Poulton Telephone Exchange 1992 Digital Changeover

Poulton-le-Fylde Telephone Exchange during the 1992 Digital Changeover from rotary dial.

[@wb8cxo]

Worked WE step in the Akron Ohio area for 5 years in the early 70's. The CO's were HOT OVENS in the summer, cozy in the winter. Deafening noisy during the day... Ya cud hear the calls move thru the office at nite. Hours and hours of bank cleaning, wipers and cords, switch lubtication, A, B, C, D relay timing and benchwork on the switches. Kept thousands of techs and support groups in jobs. Now the same area is covered by a dozen or less techs. Enjoyed the video tour of the UK office before and after the cutover. Amazing how the equipment is so similar but slightly different to the equip here in the states. The digital switch is even painted blue as the 5ess here in the US. Wish we cud go back and do a tech exchange program and work on the other side of the pond for several months. Cutovers were GREAT and more FUN than day-to-day ops. Tons of overtime.... a ton of work and a blast.... Had a great opportunity to work the cut of the first office I worked in from SXS to 1ESS then to DMS100. Wish I cud have stuck around to see POTS totally vanish but time catches up. It was a GREAT 51 YEAR RUN! 73, Mike

[@mikefitzryk1871]

You are right about the crossbar equipment being hot even in the winter I worked in a #5 crossbar office in Michigan Bell Telephone. In the winter, I would park my car right next to the building. Then , I would go to the first floor, open the large windows next to the parking spot and turn on a industrial sized fan and point it at my car. I never had snow on my car, just hot water 😂😂

[@wb8cxo]

@@mikefitzryk1871 LOL. sounds like something a CO tech would do. LOL

[@davewhipp5051]

From the start up to 02:50 it's filmed in Preston, Moor Lane and that's the IDF on the 1st floor thats being stripped out. Then up to 08:06 it's going down all the depowered Strowger equipment racks on the 2nd (Mezz) floor in Preston (Suite numbers beginning with 2). One of the voices just after 03:00 sounds like Gerry Twist ???? Then after 8:06 it's Preston Manual board on the top floor. At 11:25 it cuts to Preston trunk test transmission area on the ground floor, some of which is still there in 2023. From 12:59 onwards it is all in Poulton with the strowger and crossbar exchanges still powered up on the day prior to changeover to the new AXE10. Historic stuff indeed !

[@Thereishope664]

Perhaps the chap that retired took the "release 92" package that allowed engineers to retire 6 years early on full benefit.

[@paulhardy3219]

I worked on that changeover, forgot Poulton had Strowger and Crossbar. Shame no footage of the actual changeover, most were filmed.

[@mikeneil1334]

I worked in step exchanges for the first part of my working life, beginning in 1967. It was so simple compared to the later electronic stuff. I recognize all the equipment in this video.

[@briansmyla8696]

I'll bet that you could just walk in to work and hear that something was wrong.

[@douglasdunn7267]

Loved Step by Step, easy and simple, no muss, no fuss. I never had a love for the digital gear, even though it would do a much better job. Sad.....sigh.

[@mfx1]

My dad used to take me into work at his exchange (Sutton) in the school holidays (or sometimes if I was i'll (or faking being I'll :-) ) I used to walk sideways between the frames because I was scared of them I was there in the period when they were transitioning between Strowger and System X

[@MrFoxy1951]

Bloody Hell it's Jimmy Crompton talking a good job as ever...........

[@therealchayd]

I remember going to our local ATE as a kid and pestering the engineers for guided tours, so this brings back some good memories. Never did get a job as a telecoms engineer after all that (although I worked for an internet provider at one time so there was some telco-type stuff in terminating calls in modem banks).

[@chrisrose01]

I remember installing all the Strowger stuff and ripping it all out ten years later after installing System X and System Y. Ended up being the PM install of the entire NW of England for Exchange Changeovers based out of Manchester

[@212MPH]

Just seeing those old tone generators brought back many memories, it was a sad day when TXS and TXK were finally all decommissioned.

