Fact, fiction or fantasy,

One question I am often asked is what ever happened to those two items featured in past distant issues that were to be the answer to all the railway problems, Dr Lipra Olof and his interocitor and the Rural Radio telephone system, the answer is I have no idea, both appear to be lost causes. If anyone has the answer I would be delighted to know. Incidentally the most frequently asked question is from Howard; “shall we go for a cup of tea?”

Learn to keep quiet.

Mention was made in the past issue of some surplus 100 pair cable that had been sold to the Festiniog railway, FR from henceforth. Enquiring on a visit in September what had happened to it, they had had it for nearly a year. I was told “nothing”, it was explained that another cable needed jointing before the ex Mid-Hants cable could be installed (the explanation comes later) and there no-one to do it. What happened then is still subject to some abject debate, in passing I said I could have jointed the cable but it appears I was mis-heard. Several days later back at home I received a phone call from Mr. T. FRs telecom engineer, “ I sent you an e-mail, your offer to joint the cable, how soon can you do it?” Obviously I had been totally mis-understood but never mind, several weeks later in October saw me departing to wilder parts of the principality armed with useful jointing bits courtesy of Acme Supplies. At the time I considered it a great honour to be asked to help out, only later did I discover the person who was supposed to doing the job, Mrs Myfanwy Parry-Jones had a previous engagement with the Garn-Doldenmaen over 90s synchronised line dancing team and was unavailable.
The cabling changes planned are a little involved, sometime ago a 12 copper pair cable containing also optical fibres was laid across the Cob from Harbour Station to Boston Lodge or it may have been the other way, regardless of which it links these two locations. The circuits from an existing 15 pair cable will be transferred to the 12 pair cable and then it will be recovered from a cable duct, in its place will go the 100 pair cable. Believe me 15 will go into 12. Eventually the 12 pair cable will be re-jointed to include the fibres but the main task on this occasion was to get the copper pairs through to allow removal of the 15 pair cable etc. If one has to do cable jointing sitting on the Cob on a warm autumn afternoon is the place to be; it beats Sun Lane cutting anytime for views also it makes a change to do some positive work on a cable instead of attempting to keep our faulty cables in service. . Several weeks later FR staff successfully transferred the circuits from the 15 pair cable.
By knowing the right people a phone call can be made arranging for the train to stop in section and drop refreshments off, quite how the order of 2 teas and one coffee turned into 2 coffees with no sugar I am still not certain, at least the thought was there. To save any further confusion “Yes Alan I did say when the 100 pair cable is installed I would be happy to give a hand jointing it”.

Going pear shaped.

Imagine the scene, early Friday afternoon on the day before the August Thomas event, all was well on the good ship Mid Hants Telecom, your gallant scribe, having just partaken of an all day breakfast in the buffet, well recommended ( by the way what happened to my piece of fried bread?) had decided that it was time to call it a day and return to port. Starting to set a steady course for home there was a frantic cry “Ahoy shipmate, the swipe machine at Ropley marquee is not working“
This statement was considered most odd, only the previous week the extras required had been checked and all then was ship shape and Bristol fashion. Enough of this nautical nonsense.
The phone had been fitted in the new T junction building, the cable from the old one carefully removed and put to one side for re-use was noticeable by its absence. Luckily there was a length of armoured telephone cable in the car, I hasten to add I do not carry this sort of thing as a matter of course, it being an odd bit en-route to the store. Being armoured should make it more of a challenge to those who like to cut, strim or set fire to cables but no doubt they will succeed admirably.
The mobile booking office had been reconnected to the outside world, its cable being cut so it could go elsewhere during the winter, a Caribbean cruise I believe. The marquee was provided with a couple of proper extension leads that plugged into proper sockets in a portacabin with strict instructions if things took their normal course and the leads were lost I for one would not be replacing them for the next event.

