but they're sooo much closer than the modern alternative.

[bwanna]

you must have been a good boy this year, heath

[Dennis Markham]

Nice gifts Heath.  I'm surprised to read that the Crosley weighs that much.  I agree on the handset cord on the Crosley, much nicer than the flat, modular cords.

[AET]

Very nice picks!! Santa was good to you!!

[HobieSport]

Nice Orange SC 500, McHeath! Santa's Elves got smart. [Note to Elves: Pairs well with lime.]

I'm curious about the build-quality of the Crosley 500 compared with a standard late model WE 500.

[McHeath]

Okay the inside scoop on the Crosley.

First up was the weigh in.

Crosley tilted the scale to 4.3 pounds for the full phone and .61 for the handset.  

My 1984 Western Electric 500 was 3.1 pounds for the full phone and .58 for the handset.

My 1951 Western Electric 500 was 4.8 pounds for the full phone and .82 for the G1 handset.

Clearly the Crosley is closer to the weight of the 1950s phone, how did they do that?  (We will find out)

Now some pics.

First up are some comparison shots of the Crosley and the 84' and 51' WE 500s.

[McHeath]

An obvious external difference is the plungers, the Crosleys are smaller and rounded on the top.  Otherwise the external lines are almost a dead on match up.  The handset's lines are different, they are sharper and resemble the late model Cortelco's G3 handset more than the WE G3.  Perhaps they used a Cortelco handset for the mold.

Next up are some close up shots of the Crosley.

[McHeath]

Curious that it was new in the box but made in April of 2003, clearly these were not big sellers.

The functions of the dial are as follows.  Pressing the buttons activates the touch tone signal, no news there, and it has an added * and # button.  The number card is actually two buttons as well that pivot on the center.  Pressing the word "Wait" flashes the line, and pressing the words "for dial tone" will redial the last number called.  Clever.

Note the "Line In" modular line cord socket, it's on the wrong side and an ugly flat black modular cord was included to connect here.  They could have used a nice fat round cord that was hardwired in at the phone and had a modular wall end to help the effect.

The line cord is a nice attempt, it's got good heft, looks more appropriate, and is 7 feet long fully extended.

The dial wheel does not move and is purely decorative.  It mimics a rotary dial pretty well, though lowering the height of the buttons would have helped I think. 

Also the numbers are merely printed onto the surface, so they won't wear well at all over the long haul.  The dots on the ends of the buttons are also printed on, so they look great now but I have a hunch they won't last.

[McHeath]

Now for the handset.  Try as I might I could not figure out how to open it, the caps do not screw on, that much I figured out, and it seems to somehow press together like a late model Cortelco with the volume control, the center presses in.  The lines replicate the idea that the handset caps unscrew, which is a nice touch.

Sadly the overall execution of the handset leaves something to be desired.  The holes for the receiver end are all open as they should be, but the transmitter cap has them all closed up but one.  They could have at least put black paint in the holes, which I may do.

Also the screw holes on the handle are fully open and look pretty tacky.  It has "Crosley" on the handle as well, which is fine I guess as all the other companies put their names there as well.

[McHeath]

Now off comes the shell.  It has 4 screws under each footpad.  They pulled up pretty easy and the bottom came right off.

[McHeath]

Ah ha!  No wonder it weighs so much, it's full of lead!

[McHeath]

The "network" is attached to the bottom of the dial, and there is also a circuit board on the base plate where the handset cord attaches. 

The ringer is actually a brass gong, that surprised me as I thought it might just be a speaker.  This particular ringer I've seen before, I have a 1989 Trimline clone for China with the very same ringer in it.  It's got a nice little ring, not super loud, and it only has an on/off adjustment.

[McHeath]

The hookswitch is attached to the shell.  The plungers, which are made almost exactly like the originals and are free floating, press down on a plastic assembly arm that activates a simple switch.  It's almost exactly like the hookswitch mechanism in a 1994 Pacific Bell 2500 I have, and perhaps is even a copy of that assembly.

[McHeath]

The network is attached to the dial, which is held on with screws to the shell.  This also mimics my 1994 Pac Bell 2500, and again I have to wonder if that older phone is in the family tree of this one.  (The Pac Bell unit was also made in China)

I pressed down on a button so you can see a bit of the action movement.  The quality of the network assembly is pretty low, stuff is bent into place, not aligned very well, and pretty shoddy looking.