Western Electric PBX Question

[Fabius]

I believe that due to the absence of relays and such that this switchboard is not a stand alone board but was connected to on site sxs pbx equipment? I believe that had a 700 series number? Nice looking switchboard but hard for the hobbyist to get to function?

http://tinyurl.com/ohrlg63

[poplar1]

It's a nice movie prop. Originally, it was a standalone 551A PBX. The L-shaped metal bracket in the photo was for attaching the relay gate that swung open. This gate and all the relays are missing. The cut cable in the photo went to the relays and terminal blocks.

The 551 was replaced by the 555.

The 552 (and later 556) are the ones you are thinking about used as attendant positions (consoles) for electromechanical PBXs such as the 740 Step-by-Step. The line jacks on these don't have lamps since onsite calls to the attendant rang in on the attendant trunks, not the line jacks. The individual line jacks were used only for extending incoming trunk calls.

[Weco355aman]

Can you say scrap.
In the Pacific Northwest Bell area they would let people Telephone Pioneers have the switchboards but they had to
be gutted. This is sad to see. The only thing usable is the cords and cord weights.
This happened to more that just PBX boards and Phones.

[Fabius]

Thanks for the info. A lot of these I've seen have been gutted.