On arrival at Ropley it was found that the swipe machines did not work either in the marquee or the mobile booking office. Nothing wrong with the exchange the new type swipe machines that had recently been supplied would not work via it, this was the first time one had been tried at Ropley. Eighteen hours before a Thomas event is a good time to find you have a major problem. A phone call was made to the swipe machine help desk, question “is our switch (exchange) compatible with these new swipe machines” “Yes and no” came the really helpful reply. Deciding that “no” was the best avenue to pursue drastic measures were taken, both exchange lines were disconnected from the switch, one connected direct to the marquee swipe and the other to the booking office swipe. Extensions on the switch could not access external lines for the duration of the event. There had been no problems in the past with the previous swipe machines working on our switch, so much for progress.
It was also discovered that the new swipe machine at Alton did not like the phone system it was connected to, again the older type machine had caused no problems.
The cost to the railway to replace the switch at Alton was over £800 excluding labour charges, all unnecessary expense.
Around the same the small switch at Medstead decided to pack up, wonderful! the external phone systems at three stations now needed replacing.

Finally.

Wishing all users and abusers of the phone system a Happy New Year.

Issue 116 Spring 2003  Ed Net? Never heard of him!

Just before the opening of the Alresford goods shed I was one of those involved in running a cable from the aforesaid mentioned building and the main station building. Mention of this work no doubt featured in a rambling in a previous edition of this august publication. Until very recently I thought this cable was for a computer, it being the sort of cable these machines use in data networks, just the other day I was informed by our IT department ( Phil )that the cable was for Ed Net. I know I am getting a little ancient and my memory isn’t what it was, umm, err now what was I on about? Oh yes, Ed Net, I couldn’t place the face. Ed the Confessor yes, incidentally he had a sword called Curtana, read that in the paper the other day, Ed the duck, maybe. Ed Net, no.
Further enquiries revealed EdNet was part of CressNet, again who?
Not who but what, CressNet created by Phil is the computer network that is spreading hydra like through the offices at Alresford, EdNet is part of this cat 5 cable network and is the link into the Edward Knight Centre wherever that is. I thought it went to the goods shed.

Oops? No UPS.

A chance conversation one day while at work resulted in the donation of 2 very nice UPSs, ( un-interruptible power supplies ) the larger of the two backs up the switch handling the external lines at Alresford while the other smaller unit is doing a similar job at Ropley, the small UPS that had been working at Alresford has gone to Alton for further service. The old key and lamp units had been retained in the offices as a possible back up system should there be a mains failure as they ran from the exchange batteries, the introduction of the large UPS made possible future use of the KLUs very unlikely indeed and when Phil wanted to run yet more of his computer cables through some congested trunking containing 3 large KLU cables the decision was taken to recover the system. Around a dozen KLUs were recovered in a very short amount of time I seem to remember it took me a lot longer to put them into service all those years ago.

Gang of three.

As last year drew to a conclusion I was asked if it would be a lot of work to move the phones between a couple of offices as the accounts department had nomadic urges and wanted to up desks and relocate, being asked by such a charming person how could one say the job could create even the slightest of problems, remember always keep in with those holding the purse strings.
Before the planned move, the date was very vague, maybe after St. Olaf the Unjusts day but definitely before Micklemass, perhaps. Howard, Phil and myself would on a Saturday tackle one office at a time and provide cables for the computer network ( Cressnet ) and install new sockets for the phone system, at the same time old redundant cables installed over the past 20 odd years were recovered. After managing to drag the other two struggling from the buffet within a short time an office could be turned into mayhem, furniture shifted, cables being run and trunking installed, by the end of the day all was restored to normal and at the start of the working week no one knew we had been there, apart from a waste paper bin full of old bits of wire, our calling card. One Friday at the end of February saw the offices swapped over, all went well. In the week leading up to the move the final home for the FAX changed at least four times, hopefully it is now in its final home. One advantage with modern phone systems extension location changes is simply a matter of reprogramming from a phone

If you are on of those who ponder over life’s great mysteries such as where do flies go in winter, why do buses come along in threes, here is the answer to where do all the paper clips go, on the floor behind Sues desk in the old accounts office, there were enough there to keep a small Civil Service department happy for many a month. The four main offices had work undertaken; the job was so successful that when we finished it was thought a good idea to start all over again. Similar re-cabling work was also undertaken in the information office, booking office and station inspectors office over the course of a couple of months.

I say, I say, why did the chicken cross the track?

