atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems Antique Telephones Collection

This is part of my Western Electric pink collection. It was on display a few years ago at an ATCA show in Connecticut. Since then, I have added a few more items.

Nice Arthur , whats the small 500 ?

I have a aqua 500 pen holder that looks to be about the same size but I don't see a pen holder on yours

I tell people that's what happens when you put a 500 in the dishwasher.

Seriously, it's a pen holder, without its pen, but the photo is not that great. The weird shadows are from a plexiglass cover to protect against sticky fingers.

The phone at the bottom left is my favorite. It's one of about three known to exist. My Ebay handle is 2565HK-59, by the way.

Arthur, have you ever seen the salesman's display case of phones? It's a bunch of mini 500s that look the same size as yours. They have one hanging up right outside my dad's office..
I don't consider myself a collector of much other than junk, but I do have some decent WE phones...a few 500s in various colors, 2500s in various colors, a 1500 I snagged for like 5 bucks, and my personal favorite, the 302 my dad's friend gave to him. It sits prominently in our family room but is missing the dial card and holder. Anybody know where I might be able to get one?

Arthur, is it shadow or are several of the phones a slightly darker shade of pink? Any how, neat display. Now, how about the miniature ferrolinquology display. John C.

Jeff, yes I have seen those salesmen's sets. They are fascinating, especially the early ones with the very early colors that were discontinued. I can send you a number card holder. Let me know where to send it.

Horse, The top two model 302 sets are darker than all the others. Actually, one is a 302, and the other is a rare variant, the 305, that has a ringer cut-off key at the lower left corner. They are made in "Old Rose" color suffix -16.

The bottom row, 2565HK-59, 510A/B-59, and 565HK-59 are all the same color as the rest of the newer stuff ("Rose Pink" color suffix -59.) It's just a shadow that makes them appear darker.

None of these is painted. They are all factory -59.

Arthur, PM Sent...thanks

That's a real nice collection of phones you have there.

I don't remember ever seeing MTS offer that colour here in Manitoba when they were renting sets.

I do have a question though, does anyone make coloured telephones anymore? I remember back in the 70's seeing all sorts of colours in my friends parents houses that matched their decor.

All I see now are ash, ivory and black for desk and wall phones. Red I know is still available for emergency phones.

Even the decorator lines like the Nortel Contempra have gone away.

I know that system deregulation here in Canada and the US hurt Nortel and Western Electric to the point they got out of production, but I thought somebody would have taken up the slack for unique residential sets.

Everybody can't want the $10 offshore special from Wal-Mart can they?

Like you said, you can probably still get red phones from Cortelco and the like...that's about it I think. I wanted an orange 2500 set so I got a can of spray paint

Arthur, I had my wife convinced they didn’t make pink phones. She saw your collection and now “we gotta get one.”

JimmyV....you were right....they don't.....anymore.

mbhydro....the reason is simple economics. The Contempra is the perfect example. Consider that there were 7 or 9 colours (I forget which) for each model, Dial & T/Tone. That's 14-18 colours for one series alone. Multiply that by the number of I&R vehicles, Storerooms, the Phone Stores, Teleboutiques, Phone Centers, Lockers, Bell Warehouses, stock at Nortel itself, etc. Then add in those that are in transit somewhere, on the "CR" or "CU" lines at Nortel, add again those used by splicers, C/R men, Co men etc just because they wanted one for a line between manholes, etc.....and on and on and on....

You get the idea....

For the poor Joe Blow Installer/Repairman, never failed, the client ALWAYS wanted the one that you didn't have on the truck.

I have no idea how it worked in Manitoba, but here in Bell Canada territory, as long as Bell charged a premium for a coloured set, it wasn't too bad, but once they removed the extra charge everyone wanted a coloured set. In my last years at Bell, most wanted to go back to black. Why? Black doesn't show the usage marks as much. Go figure....

MooreTEL

I remember the extra charge MTS had for colour sets. I think it was around $1.00 a month back in the 70's. I can't remember if MTS got rid of the colour rental up charge before they stopped renting new phones.

I know an older lady that is still renting a blue NT SOLO because as she says: " if it breaks MTS will send a man to my house with a new phone".

I wonder why AASTRA can't dust off the classic set plans they received when they acquired Nortel's telephone plants and make a limited edition retro collectors line for sale.

mb, I can think of 2 reasons that are connected, sorta. 1 Canada like the U.S. probably CAN'T make them anymore because all the plastic molding/injection equipment has been shipped to the 'Far East'. 2 It costs a LOT of money to rent production line time and no one wants to manufacture 'limited interest' stuff. Too risky and long time to turn a profit! John C.

