atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems 1A2 and Comkey Telephones & Systems 1A2 and some old WECO stuff

Wow! That is a lot of inventory

Quite the collection!

Sam

Yes, Sam!

It all started with one Western Electric 564 telephone set in black from 1956 which I acquired here in Germany on eBay. It all developed into the whole rainbow of colors of 564/565, 2564/2565, 851/2851, the Call Director, ringers, buzzers, 66-type blocks, KSU... I don’t know what I would do with my collection if I decide to move one day. It will be a full truck load of different telephone stuff.

Sad news: Cowboy Frank is selling his house. It looks his phones started to appear on eBay. I managed to get one 2565 in white from there. Really sad, his pictures from different WE 1A2 phone sets fitted into interior of that house inspired me a lot to start the collection and come to the idea of having the running 1A2 system at home. Hope at least those pictures will stay on his website. Sad, sad, good things are becoming history inevitably.

"Sad, sad, good things are becoming history inevitably."

That's the way of the world.....

Re' the popularity of 1A2 in Europe. I have an old dear friend who married a British gal and who lives in the UK now. He and his wife wee visiting and she saw the 1A2 phones in the house. "Cagney & Lacey phones" she exclaimed.

According to her, the old American TV show "Cagney and Lacey" (about 2 women police detectives) was incredibly popular in the UK in the '80s. And also popular was the distinctive look of their office telephones, which were apparently very different from office phones of the time in the UK.

I'm not sure if this was also the case in Germany.

Sam

I moved into Germany only 3 years ago. Not sure what was popular here in 1970-1980, but I assume many TV series from the US were in top charts here as well.

I personally know 1A2 business telephones from 1970s TV series like “Columbo”. Where rich residences around LA and the offices were full of multiline sets, Call Directors and all the shiny lamps.

Europe was way back in my view in terms of overall design of telephones (both technically, but also in terms of industrial design of the sets). No European country had the size and resources as the Bell System monopoly in the US. And as R&D dollars are coming from revenues, the difference can be easily explained. Dreyfuss’s 500 design from 1949 looks decent even today, if you look on majority of European phones from that time and later they will pretty much look like from pre-war times. Not saying it is bad, just not what I’m specifically interested in. I don’t think anything decent appeared in Europe before ISDN came into play. But that was already the time of cheap plastic items lasting for a few years before they disappear.

I’m pretty sure 1A2 is not so popular in Europe, because in Germany I know only 2 people other than me, who have something to do with these phones. Out of 80 million it is a negligible percent.

For me it is more about the impressions I have from those childhood times watching movies with these fantastic phones. Plus their unmatched quality and restorability along with the fact that I can do everything with these gadgets, unlike newer ones where no documentation, spare parts or software are available.

P.S. 1A2 is my beloved system to admire visually. To produce dial tones, I have an electronic PBX system from Switzerland designed around 1987-1989. That was decent as well, but mainly in the utilitarian way. But that company is gone as well.

Anyone interested in this system?
pictures

building is scheduled for demolition in two weeks

Not sure if anyone is still alive on this thread, but I have another reason to be proud:



NOS Stromberg-Carlson Call Director has arrived today from VERY OLD stock. Appears to be kept in the box for years in a very humid place - mainly all paper parts are affected by that. Unfortunately NOS mint faceplate inserts in the factory envelope are also spoiled. Need to make a professional replica of those somewhere.

Other than that - all plastic is fresh from the press and never saw sunlight.

Beautiful!

I installed plenty of those...


Sam

That's the later model Call Director. The earlier ones had the small buttons. They worked very well and as i recall the first binder appeared on screw terminals in the set - every wire....


Sam

The one with older buttons I also have. It’s on the picture above on this page. Both are with triple Amphenol connectors at the end of manly 75-pair cord. I would imagine what a challenge to connect all 75 pairs on screws...
This one is manufactured in 1982, so it is a very late model. However, Stromberg-Carlson kept the transparent faceplate with paper insert, while Western Electric switched to solid plastic coloured faceplates on Call Directors long before. To me those solid plastic faceplates are looking very cheap. But both Call Directors I own are fortunately with that old transparent acrylglass faceplates. The drawback of this later model is the plastic handset lever (hook) instead of shiny metal one on original Call Directors, but this is a way of cost reduction appering towards 1980-s when telephones were not longer a luxury item. I have the same on Stromberg-Carlson 554 wall model - dark acryl hook instead of metal.
Intrestingly, wiring diagram on triple Amp cords are kept consistent with standard 5-line models. So what I need is just to connect the Amp #1 of Call Director to my regular 5-line 1A2 plug and the first key strip works + ringer, etc. work perfectly fine.