Working Cord Switchboard

[michaelman2]

Just went to a local flea market and was talking to a guy who sells old telephones and equipment. He had just sold an old cordboard to a hotel where it was to be used for parts. The Jerome Grand Hotel in Jerome , AZ has a working cordboard that is currently the main system for the hotel. I know there is a member here who has a working board for a B&B...Just thought this might be of interest to someone. I know Ken and I are planning a trip to see this thing in action!...

 

[sikiguya]

Grand Hotel

I stayed there on a trip with an old boyfriend in the middle 90's (not too long after they opened) and it was an amazing hotel. You will love the decor, atmosphere of the place. I don't remember the phone system as that is what we concerned with at the time.
There is actually a lot of neat shopping around there. Make sure you go to Sedona if you are up that way. Go on a Pink Jeep tour-they are a blast.

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[Designgeek]

Ahh yes, cordboards.

I've been wanting one of those for a while, for practical use as backup to a digital PBX in a situation where outside dialtone is available but off-grid power is used as primary power source.

Capacity for approx. 40 extensions and 6 - 8 trunk circuits would be good.

One of these days...

 

[fnelson487]

And Here it Is!

A 556A manual auxilliary to a 756A Crossbar PBX. I don't have the crossbar switch, but this board has 10 manual circuits and is hooked up to two CO trunks. That's an original WE chair and it has a few WE headsets. FUN! Quite a conversation generator. That's Terry Lattz manning the switchboard. These things were built to last forever.

 

[pushtorelease]

A cordboard!! I used to run one of those in the late 70's (I was practically a child) at a taxi company. I loved working that thing, even used the vice-grip headset once in a while when feeling especially like Lily Tomlin. Still love that purring sound it made.

 

[Designgeek]

Yeah, one of those. I'd be quite happy to find one nearby (California) at a reasonable price. Sigh...

That purrring sound was a B1AL ringer from a WE 302 telephone, installed in the cabinet without the bell gongs on it.

 

[fnelson487]

Keep Looking

These switchboards come up on Ebay all the time. Look for a 555 which has all manual circuits and is self-contained. All hookups and circuits are in the unit. They work on 24VDC. Make sure that the guts aren't taken out. Many people get these and with a little knowledge have them all hooked up and working. If nothing else, if the cabinet was maintained well you will have a fine piece of furniture. They were either mahagony or oak cabinets. Mine took a little more work since the dial was bad and it took me a while to figure it out and then track down the wiring schematics. My interest goes back to high school and college where I worked at local phone companies (Central Telephone in Park Ridge, Il and DeKalb-Ogle Telephone in DeKalb, Il) in the toll office - "Good afternoon, I have a collect call for anyone from Joe - Will you accept the charge?"

 

[shawn]

Switchboard

When I worked at an old hotel in Watch Hill Rhode Island in
the 70's I worked one of these. (What funny stories I could
tell LOL.

 

[whirlcool]

I had a freind who lived in Chicago for a short time in a place called "The Surf Shore" apartments, that used to be the "Surf Shore Hotel"
The operator, Rose was this older woman who handled the front desk and the switchboard as the rooms didn't have direct dial phones. She was also a busybody. One night when we were going past the front door we heard this little conversation:

Rose: Oh, Mr. Smith, I just KNOW that your daughter will be just CRUSHED that she missed your call. Last I saw, she was leaving the building with a NOT SO savory looking young man. I just know that she will not be home until very late, if at all! But I WILL let her know that you called!

One can only imagine what the Father said to the daughter the next day!

A real life Earnestine....

 

[rinso]

Having a telecommunications background that started in the answering service business, I remember well the 557B cord boards that were our mainstay. The line you wanted answered by the service bureau, was known as a secretary line, and was basically just a parallel circuit. These cord boards were designed so that the attendent had answer-only access to the customer's line, not being able to draw dial tone or call out on it. There would also be some two-way jacks for the attendent to patch 2 calls together, dial out to deliver messages, or answer the bureau's main business line. As of their demise around 1989, computerized systems that were as flexible and fit the diverse needs of customers, would still be years away.

 

[jamiel]

Interesting you mention Central Telephone in Park Ridge. (FYI Ameritech took over the Park Ridge/Des Plaines exchanges in about 1997). My grandparents lived in Des Plaines and they always had these tiny phone books (compared to us in St. Louis). They'd always drag out some Chicago phone books for us boys to sit on at dinner when we visited. Also their phone was always a little different than ours in STL (Automatic Electric rather than Western Electric) and they made a different sound when dialing.