[@the_tux]

I miss those times of analog equipment. Although we Germans never advanced on the switching technology and went from step by step directly to ISDN. So the network here wasn’t really fascinating like in the US. But damn this stuff just has style, a technical soul. All that digital stuff is just dead code.

[@user-uc7vt4yj4d]

There was a pretty broad mix of analogue era switching here in Ireland. From the mid 50s onwards any new stuff was Ericsson ARF (large local) ARM (tandem) and ARK (rural) crossbars and ITT Pentaconta, a French designed crossbar system. There were even some small Hitachi crossbar systems used in rural automatic areas. The network here began going digital in 1979, with Alcatel E10 switches and Ericsson AXE 10. Many directly replaced analogue local switching, but some of those took over higher functions of the younger crossbars, which became semi-computerised and remained in service as local switches in some areas into the 1990s - typically doing about 30 years of service. The early versions of even the digital switches were quite interesting and very big scale, purpose built tech. The competing networks here tended to use Nortel DMS switching. By the late 90s most of those systems were looking more and more like rather more generic data centre servers, aspects of them becoming soft switches and ultimately the whole voice flipped over to VoIP with much smaller MSANs replacing that hardware. I’d say by the end of the decade even those will be gone.

[@Testequip]

As an apprentice I had to work in these exchanges albeit I specialized in the analogue carrier/transmission systems - frequency division multiplexing (FDM) and pulse code modulation systems (PCM). I wonder if anyone has any video footage of these systems.

[@peterbates4696]

I used to work in St. Botolphs telex exchange…. I actually miss the sound of strowger.

[@gregodianne]

At 1300 appears an old "colleague" of mine. Jimmy Crompton. Not sure that this is actually Poulton Interesting to watch for us ex BT exchange folks. Anyone got anymore footage like this?

[@billparkinson9420]

I was Jimmy's apprentice in '72 on construction, building Coppull exchange (I think). That T Shirt is a bit of a sight, didn't they do them in Jimmy's size ?

[@davewhipp5051]

It is Poulton, but only from 12:59 onwards. Prior to that it's all filmed in Preston, Moor Lane exchange where I worked at the time. Never knew Jimmy Crompton though.

[@regentcourtentwistle]

Now that brings back memories and a puzzle. Half way through the clip there are switchboards with ACRE keyshelves. Poulton did not have any switchboards or operators. I wonder if it is Preston as that had closed prior to 1992 and transferred the work to Blackburn

[@Revdscott]

i worked at southend exchange we had DAS FOR DIRECTORIES AND ACRE for 100, i loved working on the board, i wish there were more videos about it

[@Tomek1958100]

STROWGER DE BEST

[@americanspirit8932]

One of the biggest mistakes, in the United States, history, the day they divided the Bell System into seven separate operating companies, by judge green 1984. We had the absolute best, tell Communication Company worldwide, breaking it up into seven different entities, the citizens of the world suffered and paid for. Not just the loss of millions and millions of jobs throughout the United States and other countries. Even though the Bell System was a monopoly, but it provided the best equipment the best technology The Best of the Best. Plus we had Bell labs engineering scientists developing new technology every single day practically, starting with the transistor back in the late 40s. This breakup affected the entire world. In my opinion, the biggest mistake. Today is August 31st 2022.

[@jon4915]

Never thought of it that way, but you’re absolutely right.

[@soundguydon]

I have to disagree. While I get your point, the breakup was the best thing to happen for consumers: Because they were a monopoly, everything was outrageously priced. Long distance (even just the next town away in our case) cost so so much for a call. If they never broke up the monopoly, I'm sure cell service these days would be far more expensive than it is. And I don't really think that many jobs were lost -- the big phone companies didn't really go away, they just legally split into many companies that were still "owned" by the same big companies. Att/Bell/GTE/Citizens/Frontier, etc etc all still part of larger corps (as far as I can remember -- please correct me if I'm not remembering it correctly.)

[@sivalley]

@@soundguydon This, yes, and monopolies like old Ma Bell stifled innovation because there was no competition on the local level. Bell would routinely force local telecom operations into bankruptcy and buy their operations for pennies on the dollar bloating the old toad into unfathomable proportions. The 'breakup' was fiscally necessary to prevent runaway price hikes. I remember having to pay $0.25 per minute to call across town because of the way Bell had split our town into two toll zones.

