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Fantastic. I left school in 1979 to be an apprentice with Post Office Telecommunications, a real public service where customer service was key. No expense spared training courses and endless support from those around you. Good days, all now sadly gone in favour of profit from a company that really doesn't have a clue about looking after its customers. You can't beat sitting in a busy Strowger exchange with the switches chattering away behind you, and the slight whiff of oil/old cabling/dust whatever it is (probably Geoff Parsons (RIP) with his never ending fag in his mouth 😆) but there's a certain smell that goes with an exchange like this that I remember well.... Great video, thank you for sharing it.

Using the word "modern" in relation to the TI track circuits is amusing to me! Over 30 years ago I did my apprenticeship with ML Engineering (then EB Signal, ABB Signal etc) and spent many hours on the shop floor tuning and testing them. This was the original design using fully discrete electronics rather than the digital version: it had old metal can transistors and large ferrite pot cores for the oscillators/receivers that had to be tuned for the correct two frequencies. Setup and final testing were manually performed and results written in a book when I started, but after my apprenticeship I joined the test department and worked on automation of the test system.

Please note the triple shunt ground signal is not in use, it's not part of the operational system.

Fascinating. I love to hear this, not so old, history. Thank you to you and Mr Tyrel.

Nostalgic ... 54 yrs ago I started work as a Technician in the NZPO Telephone exchanges which used that system, cleaned the banks and changed worn out wipers. Adjusted relay springs etc..

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klunk and bang tec . but it still works

Clear as mud

So, does this Southern Railway serve the South as well?😉😅

I will never understand Strowger etc so will stick to the S side of S&T. If you can’t hit it with a hammer I don’t want to know 😆

I worked a chap who could listen to a Strowger frame and tell you the number that had been dialled from the chatter of the selectors.

I worked a chap who could listen to a Strowger frame and tell you the number that had been dialled from the chatter of the selectors.

Difficult to follow vocals with back ground intrusion but a priceless account of clever engineering at work.

Exactly the same as public telephone systems and I worked on them all.

Interesting presentation. There is a similar arrangement at Norchard station on the Dean Forest Railway in their museum. Although this item is about “telephone systems”, historically there was a lot of use of the same equipment for some signalling systems as well. Notably, the old BR Western Region panel signal boxes used a lot of the PO3000 series 50V relays for the (non-vital) part of the interlocking system, and until the mid 1980s a derivative of the Strowger exchange mechanism was also used for train describer systems. I had a lot to do with it from 1981 on, originally on the Western until it was all re-organised.

Great to see Mike again with an interesting account of railway telecoms history. Also, refreshing my memories of Strowger operation and relay functions. I somehow doubt function of modern electronic exchanges will be recalled with such detail in another 50 years.

Shame the selector and other phones weren’t covered in more detail on how they work.

I recall reading that 999 was also chosen so that intermittent line breaks/shorts (or kids in phone boxes bashing the cradle rest to get free calls 🤣) would not dial it accidentally - if 111 had been chosen. I think there was also some discussion about it being more reliable to dial in a dark or smoke filled room by locating the finger stop at 0 and putting a finger in the hole above - who knows! 0 had been reserved for Operator so 000 (as in other countries) was not available. Later of course BT moved Operator to 100!

Цікава ретро техніка. У нас в Україні селектори Строуджера (крокошукачі) дожили до початку XXI століття... а ще за 15 років класичний сектор телефонної мережа загального користування скоротився до бізнес-абонентів лише у великих містах. Мобільний зв'язок витіснив класичний дротовий зв'язок. Значна частка бізнес-абонентів користується VOIP-телефонією.

When you go in these boxes do they know your day job Dom? Very interesting vid mate

How do you know, when it is safe to pull a lever? 😊

What a waste of time and a total eyesore on what was a beautiful view

i must go there one day

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Obviously the control room is above the bridge so how did they make the connections to the other signal boxes? was there some kind of flexible conduit in use with the electrical cables in it and if so how was it connected? because the bridge control room moves with the bridge there must be some kind of flexibility built into the warning and communication apparatus and I am curious to how this worked?

In need of a de-rust and a paint. Who owns it?

great video like to have a go at that

I walked over it several times as 'derelict railway' rather than 'footpath'.

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Nice work! Well done!

Very impressive

My grandfather used to volunteer on this railway, nice to see it gets the attention it deserves

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Thank you for all working in the boxes to keep us moving over the years, I loved working over this route as a trolley dolly and as a passenger

Could that single down 47 block have come from Paignton South?

This video is just excellent, Thank You very much I am not a signaller, or a signal engineer, but I have personally learnt a lot from this. I have two GWR instruments almost the same as in this video, my permissive instrument has a green background, and to the left of the 'normal' position, mine says 'Line Clear' on the dial face, I also have a Double A.B instrument like the one in the video so seeing this video has been a joy, and I look forward to the next one in the series, all have been good so far, this one especially due to the link to my own two instruments.

With positive motivation may I point to a couple errors you may be able to easily correct. i.e. Your in-video opening title says "Several times a Tear......", and your video description tells us that Acton is in South London, rather than West London.

After living in Acton since 2010 I have no idea this was here. I’ll check this out, thanks!

Its amazing how all that electromechanical equipment was built and maintained and to think these days all that mechanical information and interlocking can now be stored on something the size of a flash or usb drive !

Very interesting thanks for sharing

I was always told it was bad practice to use pliers.Done skilfully you didn’t need them.

Nice to see the 50' lock bar

sad to see, as totley tunnel is one of my favourite places.

in our country we use little bit different system for changing signals and switches. So if you interesed i can sent some pictures on e-mail or some differnt plattform.

You'll get the hang of it one day matey. Using cutters though!? Honestly!

Unfortunately the camera missed most of the action !

Channel IRON

200ml drive

Adjusting crank