Ok, so what is MTS?

MTS = Manitoba Telephone System or something to that effect...

John C. is right on the money.....like I said economics.

Nortel stopped making common jacks years ago because the machine that made the sliding door broke and it wasn't worth the cost to fix it. Ever since, Bell Canada has been buying their common jacks from a competitor (Rova), who was making something very similar. Nortel still makes their "BIX" line as well their "DVO" jack inserts and plates, though.

Dave, I thought Nordx makes the BIX and MDVO stuff?

Manitoba Telecom Services

Its the ILEC for Manitoba Canada and its celebrating 100 years of service this year.

They also have a CLEC division called Allstream that does business customers in other parts of Canada.

To everybody else thanks for the information on making limited edition sets. I forgot that the tooling had moved offshore years ago.

edit - spelling more info

as for old rotary 500 and 554's there are so many floating around and cortelco is still making the shells so you can get a brand new rotary 500 for pretty cheap, thats how i got my red one

Some of us collectors have put together a list of all known WE color suffixes. (In transporting the document from a Word format to a plain text document for inclusion in this message, the collumnation and other stuff got messed up. The UPPER CASE word is the main name, and the lower case word is the modifier.) Enjoy!

WESTERN ELECTRIC COLOR SUFFIX LIST

CODE DESCRIPTION APPLICATION BSP REFERENCE

- GRAY, beige 200-KTU cabinet C53.152
- GRAY, french 205 hand tel set 548-500-410
- IVORY 205 hand tel set 548-500-410
3 BLACK tel sets
4 IVORY tel sets, wiring, cords C36.101 (B) NY
5 GRAY
6 BRASS, old 205 hand tel set 548-500-110
7 BRONZE, statuary 205 hand tel set 548-500-110
8 SILVER, oxidized 205 hand tel set 548-500-110
9 BROWN wiring
10 (BROWN) ?
11 GOLD medium 202 tel set catalogue #9
12 GOLD dark 302 tel set C36.101 (B) NY
13
14
15
16 ROSE, old 302 tel set C36.101 (B) NY
17
18 BLUE, dark 302 tel set C36.101 (B) NY
19 GREEN, gray 302 tel set C36.101 (B) NY
20 RED, pekin 302 tel set C36.101 (B) NY
21
22
23
24
25
26 GREEN, olive 50-type KTU’S C53.152
27 WALNUT 50-type KTU’S C53.152
28
29 TRANSPARENT
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40 GREEN, grey wrinkle
41
42 BEIGE wiring
43 BEIGE 608 PBX
44 CHROME 1-type coin tel set 506-410-400
45 GREEN,grey textured vinyl
46
47
48
49 GRAY, light olive wiring,misc eq
50 IVORY 500 tel set supply catalogue
51 GREEN, moss 500 tel set “
52 GRAY, oxford 500 tel set “
52 *** IVORY, electrical Suttle Products., Inc. online catalogue ***
53 RED, cherry 500 tel set C18.051.00
54 BROWN, mahogany tel sets supply catalogue
55 BEIGE, dark tel sets “
56 YELLOW ,pastel tel sets “
57 BLUE, teal tel sets “ (mediterranean)
58 WHITE tel sets “
59 PINK, rose tel sets “
60 BEIGE, light tel sets “
61 GRAY tel sets “
62 BLUE, aqua tel sets “
63 GOLD bell chime C18.051.00
64 TURQUOISE tel sets
65
66
67 STEEL, stainless, brushed coin tel sets 506-410-400
68
69 RED, muted 1500/2500 series faceplates 502-515-121
70 CHARCOAL “
71 GREEN, light “
72 YELLOW, light “
73 GRAY, light “
74 PINK, muted “
75 BEIGE, muted “
76 BLUE, muted “
77 TURQUOISE, muted “
78
79
80 IVORY, muted “
81
82 PEARL-GRAY, neutral light 830-series tel set cords. 503-702-101
83 GRAY-BROWN, dark “ ”
84 BRONZE coin tel sets 506-410-400
85
86 ORANGE coin tel set (part)
87 SATIN-SILVER cords
88
89
90
91
92
93 YELLOW sculptura tel set

