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party line telephones


student nurse

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was sat thinking about when i was a kid (many moons ago) but not as many as some!!!! is there only me who remembers the party lines on the telephone exchange?? you pick up the receiver to hear someone else on the line having a chat!! bring back busby :blink:

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I had a mate who's family had a party line. They shared the line with the next dor neighbour. I think it was cheaper than having a dedicated line.

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Guest tsavo

It was cheaper but many people had no option other than a party line, The shortage of available lines was the usual problem but this eventually changed when BT took over from the GPO.

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Guest wisewoodowl

We had a party line in the mid to late 70's, bloomin' nuisance.

The reason was the shortage of lines in many exchanges.

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Guest mega_monty

bring back busby :blink:

Here he is

Anyone remember the ads on tv with Bernard Cribbins as Buzby's voice ?

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We didn't have a party line, but we had a trimphone. It seemed so futuristic and sophisticated.....and the dial used to glow in the dark! A kid at school could imitate its ring perfectly, but I never could.

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Sometime during the early 1970's when i was living at home with my mum and dad we had a party line. It wasn't by choice, we had just gone on the telephone then and they told us we had to share with our next door neighbour, you would pick the phone up and hear someone next door chatting away, it was awful but back then you just accepted it and got on with it.

Yes, it was because of the lack of spare lines.

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Guest mega_monty

We didn't have a party line, but we had a trimphone. It seemed so futuristic and sophisticated.....and the dial used to glow in the dark! A kid at school could imitate its ring perfectly, but I never could.

My parents had a trimphone and as a youngster I used to stand at the bottom of our stairs in the dark fascinated by its greeny / blue glowing dial

their phone was exactly this colour:

and sounded like this: trimphone_sound.wav

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Guest transit

My parents had a trimphone and as a youngster I used to stand at the bottom of our stairs in the dark fascinated by its greeny / blue glowing dial

their phone was exactly this colour:

and sounded like this: trimphone_sound.wav

The Trimphone became the futuristic must-have around 1971-2 due to the use of them on top rated telly prog "The Golden Shot", on Sunday teatime with Bob Monkhouse, Ann Aston , and not forgetting Bernie The Bolt!

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Yeah, the one on the golden shot was shiny gold!

Our one was exactly like the blue one pictured.

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Guest tsavo

We didn't have a party line, but we had a trimphone. It seemed so futuristic and sophisticated.....and the dial used to glow in the dark! A kid at school could imitate its ring perfectly, but I never could.

Believe it or not the Trimphones caused BT a bit of a problem due to the radiation which caused them to glow. They had to be stored, a limited number to a box. I'm sure an old BT member can remind me how many it was. Lovely sound too but easy (for some) to imitate. A guy I worked with did it all the time and delighted in watching half the office reach for their phones!

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Guest mega_monty

Believe it or not the Trimphones caused BT a bit of a problem due to the radiation which caused them to glow.

eeek I must have been glowing like a ready break kid after the amount of time watching our glow B)

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