The Beamish Automatic Telecom

Jonathan Kindleysides, Keeper of Transport and Allan Monkhouse, museum volunteer, introduce us to the Beamish Automatic Telecoms system.
The museum has had its own Strowger exchange since 1985 when GEC Plessey, Hartlepool, donated a 100 line Siemens type 222. This exchange operated phones around the Tramway and tram depot. However, it proved to be hard to maintain and not very reliable.
In 1992 BT offered the museum a 100 line exchange from Embleton, on the Northumberland Coast. It was decided to abandon the Siemens exchange in favour of the 100 line UAX 13 rural exchange, a workhorse of the GPO. This was installed with help from BT and has spent the last 21 years operating the internal tramway and depot telephones.
However, up until recently, only a handful of the possible 100 lines have been used. Over the past few years members of the Tramway Group and volunteers made up of ex-BT engineers have expanded the network across the museum. Work has involved the erection of traditional telegraph poles and wires around the site, and the fitting of period looking handsets and hardware into museum exhibits - reducing the amount of modern technology being used to communicate between teams.
The main exchange unit, situated within the Tram shed, is a hive of activity. It is hoped that an exchange building which visitors can access will be constructed within the museum as part of future plans.

[@t13fox67]

This brings back good memories. I worked as a SxS switchman back in the 70's for southwestern bell telephone company in the U.S.. everything was western electric switches. Worked both local and toll central offices. Such sense of accomplishment when fixing these switches, unlike today's equipment. Enjoyed the video. Thank you.

[@stevedoubleu99B]

Great that the equipment is actually used for communication within Beamish. Also, good on BT for providing it. Very interesting video.

[@stagetelephone]

Fantastic to see a working Strowger exchange in actual daily us. Keep up the good work.

[@livesteam_ss]

excellent stuff, we need more of this at BCLM!

[@HighlandSteam]

Strowger exchange. I use to work on them in the late 80s and early 90s.

[@richcampoverde]

This museum gets better! A working telephone exchange now it just needs its own power station gas works water and sewage works and it is up and ready

[@lordred4116]

I remember Crosby exchange in Liverpool being a strowger frame, mid to late 1980s. Most of the others had already been changed.

[@theenglishman9596]

Plessey telephone company Liverpool made some of the strowger equipment. The switchers are called uniselectors which are mounted on banks which are mounted in frames called Racks which are cabled out to a IDF-Internal distribution frame which is then cable linked to the final frame called a MDF-main distribution frame, these frames are still used today in most telephone exchanges. Cables from the MDF go out to the street cabinets that you see usually on the corner of your street then the line is Jumpered out to your telephone at home.

[@andrewwhite1793]

These are not uni-selectors. Because they are with the subscribers meters I think they are primary finders rather than group selectors or final selectors.

[@Steven_Rowe]

A uni Selector is different. It is. A simple semi circular shape that subs lines connect to.
When they pick up they try and find an outlet to the primary selector which is where dial tone comes from.

[@ifn_media]

Not quite, smaller PBXs would indeed use uniselectors but UAXs tended to use SXS switches which would travel up a level then across a bank - lovely machines!

[@derek-press]

I spent 6 months of my youth in training cleaning those bloody relays ..start at the exchange forward left finish at the back right then guess what ...start again lol forward left

[@TheUnclestein]

Super