Gray/Western "150GJ-55"--or is it?

[poplar1]

These phone show up occasionally on Ebay. They have some or all of the following:

WE/Gray markings on front of the lower housing
"150GJ-55" stamped in white ink on the back, under the top card holder, and inside the upper housing
Stromberg-Carlson bakelite handset (as used on the SC 1543)
AE chrome hook as used on AE pay phones in the 1960s
NE 6C dial
NE/WE 63A dial shroud
AE lead coin chute
Network added inside
Added transfer contacts in the upper housing and backplate
Red instruction card
Rochester area phone number

Some say these were converted by Rochester Telephone Corp. and sold to their customers for $1 each. Others say they were refurbished by a company in Canada.

There is a Roch. Tel. Corp. handbook showing conversion procedures for some older pay phones. For example:

Roch. Tel. Corp., Testing Methods and Repair Shop Practices
Section S300.004, March 1955, Issue 1

COIN COLLECTORS
Conversion of No. 150H-10 Prepayment to No.  R34A21-10 Semi-Post Payment Coin Collector

"...for use at pay stations in Suburban Dial Central Office areas..."

Also,

Roch. Tel. Corp., Station Installation and Maintenance Practices
ADDENDUM C42.102 July 1953 Issue A
COIN COLLECTORS, Multi-Slot Types, Description and Use, No. 150GJ-10 Prepayment Coin Collector

"...1.02 The No. 150GJ-10 is a common battery, anti-sidetone handset type coin collector arranged for use at manual or dial pay stations in Rochester Central Office areas only and may be installed only on approval by the Commercial Superintendent.....

"2.01  The 150GJ-10 consists of a No. 150-H10 Coin Collector on which the following work operations have been performed:
Removal of hand receiver, transmitter and mounting, hookswitch and 1B card holder. Installation of S.C. No. 46A induction coil, ML-2-2M Astron Metalite condenser, No. 63B gong transmitter and bracket, S.C. No. 24 handset equipped with R-WGJ-4 four conductor 30 inch cord and P-60047 handset type switchhook. For dial service, the No. 150GJ-10 is equipped with a W.E. No. 5HH dial and No. 147B number plate."

[poplar1]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/221148510487

Also note that the original open coin return has been changed to an AE pull-out type.

[rdelius]

These were refurbished and used in Rochester .Some housings were Grey-Western.If you removed the instruction frame, you would see the outline of the transmitter mount .Some had SC handsets.Princess type network inside above terminals.Chutes were AE.While at COT we bought a large quantity(100+) and used repro and old parts when we could and sold them as 2 piece sets.They might have been bought from BECO.They were rough also