[@greenpedal370]

It was the best thing for the world telecom industry. It lifted the lid off international telephone traffic. Voice and data costs plummeted., restrictions on undersea cable and satellite access eased, The industry boomed, salaries rocketed. Couple the liberalisation of the telecoms market with the expansion of mini computers, the rise of computer integrated telephony and cellular phones. The marketing opportunities that provided created a perfect storm. It was the best time to live in.

[@briansmyla8696]

It might have been the best, but the costs were becoming prohibitive because there was no competition anywhere in the industry, from the company right down the the equipment suppliers. Everyone was getting greedy.

[@kircherjoseph]

fuckin tracking 🤣 some one hit that dial!

[@Revdscott]

AFTER THE ACRE BOARD THEY SHOW 'TT' AND 'EQ' boards

[@the_fifth_wheel]

Just love how they made Ice cream back in the day, amazing artistry and all to a Heavy metal soundtrack…..perfection.

[@graemewilliams6150]

I worked for openreach in 2006-2008 in WN (North Wales & Cheshire) as a Frames Engineer for Kelly Services. I enjoyed my time working alone in the exchanges and recognise the newer equipment (System X/Y Switching) and the old racks which were as old as me but still good for all the connection eqpt that was on them. I guess that will all go with Full Fibre now. I remember certain exchanges being full fibre test beds back then an we often couldn't enter them due to the complex eqpt and our lack of knowledge on that.

[@xurix5179]

Справляє велике враження досягнення людських рук, і це не зупиняється.

[@wakcedout]

seriously who didnt bother to check the tracking before they digitized this footage.

[@mariaviklund4546]

*menu diving to find the KZbin tracking control..*

[@allenhampton7271]

I am glad I saw this! And that the switching sounds are there. I worked only on Step-by-step (mostly 2000 type and SE50). Quite bit of unfamiliar equipment in the footage. I wonder how many subscribers in total - Step and Crossbar. (Puzzled by the manual positions.)😊

[@marcb8934]

Let’s go back to the reed relay and strowger systems

[@zentaiman]

У меня челюсть отвисла нахер 🤫😐

[@pieluvr7362]

All that power and I Didn't me to turn you on , 🎶👀🤠👍🏽👊🏽📺💻 sure that was mtv if i ever saw it live

[@oprahwinfrey878]

So sad

[@peterbates4696]

And a T15 telex machine.. cool…

[@gregodianne]

Apologies it is Poulton see number range

[@johnjaco5544]

What year was this recorded?????

[@SouthernRailfan]

What does that light in the ceiling mean?

[@Satters]

if you're referring to 12.37, it's a rack alarm lamp, calling the technicians' attention to a fault

[@Stiffd1]

Hi Satters -you seem in the know! So when they switch this over from E-M. to digital. Does it just mean to use hard drive & optical storage? Would it mean no more 'noise' as end of E-M? Why was E-M still deployed in the 1980s? Surely it was archaic (but lovely!) : D

[@Satters]

Hi Robbie, the Exchange is Strowger, E&M refers to transmission rather than switching, there's no hard drive or optical storage, as an exchange is voice rather than data, though there is a stored programme for the common control elements, but sorry i'm not into electronc switching, digtal, or the current move to IP telephony, strowger is what I understand, and though there were a few crossbar and analogue electronic exchanges (TXE2 & TXE4) they were not cost effective compared to strowger, thus strowger was pretty much the post office standard until the digtal "System X" was developed in the late 80's, which meant with the rapid rise in subscribers in the 60's & 70's exchanges were enlarged with the strowger equipment of the time, and I agree a noisy switchroom is a joy compared to the soulless quiet of electronic racks :)

[@terryhfs]

I think by E-M he means Electro Magnetic, not Mark Space

[@Satters]

ahh, never mind, too much detail is better than too little :)

[@NoName-zn1sb]

There's 20 minutes of my life I'll never get back