Wow a Pink Dial Trimline! and, uh, HELP!

[panthera]

I found this at a thrift shop for next to nothing. Even the line cord is PANK!
It dials out, it receives calls. Speech and listening quality are OK.
But - somebody disconnected the ringer (wires are carefully tucked away) and I have no idea where they go to turn it back on.
Any ideas?
Thanks!

 

[wayupnorth]

I have an orange Trimline touch-tone wall model in my kitchen and it has a very loud ring. I dont know which wires you would need to connect to make yours ring but you would have to take it apart to find them.

 

[panthera]

I did take it apart

Which is how I found the wires to be so well shielded and tucked away...just, every schematic I can find is so poorly scanned, I can't read it.
Would appreciate some help, a clear photo of a working wiring block would do it.

It's so hard to find real PANK! and we were so lucky to get it!

 

[pulltostart]

How about if you bought another one (any color) and sacrificed it for knowledge/parts?

 

lawrence

 

[panthera]

Lawrence,

I've thought of that. Trouble is, in this neck of the woods, at the time these were popular, just about everyone had a party line and that is the primary reason they were disconnected. That and it's getting hard to find rotary dial phones from the 1967-68 era which didn't get tossed.

It seems Western Electric did a unique wiring block for every single one of the phones sold, from what I can tell in the pictures so far. I'd be happy to join one of the phone clubs, if that would help, but so far all the answers to ringer questions always either go down rabbit holes and never mention wire colour codes to match mine or assume one has the knowledge.

 

[mattl]

I have  couple, the one that is connected has the ringer disconnected too.  Got  a yellow one tucked away in a closet that should have the ringer connected, will dig it out and snap a picture if it is connected.  IIRC there were different wiring methods depending on how your service was set up  so one size may not fit all.

 

[rp2813]

I had a green version from 1967 -- clunky big not-exactly-modular plugs at both ends of the handset cord and it look like yours may have the same type -- but I may have let it go when we moved.

 

I think all phones including Trimlines have their terminals labeled the same.  If that's the case, the red lead from the ringer coil should be connected to the "L1" screw and the other lead (sort of a khaki shade on older phones) should connect to the "K" terminal.  The L1 is where one of the leads for the mounting cord (the cord from the jack) also attaches.  That one is usually red or green.

 

 

 

[panthera]

Maat & Ralph, thanks!

I'll take whatever pics one my have. One positive benefit from all this screwing and tightening - the sound quality has improved a lot.

 

[rp2813]

That phone appears to date back to the days when Ma Bell owned all of their equipment and subscribers paid a rental fee for their telephone set(s) each month.  Ma Bell also charged extra for each extension telephone and the story goes that they kept track via the voltage required for the ringers.  Disconnecting all but one phone set's ringer made it appear that a subscriber had only a single phone set.  We had bootleg phones all over the house when I was a kid.  My dad disconnected the ringers on all but the "main" phone in the downstairs hallway.

 

[ea56]

Kudos Ralph, I think you may have solved Keven’s mystery, or at least I hope so. All he needs to do is figure out how to reconnect the wires to the ringer.

I remember this too. Ma Bell even charged extra for a coiled handset cord or a longer cord from the wall to the phone.

I’ve mentioned here before that when I got my first phone in ‘71 my landlady instructed me to request that the phone be installed in the most difficult location possible. The phone company had a policy then that they had to install your phone where you requested.

The landlady said that the installer would suggest that he could put a longer cord on the phone to accommodate the location requested and thereby avoid all the extra work, at no extra charge. Once you had the 20 ft.cord on your acct. it followed you with each move. So, I had a 20 ft.cord and could get away from needing an extension, and never paid for the 20ft. cord. I just carried the phone from room to room. This worked out fine during my youth when I lived in small rentals.

Eddie

 

[tomturbomatic]

I had a friend was queer for phones. He disconnected all of his phone ringers and used the chime sets. He gave me one that I used until I kicked Ma Bell to the curb.

 

[rp2813]

Tom, I still have a chime ringer.  I don't use it because I have a manual (no dial) D-1 set in the hallway phone niche connected to a 1931 bell box that will wake the dead.

 

Eddie, we had a long mounting cord on our main phone too.  Most of the time it was shoved back into the hole in the wall plate.  The phone sat atop my mom's old sewing cabinet in the centralized hallway, which was a hub and spoke affair that got heavy traffic.  The times when we'd drag it out to the dining room table were on special occasions like family gatherings when placing or receiving long distance calls from relatives in Chicago.

 

With all of the bootlegged extensions, there was no longer a need for the hallway phone, plus when the laundry room and an additional bathroom were added on in the late '60s a sewing area was created.  I took that long cord and used it on my 1938 model 302 when I lived in a house with a large upstairs area and one phone jack up there.  It's still attached to that phone but I haven't used it in many years.  Lucky for me, the hallway phone it was originally connected to was a model 302, so it had long leads on the end that attached to the phone set.

 

[mattl]

Sorry-

I'm late getting this posted. Life gets in the way of best intentions. Here is a photo of the wiring from one of my trimlines that as far as I know had a working ringer.  Did not see wiring specific to the ringer, but I hope it helps. The yellow/blue and blue/blue wires are the line feed, they are at the top of the image.

 

[cadman]

One thing about telephone collectors, compared to other hobbiests, they have some of the most complete documentation out there.

I believe this is what you're looking for; it even includes closeups for connecting the 4-wire ringer. https://www.beatriceco.com/bti/porticus/bell/telephones-trimline.html

 

[good-shepherd]

my 1938 model 302

Those are phones that can be used as blunt weapons if necessary.

 

[quincyman]

Look, it's really quite easy...

...or should be. There should be two loose wires that aren't connected to anything. At one time they were which made the phone ring.
If there are, connect one to where the red wire I see is connected (to a screw). The other to the green wire that is connected to a screw.
This should make it ring.