I have had several suggestions about these jottings, ramblings, call them what you wish. Among the printable ones is first more pictures, no doubt based on the logic the more space they take up the less room for words and second more humour hence the heading to this piece, the problem is I cannot remember the punch line. If you know the answer don’t call us.
For around five years ago the building department have wanted to remove the signal post telephone equipment cabinet at Medstead to a new location, five summers have come and gone, an ideal time to do any wiring work outside. So the cabinet was moved in the middle of this winter, not an ideal time to do wiring work outside. The opportunity has been taken to show the contents of the cabinet to a curious public and also fill the requirement of some pictures, unfortunately the pictures have taken the space of the really interesting scandal that I was going to disclose. Shame, it was an interesting story.

The stuff of nightmares

I was reminded of something the other day, it had seemed a bad dream but I am assured it did happen. Last year I was sub contracted by Acme Jointing Services to assist with some cable work on the Festiniog Railway, on arrival at midday it was decided to have something to eat before starting the job. On entering Spooners, FRs buffet one was instantly harangued by Mr and Mrs Higgs, what were they doing here? Is there no getting away from the Mid-Hants? I won’t mention who is the better at the rhetoric. Before we go further I must dispel the rumour that telecom activities involve considerable amounts of time spent in places of refreshment. Take a recent case, one Saturday morning someone wanted me and not knowing my whereabouts or even if I was at the railway rang the buffet by chance to see if I was there which by coincidence I was, when they wanted me a second time half an hour later it was again a coincidence I was still there. Getting back to the FR, after pleasantly passing the time of day with Mr and Mrs Presidento they spotted another hapless victim entering whom they decided to inflict their double act on. Excuses were made and a strategic retreat made to the food. Later we went a mile up the track to do the jointing; at least it would be quiet there. Wrong, there was no escape, later we witnessed wild gesticulating from a passing train, good old Robin, what a trooper.

Issue 117 Summer 2003 I give up

Sunday 20th April was an auspicious day. I decided to retire from my post as the Railway’s chief runner of telephone cables through roof spaces. The day in question again saw the combined efforts of the telephone and IT departments. The object was to reposition a line that was going to be connected to BT broadband. Originally located in one office, it needed to go to another where its host computer was to be situated. Whilst being in the main station building loft for the umpteenth time in my life, I decided I was too old for this game of soldiers and certain I was being selfish in depriving others of the chance of crawling through roof spaces in the half dark, hence the decision. Chances to see parts of the Railway few others get the chance to visit or possibly even want to. Several members of staff have been approached about taking on this prestigious job and I am awaiting their reply; a few months have now passed and they haven’t got back to me. I wonder if I should assume something from that. Unfortunately, the retirement appears short-lived as further work in roof spaces has since been undertaken.

The broadband line was connected in June. In the early days of this service being introduced in this part of the world I was involved in installing a number but now is the first time I have had the chance to play with one to see what it is capable of and it is really impressive, makes a 56K modem seem very pedestrian, well worth having. That’s the end of the advertising bit.

Part of the attraction of the Thomas event at Ropley is the commentary given from the picnic area describing attractions in the yard. The master of ceremonies was tied to the public address amplifier by a long lead to their microphone. Some time ago a radio microphone was suggested to allow the commentator freedom to move around but it was only this year has a new system been introduced, just in time for the Easter event.
A new amplifier, CD player and radio microphones were installed in the new T-junction building, Phil doing most of the work. I understand all went well; it appears there have been some outlandish suggestions about changes involving connecting this system with the platform speakers but, as this could be very contentious, we have kept ourselves distanced from any discussions on the matter.
After the Easter event we happened to be sitting outside the buffet, partaking in a cuppa, trying to decide were to store the equipment between Thomas events or of any other use it could be put to, when Chris Cornell (facility manager or FacMan) said a PA system would be useful in the goods shed. A site visit was made and it was decided if the speaker wires were run at high level along a beam in trunking, an inconspicuous system could be installed. The equipment could go in the plant room, doubling as a storage location between use at Ropley. The height of the beams in the goods shed meant the use of a ladder. At this point Phil said he didn’t like working up
ladders; this is when alarm bells should have rung. The work was arranged for the following weekend.
Saturday arrived but Phil didn’t; he had been struck down with flu, green monkey fever or something that prevented him assisting. Never mind, faint heart, etc, carry on regardless. The plastic trunking came rolled up in a cardboard box, in theory a very practical way of handling a long length of trunking. In practice, as soon as it was Out of the box it promptly wanted to coil itself back up. When working from the top of a ladder, 15 feet up, this created a few problems. Struggling valiantly, single handed, the job was completed. It is understood that some of those who hire the goods shed have used this new facility.

