I'll have to get a digital camera in the next little while and sure, once I get a camera, I would like some tips on how to post pictures, thanks. Once I get that camera and get some good pics of my soft NE 500's including inside shots and a pic of the Northern Electric markings as well.
Six hole ear caps were always used on Northern Electric/Northern Telecom 500, 1500(10-button Touch Tone) and 2500-series phones and any NE/NT phone that used a G-Type handset all the way up to when they were no longer made in Canada. ITT used seven-hole ear caps and yes, the odd six-hole ear cap did show up on a Canadian-made ITT phone as well.
NE soft plastic phones are indeed very rare, even in Canada.
Yes, Northern Electric was a little behind Western Electric on changing/updating parts on their 500/1500 and 2500-series phones with NE 302s being active on the Bell Canada network later than in the US, Straight cords used on both NE 300-series and NE-500 series phones in black up until late 1958, gray cords on some NE colored 500's up until 1958, swede feet on both NE 300-series phones and NE 500-series phones until Sept, 1958, NE 1500 phones were a lot like the WE prototype 1500 phones and even the very first NE 2500's looked a bit like the WE 1500 prototypes as well-also some NE 1500s looked like same as WE 1500's as well. In 1968, Northern Electric introduced the Contempra phone instead of the Trimline, NE Contessas looked like the WE princess phones except there was no "operator" text on NE rotary Contessas after 1965 and NE 10-button Contessas looked exactly like the pink NE Contessa we see here. Both the standard 12-button NE Contessa and WE Princess were identical.
All Northern Electric/Northern Telecom 500 and 2500 series phones were hardwired all the way through with a grey modular line cord hardwired into the phone introduced in 1976-77. Modular Backplates also became available for NE/NT 554's/2554's in about 1977 as well Northern Electric/Northern Telecom phones were dated since the 1920's or 1930's.
On the 1957 soft Northern Electric red 500 seen here, the dial bezel and line cord look to have been replaced during the service life of this phone when it was leased by Bell. The handset cord is a 1957-58 "fatboy" curly cord in the color of the phone.
NE phones were pretty much basically the same with a few differences starting to be really noticeable after 1965. It was in late 1965 that NE 500 and Contessa phones did not have the word "operator" due to both French and English being the official languages of Canada and this made it a lot easier than trying to have "operator" in both languages. The plain "0" on NE/NT phones is indeed neutral to both official languages of Canada.
The reason for a different faceplate on NE 10-button Contessa phones is that by 1964-65, Northern Electric was no longer part of Western Electric and NE was making their phones more identifiable from the Western Electric phones.
This 10-button NE Contessa seen here dated between late 1967 to 1969 approx. Northern Electric did make 10-button Contessa phones until 1969-70 as I got 3 of these NE 10-Button Contessa phones in white from 1969-70.
For the soft NE 554's, I haven't seen any in Oxford Gray, Mahogany Brown or Mediterranean Blue, but since I have a 1958 NE Rose Beige 500, I think Northern Electric may have also made Rose Beige 554's, although very, very, very rare and only a very small handful like the 500's.
I also have Northern Electric soft Tenite 500's in both red and green-the Christmas colors:-)
