Funny work story

When i worked for BT electronic switchboards were just becoming available for small business and also bank high street branches.

So off we go installing these electronic switches into banks and building society branches. Then the complaints came pouring in.

The music on hold on these boards played "The sting from film"

Needless to say these banks and building societies were none too happy, so we had to go and change the chips to greensleeves I think it was

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when the telephone service was opened up under privatisation other companies were allowed to do installations in companies ie switchboards.

Sounds a good idea?

The thing was we as BT engineers were not allowed to connect our phone lines into their private junction boxes and they wern't allowed into ours.

So there was a company with a telephone system but neither side allowed to connect the lines to each other
that was very soon resolved and a very high level
of management and government

Re: Funny work story

I joined the GPO in 1963 as a YIT but ended up as a TO on transmission and rmicrowave radio. Spent a few years working in ETW2.3 at the PO Tower on microwave radio. Bletchley Park and Stone were like second homes

In Australia I started off with the PMG but found it paid considerably more working for private companies like AWA and STC installing crossbar PABXs. Spent some time out in the bush working as a linesman in the days of OH copper.

I always felt the title 'GPO Engineer' was overstating it a bit. Last worked in Telecoms in about 1975 when I entered the power industry. I blame the Bletchley instructor that kept telling us a condenser belonged in a steam engine because I then spent 30 years working on and around steam engines and boilers.

Re: Funny work story

I joined BT in 1972 as a T2B then as a T2A when i was sufficiently qualified to work without help. The Morris Minor was the first van I had and it was fitted with an engine governor to stop it going over 30MPH oh and fitted with rubber wheel arches

Re: Funny work story

Sadly I owned one fortunately not with the rubber wings (though I drove plenty that were). I don't know why they fitted a governor (they were only a restriction between the carbie and the engine) because it only had the series 2 803cc engine.

Here is mine in the car park at Stone in 1969.

Re: Funny work story

I worked for the GPO in the days when STD still meant 'Subscriber Trunk Dialing' !

Re: Funny work story

Oh dear old Stone .I went there once on some course about number of calls waiting display at a BT exchange. Something to do with setting it all up I vaguely remember. never came to anything back at my yard in Surrey.

But the meals!!!! something else!!!! Hot breakfast - mid morning feed break- midday hot food-mid afternoon snack- evening meal another hot meal- then for residents a late evening snack. The weight I put on in that week of staying there, must have put on a good few pounds.

Still remember the van reg
BVB 665. Why on earth should I remember that?

There was the old joke about "How do you stop an elephant stampede?"

you make a trunk call and reverse the charge

Re: Funny work story

Another time a pal and me in a vauxhall viva van each we had a job at what was John Jacobs golf centre at Sandown race course. As you go into Esher you go into a one way system, or used to be. So there we were "erm racing" side by side but at the end of the one way road was a policeman. So he waved us down and being "norty" we said we had an emergency and he let us go.

Yes those were the days before it all went private and things tightened up

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When BT went private the vehicles were no longer classed as "crown vehicles" and therefore park anywhere even in high streets.

So in Wimbledon the traffic wardens were having a field day with BT vehicles. Well all us bloke from all sections got a bit fed up with this, but we could go to the traffic wardens office for exeption tickets allowing us to park for certain jobs .

One day we all decided to go there en masse. You can imagine the traffic holdups with 30 to 40 BT vans waiting to get these tickets.

The wardens we told to back off and leave us alone. No more parking ticket were issued after that to us

Re: Funny work story

My first job, Silver Tabby . Still had press button A or B in some of the far out exchanges. We also had the Irish Service to contend with.
That was a hoot. Nearly always 'personal calls' due to the fact that on most calls there was only one phone in the Irish villages. Usually in the pub, which would be a grocers during the day. (you think I joke ) It's true. On getting through to the number, it would be a case of waiting for Mrs O'Brien to get to the phone after running down the street at a rate of knots, out of breath and only just about able to speak.

We could also monitor calls, The red light would flash on the switchboard, and we'd be told to plug into junction no 23 ( or whatever it was) SO we'd all eagerly plug in , and listen to the latest in saucy phone calls. Quite meagre by todays standards though. Some very funny.
One I remember was a couple and I came in at the end , only to hear " well, if it's that bloody long, wrap it around your neck and choke yourself with it "!
Only young and still a virgin.

Re: Funny work story

One of my first 'jobs' when I was working/training in a telephone exchange was soldering the 'grading' for the incoming new and wonderful STD and GRACIE (Group Routing And Charging Equipment - or something like that).

Grading was like bank cleaning in the old step by step exchanges - something no one in their right mind would want to do.

My favourite job was upstairs repairing cords on the manual switchboard and chatting to the girls (I was only 16/17) who were basically doing the jobs that STD killed

Another job I really enjoyed was jointing with the underground gangs. For some reason I found that really satisfying. In those days the cables were all lead covered, paper insulated wires with anything from 2 to 500 pairs of wires. Joining cables together then plumbing them up with lead was a very satisfying job I thought.

As a YIT (Youth in Training) I spent three years learning all these jobs, overhead wiring, subs installations, subs maintenance, underground cabling, exchange work, planning... This whole lot was straight after leaving school, which I hated, I thought it was a wonderful life - enjoyed every minute.

Re: Funny work story

I'll tell you a funny work story to get the thread back on track. I was working in the transmission station under Dover Castle and sitting in our meal room which overlooked Dover Harbour.

We were watching a Royal Navy ship manoeuvring itself into place ready to drop anchor. One of the TOs (Technical Officers) mentioned that it was close to where our cross channel cables went out to France.

No sooner had he finished speaking than the ship dropped it bow and stern anchors - our alarm board lit up like a Christmas Tree. The bow anchor had severed one cable, the stern anchor another cable. We spend the rest of the day organising the rerouting of the cross channel lines until the GPO cable ship had found the damaged cables and repaired them.

Those cables lived an interesting life - after a storm they were either stretched taut like a violin strung (they were anchored to the sea wall) or looped up on the beach and an underground gang had to spend the day burying them.

I also worked briefly at the local microwave repeater station at Tolsford Hill where the Eurovision TV links crossed the channel. During the filming of The Longest Day (I think it was) they had Spitfires, Hurricanes and Messerschmitts zooming about the Hawkinge area when one plane strayed too close to one of the stays holding our aerial mast up. The pilot must have seen the wire at the last minute because it was the nearest you have ever seen to a plane doing a hop, skip and a jump in the air - it looked very funny.