Little belated introduction from Pittsburgh

[rrnora]

I posted a couple weeks ago in the Flea Market forum about my most recent acquisition, a maroon North Electric phone. Just thought I'd stop by here for a proper introduction. I'm Nora, from Pittsburgh (well, really from Cleveland, but I live in Pittsburgh). I've collected a handful of phones over the past year or so. I have two kids who are might be the only ones in their middle school who know how to use a rotary phone (the first time they tried dialing, they dialed, THEN picked up the receiver and waited for their call to go through!). Here are a few pictures of the other phones I have:

[rrnora]

And I'm going to post a few more pictures of two other "phones" that I have, both of which were railroad phones which were stationed along the tracks for use (I'm told) before radios were common on locomotives. I am a train dispatcher and both phones came from territory I now dispatch, which I think is pretty neat (although, having only been a dispatcher for 2 years and working on the railroad for 10, these phones looooong predate my time on the railroad!)

[LarryInMichigan]

Welcome Nora,

It looks like you have made a good start on phone collecting.  You only need 200-300 more .  The phone in your first picture is a Stromerg Carlson 1212, called the "fat boy" by collectors.  Yours is suffering the common malady of a broken cradle ear.  The cradle piece can be removed and replaced, but I don't know how easy finding a replacement might be.  I believe that the cradle is symmetrical from side to side and front to back, so you could rotate it so that the broken ear is in the back and therefore less obvious.  Your second phone is a model 500 or similar, probably Western Electric.  The third is an Automatic Electric type 50 (AE50), and the next two are AE40s.  The chrome bands on the handset caps make them more valuable.

Happy Collecting!

Larry

[JimH]

Welcome to the group, Nora!  Looking forward to seeing more of your treasures and finds!

Jim H.

[dsk]

Welcome Nora.
This is a great collection, but I have to warn you, it may start growing, and even faster than your kids...
A little depending on how you live, and your family's support of your interests it may be great fun.

I have as others here put up an exchange, and my son has had a rotary at his room for years, so I understand what you are talking about when talking of the only boy in the class knowing...

dsk

[WesternElectricBen]

Welcome,

Nice start to your collection.

Ben