atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems 1A2 and Comkey Telephones & Systems 1A2 wall phones for no apparent reason

As I'm sitting here watching an episode of 'Emergency!' from 1972, I noticed that they had a Western Electric 851 six-button set on the wall in the fire house kitchen. That's right about when those sets came out. Hollywood is so cutting edge.

In my mind, those were the most unique and compact 1A2 sets that ever existed. All other manufacturers had clunky design, but Western's 851/2851 six-button set did it right. Northern Telecom did OK with their 'Logic 10 and 20' series, but they still didn't ever take off in these parts.

To further impress me, WECO fitted ten buttons into the same footprint as the 2851 with their 2854. Not rocket science, just a slight change in chassis design to accommodate the longer keystrip, but still a whole lot of phone in a small package.

Can you believe that they actually fit a 66 block inside of that phone? Yes, the original A and B versions of the 2851/2854 used a 66 block on the front right side for cable termination. The later C version had a 25 pair male connector in place of that block.

I can't begin to tell you how many extra gadgets that we managed to fit into the space vacated by that 66 block when the C version came out. I'm not kidding. Buzzers, ringers, diodes, you name it.

The competitor's phones were just upside-down desk phones with modifications. They just looked silly. I can't tell you how many times that I had to figure out a way to 'dispose' of six feet of 25 pair line cord when trying to mount an ITT phone on a cinder block wall!

Yes, I'm an old timer who appreciates good quality and design.

WE versus Stomberg-Carlson's version of a 1A2 wall set

Some more history

How about the telephone sets inside Rampart?!

Ed, the phones are just one of the many reasons I love that show!

"I can't tell you how many times that I had to figure out a way to 'dispose' of six feet of 25 pair line cord when trying to mount an ITT phone on a cinder block wall!"

Ed, I hate to break it to you now, but those 6' tails disconnected and you could plug the amphenol directly into the back. (You did have to take the plastic cover off the amphenol to get that grey plastic plate to fit on).

Sam

These sets are also interesting because the first versions(wall 851BT and 2851BT and desk 830CT and 2830CT) represented early attempts at modularizing. To my knowledge,these are the only sets that used a G handset (G-12)equipped with a "maxi"plug,the same as used on the Trimline set. On the desk sets, a 25 pair line cord with two amphenols was used. As Sam said,the desk set end amphenol had no cover and was secured to a connector in the set by a sliding plastic cover. As a further cost cutting measure,these line cords were available only in pearl gray-82 and dark gray brown-83.

Actually, I was referring to Comdial's Max Plus sets, where the cord wasn't removable. They were very easy to convert to wall mounting, but that cord wasn't going anywhere. When mounted over a box with conduit feeding it, there weren't many options.

Ed, my foot doctor (now retired) had those phones in his office. When the phone rang it almost shook the walls!

LA, Squad 51...

I just finished watching the entire series not too long ago. The phones were a nice little detail. I'm pretty sure Emergency! and Adam-12 are the reasons I went crazy with 1A2 phones.

If you watch all the way from Season 1, you can actually see a progression in the phones. Station 51 started with two side-by-side 554s, then an 851 and a 554, and eventually a 2851 and a 2554. Phones at Rampart changed as well: the base station started with 554s, then had a mix of 2554s and 554s, and eventually went to all 2554s. (Personally I'd rather have a 554 with a touch-tone pad than a 2554.)

Exterior shots were done at a real station and the interior shots were on a sound stage so some set director at Universal Studio would have done the changes.

Maybe the wall sets were leased from season to season from one of the specialty prop companies and the new ones came with the lease renewal?

I know this thread is a few months old, but I just clicked the link Ed posted "WE versus Stomberg-Carlson's version of a 1A2 wall set" and a couple pictures of my stuff came up. There's a green 2851 hanging over an occupancy sensor, and -GASP- me on my 2852! Both are mine from gemr.com. I wonder where my red 2851 is....