Hi (again)

I have a Western Electric rotary buttset in Orange. It has a strange leed setup, and since a photo is worth a thousand words, I will let the photo speak for itself.

[Linked Image from i83.photobucket.com]

The connector has two very tiny lugs on them (even though they look like plugs in the photo, the are actually lugs). About a foot or so from the buttset is a connector that will connect the buttset to the leeds.

My questions are thus:

first, is the connector a WECO product or did somebody 'customize' this?

Second, it would be nice to use this with my phone endevors, but it is sorta hard to use tiny lugs on punchdown blocks or screw terminal blocks. Were there special aligator clips that were attached using the lugs?

Third, I have heard, but do not know the truth of the matter about buttset color. I have the orange one, but I have seen blue and yellow as well. Was this for the tech's preference or was there a color code as to useage?

I like the old Weco stuff, even though I will probably get myself a modern Fluke unit (the low end one that is only for POTS lines), but it will be TT capable. However, for the "phone barn" museum and working on dial switches etc, I will use the Weco rotary sets to keep in character, if you will.

Best,

Joe

Real comms took 200lb teletypes, hand keys, sounders, operators and cranked phones!