Ropley signal box

Back in the mists of time, possibly 1995, a temporary phone system was fitted in Ropley signal box. It was only intended for a short period of use as the exNetley box would be shortly placed in service and the permanent replacement installed.
Early this year the temporary equipment (still in use) was causing considerable maintenance problems. The existing signal box housed the phone and a small key and lamp unit; the keys of this have plastic separators between the contact springs. These separators were breaking, causing the springs to fall apart, requiring the key to be changed, over a dozen soldered wires per key to swap all in a restricted space. The relays were in the new signal box; one never knows what to expect when visiting this location. It has become a general dumping ground for the Railway and a safety hazard. There are all sorts of interesting items you can trip or fall over, along with the dismal lighting and collapsing handrails, loose floor boards, definitely not the place to work on relays.
Downstairs in the locking room the main distribution point had suffered the same fate as its brother had at Alton; it was rotting away and was causing faults. What was needed was an urgent upgrade of the equipment in the box. The main criteria were it needing doing in a hurry, using equipment we had available and at no cost to the budget. A while back, we had had donated a small Panasonic switch that was going to be installed for the external line at Alton; other events resulted in it remaining in store.
A new distribution point was fitted on the upper floor of the signal box away from the damp and the opportunity taken to run a larger sized cable back to the exchange, doubling the number of cable pairs available. The Panasonic switch was installed, replacing most of the functions of the key and lamp unit, at
least all the circuits with faulty keys. This arrangement solved the short-term
maintenance problem, but all was not happy in the camp. I have been informed by a reliable source that a lot of e-mails have been passed between the signalmen. For reasons unknown they are not happy with the new arrangement. What the problems are I have no idea as those complaining are keeping it to themselves. We have not been approached and until someone tells us what the problem is, if there is one, we can do nothing about it. If some are having problems operating a very simple telephone, one wonders how they manage a signalling installation which the public’s safety depends on.

A Cable Poser

The cable between Alresford and Medstead has been buried and the badly burnt bits replaced. We now have some outstanding faults to locate which we intend to start as the weather improves. The go- ahead to order the replacement Alton to Medstead cable has been given. We were undecided whether to go for armoured cable or un-armoured cable and install it in duct.
The armoured cable we had a quote for, more expensive than ordinary cable, turned out to be not suitable for burying directly in the ground. The price of “proper” armoured was assumed to be so frightening that it was not investigated. As we had a considerable amount of duct already in stock, planned to be used for the cable that was stolen, ordinary cable and duct will be used. This is a time consuming job but no doubt all those wanting to see the new Alton system in service will be coming to give a hand. We must wait and see. I for one will not be holding my breath.

H, take a bow

Special thanks must go to Howard who seems at present to get all the unenviable jobs. As part of some changes taking place at Alresford, one Saturday he spent a considerable amount of time in the loft above the telephone exchange connecting a large cable. At least he didn’t have the wasps for company. The following weekend saw him jammed in the corner of the exchange terminating another bundle of cables.
I have been taken to task in that past articles could give the impression that H, as he is known, spends all his time in the West Country buffet. This is clearly not true. He goes home at the end of the day; I have seen him drive off. I must apologise for any upset that may have been caused to such a gentleman of the highest order.

Issue 118 Autumn 2003 Ring, ring Its not for you.