100 AVOCADO COM KEY 416 faceplate
104 BROWN, chocolate trimline tel set
105 GREEN, dark “
108 TEAK COM KEY 416 / Touch-a-matic faceplate
109 WALNUT “ ” ”
111 GOLD, harvest “ and trimline tel set
112 ORANGE COM KEY 416 faceplate
113 BROWN, textured “
114 RED, bright “ and trimline tel set
115 BLUE, royal “
118 BLACK, textured “
122 ALUMINUM, matte Touch-a-matic 32 faceplate 503-603-101
123 YELLOW, butter noteworthy tel set
124 RUST trimline tel set
139 GRAY, charcoal “
142 BLUE, midnight “
143 BURGUNDY “
144 CINNIBAR “
145 BLUE, teal “
146 TEABERRY, dark “
147 APRICOT, creamy “
170 MOCHA “


215 CREAM, misty Spirit Key Tel
226 GREEN Jacks
235 ASH, light
245 BROWN, electrical
246 IVORY, electrical
262 WHITE Systemax (jacks)
264 WHITE, oxford or AT&T
270 GRAY

302 GREEN, forest Trimline
303 YELLOW, sun “
305 BLUE, country “
PEACH “
BLUE, slate “


GRAY, ultra light “
317 RED JACK
318 BLUE
323 GREY, dust dark Partner Tel Sets

361 VIOLET




-305 = "Country Blue" 500, 2500, 554, Trimline, Trimline
Signature and 2554 sets from about 1990 to about 1996.
-115 = "Royal Blue" Single slot pay phones
-145 = "Teal Blue" 2500, 2702 princess and trimlines
from about 1983 to about 1990
-293 = "Slate Blue" 2702 Princess, 2500 Signature,
from about 1990 to about 1996.



2-tone Metal 302s in early 500-series colors (1954-57)
-50A Ivory
-51A Moss Green
-52A Gray
-53A Red
-54A Brown
-55A Beige
-56A Yellow
-57A Blue

Anybody (else) remember the Stromberg-Carlson sets with the swirled colors?

As I recall they had an accident in the plant and a bunch of colors got mixed up. They were going to throw the whole batch out and then decided to try and sell them. I believe they were a real success. Probably collectors items now.

Sam

I remember those, they were sooo neat that, when the Code-A-Phone dealership, I worked for, became a factory approved repair center for Telco's, I took a cue. The Telco CAP 'home system' that a lot of smaller telcos rented to customers included a Trimline base, without the cover, and handset. The base was mounted inside the CAP and the cover had a built-in well that mimicked the Trimline base cover. We traded in a lot of these things, they were real DOGS, hard to repair and unreliable when new, at best. They went into the scrap pile, where we cannabalized parts. (Factory was running out of parts) Anyhow, I grabbed all the phones. There were all the typical Trimline colors. I ordered a bunch of appropriate color base covers, as well as handset backs and fronts. Some of my most popular 'garage sale' phones were the 'Ice Cream' phones. I'd use a white, or green handset front, with brown back and base cover. made some decent change with that little basement business! John C.

Was Code-A-Phone just an independent manufacturer of phones? I've never heard of them...

Code-A-Phone was an independent manufacturer of automatic answering equipment dating back into the 1960's (help me Arthur). They made it under license with Western Electric for the Bell companies to lease/rent. Later on, they branched out into making consumer-level answering machines and other products like disposable phones.

Dang, Ed, Code-A-Phone, a blast from the past....Installed many answering devices produced by them. :thumb:

Actually, the C-A-P 700 was designed and built by Ford Industries, (Which eventually changed its name to C-A-P) and sold to Western Electric. They also sold to the independent Telcos, factory direct and thru North Supply. I do not remember the model number of the C-A-P with the Trimline, but other models they made before about 1970 were the 400, 505/506, & 540, that had acoustic couplers that mounted on 500/2500 phone and actually operated the hookswitch. Some of these would also work through a KS19522 Coupler and other coupling devices, all of which were strictly electronic. They actually began selling 'direct connect equipment' to the general public, "in selected areas" about 1970. That was about the time the battery operated 'Phone Mate', that supposedly could generate enough power to 'knock a Telco employee off a pole' hit the market (It ran on 6 'D' cells), and the whole subject of 'Customer Provided Equipment' and 'COUPLERS' (shudder) really took off. It was an interesting time, we sold NEW Code-A-Phone 700s for about what a customer could lease a well used one from the Telco for, same monthly payment. But, we knew how it worked and what all the options did. The poor telco guy got to install 1 a year, if he was unlucky enough, with a BSP that was misleading at best. But, we also sold units that wern't so 'industrial' and some of them let you get your messages from across town, if you had your CODE-KEY. Ah, well, water under the bridge. C-A-P is probably bankrupt and long gone by now. John C.