Fast forward 20 years and I was working at the US Cellular HQ in Chicago (O'Hare neighborhood) right along the Kennedy (at Cumberland) in the Centel (later, Sprint) covered area. We complained bitterly that the LEC for the office was Centel.

It made little sense that Centel had this island in the Ameritech territory, so A'tech bought the area in about 1997. (Interesting factoid--the Chicago cellular market was also shared between Ameritech and Centel--Centel owned a proportional share of the Chicago B-side market, operated by Ameritech Cellular)

 

[michaelman2]

These old boards were really meant to last forever. I have a Automatic Electric board that I have played with forever. During high school and college I worked at a large hospital downtown and we had until 1985 a 10 position 608 Western Electric board. I had more fun in the years I was there. I remember the day they came and literally ripped the positions out. We went to a Dimension system, but that system was never as reliable as the 608.

 

[fnelson487]

Central Telephone

It is an interesting story. I don't know how they got the franchise in Park Ridge and Des Plaines, but they were a typical independent from an equipment standpoint. All Automatic Electric equipment which was a good thing and a bad thing. The toll office in Park Ridge had semi-automatic toll switchboards in about 67-69 when I worked there. That meant that the boards had cords as well as built-in automatic circuits for PPCS (person-to-person, collect and special handling) accessed by dialing 0 area code and number. When my folks moved to Park Ridge in about 1950, the company was known as Middle States and had all manual service. You picked up the phone and pressed a button. The "A" switchboard was six feet tall and you operated it standing up. Yikes! I could go on forever. When I was in college in 70-74 DeKalb Ogle, a Continental independent switched from manual toll boards to toll service desks - all buttons lights and electronic displays - the death of an era. That's why I like my 556A - ah - the good old days.

 

[jamiel]

Several of the folks early on at US Cellular had come from Centel (after all the HQ were just across the Kennedy). They had their hands in a little of everything--they were a small electric utility in Kansas, they had cable properties and they had telephones. Biggest system they had in my recollection was Las Vegas.

Confession here...maybe i was cut out to be in the phone business...I remember being intrigued in the late 70s around the toll/unlimited strategies of Southwestern Bell around St. Louis---out in the hinterlands (which are now suburbia) you could choose two different exchanges--one of which was cheaper local service (your exchange plus the immediate surrounding ones) or a different exchange which allowed calling from/to the St. Louis metro area. Some of my friends had one, some the other (we were in the second-band suburban area which directly adjoined this area, so could call/be called by them for free). However, if we lived 3/4 mile away, we'd be in the first-band suburban area which would have cost $$ to call the friends with the local exchange.

Ahh memories. We've come so far with "LD inclusive" cellphones and packages.

 

[retroguy]

My condo building has one of those....

I hear that the developer got it from an old hotel downtown. This was back in 76 when the condo was built. And I believe it was already 50 years old. A 3 position Western Electric 608D. Those desk clerks do get into every ones business. Between handing out parking passes, and having a direct line to each of 1000 units, AND picking up private calls through the secretarial lines, well....they get to know ya =)

 

[michaelman2]

Retro...and this is operational?....this is too cool!

 

[retroguy]

Michaelman.....

Still operational. I recall a big stink at the condo board meeting in the mid 90's when they were talking about replacement. Apparently no one cared if the association paid for a modern system, but no one wanted to pay the $300 per unit to replace their secretarial phones to work with a new system. Odds are, without 70% of all owners approval, it'll be there forever. In defense of this older system, I've never had a problem with it, personally. The only drawback I ever saw....When the front desk calls up to the apartment on the switchboard intercom line, there is this grey box on the living room wall that rings. It could wake the dead. Which, in a way, I suppose, is good. You dont want to miss a guest, or pizza you ordered, but some of those desk clerks keep their finger on the ring button until you pick up. Anyone have a tylenol? =)

 

[michaelman2]

Retro...thanks for the update...I would LOVE to see this in operation...have a pic by chance?

 

[retroguy]

I might have a picture someplace....

I'll have to look. I'd been at the front desk on an occasion or two, to pick up a package, or messages, when the fire bells started going off in one of the two towers in the complex. Half the switchboard lit up, practically at once, people wanting to know whether or not the alarm was real. I guess, in a way, having that switchboard at the front desk spoils all of us who live here. It's like being in a full service hotel all the time. Better, really. Actually, the developer of the complex, The Charles E Smith Co's. has built many condo complexes in DC and it's suburbs, and most of those have an old pbx switchboard of one sort or another. I've lived in both towers of the complex I am in. I've also lived a few buildings over from this one, in another Smith building, a rental, pretty much a twin of the one I am in now. That building was about 10 years older, but I believe the switchboard was newer in that building. It may have been changed at some point, though. That building opened way before I was born=).