Sam Hallas' Website
Some more pictures from the The Telephone Museum at Milton Keynes.
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As in the past, Milton Keynes is a very "Hands-on" museum. There are plenty of telephones to try out. A party of scout beavers and cubs were having a good time here in October 2014. |
A selection of different switchbaord types gave these lads chance to try out their operating skills. |
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The largest items are these three telephone exchanges. Left is a small Strowger rural exchange. Centre is the later crossbar switch that replaced Strowger and right is an electronic exchange. You can make calls on all and also dial between them. |
Wall displays show the evolution of the telephone over the years. Here are two showing the period from the 1930s to the 1990s |
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There are novelty phones like these Mickey Mouse, Tigger and Darth Vader models. |
There's a number of answering machines, like this BT Robin. |
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Mobile phones bring us nearer to the present day. |
Outside can be seen these mobile telphone exchanges, used to provide service in areas which had outgrown there current exchange and urgently needed more capacity. The one on the left is a Mobile Non-Director Exchange (MNDX). On the right is a much earlier, and rarer, Unit Automatics Exchange No 12. |
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Inside the MNDX it is in full working order, if a bit cramped. |
Donated from the BT Collection is this Polecat which allows a small gang to erect telephone poles very quickly. The hydraulic arm contains an auger for drilling the hole and a sling to lift the pole into place. |
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The Roadphone was used as BT publicity at outdoor events such as county shows. It also housed several payphones for public use. It's possibly the largest telephone handset in Britain. |
Inside the Transport Hall are a number of well-restored vehicles, including this handcart for street wiring gangs. Its legend reads 'GPO Telegraphs Engineer's Dept No 1' |
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Also in the Transport Hall is this magnificent lorry along with a Morris van and a more recent trailer in Post Office Telephones livery. |
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How it used to look
Collection: The Telephone Museum, Pictures © 2003-2014, text © 2014 Sam Hallas.