In the early days the railway had the phone connected at Alresford, then known as 3810 ( STD code 096273, for number chrunchers) Later on a second line was required and due to the technology of the public exchange it was not possible to have two line with the same number accordingly a separate number was given, number X. The two numbers appeared on the railways publicity but with the introduction of the local digital exchange it was possible to have more than one line on 733810 as it had then become. This number became the main number for the general public and the other number stopped being used in publicity material, becoming ex-directory. For a number of years number X was used for outgoing calls and incoming calls to those in the know.
A while ago there was a requirement for a direct incoming number to the buffet and number X was used for this. As it had been unlisted for a long time there shouldn’t be any calls incoming from the public, or so we innocently thought. On introduction of the service as well as genuine calls to the buffet there were a lot of calls from the public wanting train information. What the culinary artists certainly didn’t want when serving up a portion of Spam, spam, spam, beans and spam was a query as to the price of a single ticket from Medstead to Ropley for a dog on a Thursday if there was a full moon or the other daft things callers ask.
The callers were sometimes asked where they got the number from but we never discovered, some said directory enquiries this was checked but number X was not listed, all sorts of leads were checked but with no success. It was assumed that someone had used old stationary with the number on it or had written it down a long time ago.
To try and resolve this problem the Panasonic exchange was reprogrammed, instead of a going direct to the buffet the call was now answered by the exchange, a message gave the caller the extension numbers of the buffet, enquiries or the talking timetable and they could select which they required. This simple change stopped all the stray calls to the buffet, however if the buffet did not answer the call in 20 seconds or the caller did nothing the system diverted it to a predetermined extension, this facility was built into the switch and could not be stopped, the person now getting the stray calls didn’t want them either. Stage 2 saw the message changed, the caller was informed the number was for the buffet only and for all other enquiries to redial 733810, this still resulted in stray calls getting through. Stage 3 saw a further change and routes the non buffet calls to an answer machine which tells the caller there is no one to answer the call and a message cannot be left.
The original simple solution when implemented has caused additional problems, recent information points to a publication that may list the number, enquiries continue.
Vote with your feet

Mention is often made of getting new volunteers and keeping existing ones. Some drift away never to be seen again and often the question is asked why. Could it be someone says something and the volunteer decides they have better things they can do with their free time and off they go into the sunset.
.
Here is an example,

Over the course of a month two of us, H and myself changed all the circuits on the main distribution frame at Alresford to a modern connection box, being volunteers some of the work had to be unfortunately done during the day on a live system. Swift calculations showed over 600 pairs of wire were terminated and there were a few faults, quickly resolved.

Early one Saturday several weeks after the work had been completed I was sat in one of the offices sorting out some paper work when someone walked in and said “are you messing about with the phones”. Obviously someone who failed the “tact and diplomacy” course. If we wanted to “mess up” the phones we need not spend weeks working to achieve the task, on entry to the telephone exchange all service could completely “messed up” in a couple of minutes not just a few odd extensions. People who make inane remarks like this are regarded by me with contempt, they have no idea what is involved and as far as I am concerned are a complete waste of space. However those of a more delicate disposition may think “is it really worth bothering, there must be better ways I could be spending my spare time, maybe bee keeping or bomb disposal”. Remember the old maxim “engage brain before opening mouth”.

What else?

Following the outstanding response for a volunteer to be the official cable runner through lofts mentioned in a previous issue we have decided to keep the post in house, Muggins can still be relied on.

Another job saw me sub contracting to the sub contractor ( Phil ) who was installed the PA system in the new Bar Car, a bit of a last minute rush saw the work needing to be completed as the coach was due out on the main line the following day.
The benefit of being that far down the pecking order is that if all goes wrong there are others higher to take the blame.

A really pitiful sight is to see a member of the catering staff aimlessly wandering around with an order for food, rapidly getting cold, looking for who ever has
The redundant PA amp from the Ropley Thomas event has been installed in the buffet allowing the staff to advise those in the local area that their food is ready, “come in number 47, your chips are getting cold”.
It is intended to allow the system to play back ground music but at the moment this has been deferred, due to lack of time and a heated debate about the music that is suitable between, Mrs M – Led Zepplin and the MD – Vera Lynn.

Favourite pair.

If it was a Monday and I was in Alresford I liked to visit Mary and Nick in the information office. One could be always assured of exciting repartee and sophisticated conversation, so memorable were these chats is that the only one I can remember is when Nick went off on a tangent and gave a dialogue about the animals in Baghdad zoo, how we entered that topic is still a mystery. If one was feeling particularly mischievous one would amble into the office and innocently mention what an excellent job the EU, or what ever the riff- raff in Brussels call themselves these days, were doing. Nick would go ballistic, after lighting the touch paper you could then aimlessly wander off on your way. Sadly this is no longer to be. Only a couple of days before his un-timely death I had shown him part of the leaflet just printed for the railways Wizard Week, “come and see the witch and her cauldron in the buffet” or words to that effect, “what a dreadful thing to put about an venerable member of staff” I said. Nick thought it hilarious; he will be sadly missed.

Issue 119 Winter 2003/4 Are You Being Served?

As Bob Dylan once sang and for all I know he still does, “The times are a-changing.” This certainly applies to the room that houses the telephone exchange at Alresford. Once the sole domain of twentieth century Strowger telephone equipment it is rapidly filling up with modern technology as back up for the office computer network “CressNet”. The main item recently introduced is a server; connected to the network it allows off site back up of data for the office computers. It is capable of doing lots of clever things, most of them I do not understand, but one of the more interesting ones it can do is, if it detects a fault, it can send a text message to someone to tell them.
The server has the broadband service connected to it and this meant shifting its associated exchange line. It had only been in its previous location for a few months. This entailed yet another visit to the roof space above the buffet.
One thing I do for reasons unknown is read inscriptions on war memorials and those little brass plaques that adorn seats. I think that, should I ever justify one of these items, I would like it to be fixed to one of the beams in the buffet. I seem to spend a lot of time there running cables through the roof space and, according to some, the rest of the time downstairs drinking tea, so I feel it an appropriate location. There are more cables to run through the roof as it is planned to run extra links between the server and the offices for additional security plus a link from the network to the buffet,”BufNet” or “CatNet”?
EdNet to the goods shed allows broadband access there; this should be useful for an outside organisation hiring the venue should they wish to give a presentation using the Internet.
Another link planned is to Ropley, to another computer server. Such is the speed of changes on the IT front it could well be in service by the time this is read; in fact, before this piece was completed, a circuit was set up between the two sites to prove the link would work. As it will go via the cable that runs along side the track it is provisionally known as “CessNet”, who said humour is dead. There are now mutterings also of a Ropley to Medstead link.

We’re all doomed

A UPS, uninterruptible power supply, is in service at Alresford, backing up the Panasonic exchange handling the external lines plus the server in the event of a power failure. One day, Phil and myself were musing over a cup of tea, where else but in the buffet, wondering how long the UPS would last if the mains went off. Short of switching the mains off and seeing how long things remained working before falling over, not a very sensible way of finding the answer, the best we could do is come up with a guesstimate.
Several days later our question would be answered. Something at the station caused the mains supply to be tripped out numerous times during the course of the day, leaving the equipment running on the UPS for long periods of time. Eventually, its batteries failed.
Later we interrogated the UPS using a PC and could see the times it was off for. Using this information, the office staff were advised that if they had a mains fail alarm for the telephone exchange they had around 30 minutes to try and sort matters out and not to waste time ringing me as, by the time I got there, all would have failed. At present, the UPS is running the server and two exchanges: in the future, it will only run one exchange and the server will have its own UPS so a longer standby period will be available.
After this incident an additional alarm was provided for the office staff indicating that the UPS output had failed. This means nearly everything is kaput; luckily this has not happened since.
As more items of equipment arrived, a proliferation of mains extension leads developed; this was a far from satisfactory arrangement. Thanks to the discovery of a considerable amount of plastic trunking, back boxes and mains sockets in a local skip, obtained with permission I hasten to add, we have now installed three sets of 240 volts sockets, one set from the telecoms UPS, another for the computer UPS and the final set direct from the mains. The only item that needed to be purchased was some cable costing around £10, a bargain job, much admired by all who have seen it. As, so far, this has been only Phil and myself, and we put it in,we could be slightly biased.
Finally, it was necessary to replace a small workbench with a longer work surface to cater for the room’s new use.

We’ll keep a welcome

Autumn last year saw another visit to the Festiniog Railway; this was to joint the cable we had sold them some time earlier. A regular FR working party had two lengths of cable to install through an existing duct across the Cob, a straight run of I 000m and a tortuous route of 500m, which resulted in the cable ending in the telephone exchange on the first floor of Harbour station. The first joint was completed in nice sunny weather and a note made of the time taken. We were nearly a mile from Harbour station. My co-jointer, Alan Tibbetts, was one of the FR’s controllers so he could ring up and arrange for tea to be dropped off from passing trains, a new service Mrs. M might consider for the Mid-Hants. The cable running party was running into difficulty and the job was behind schedule. While waiting to complete the final joint, spare time was occupied terminating the cable on the distribution frame; this had been planned to be done the following month. Time was running out and, due to the time, light would fail, It was decided that if the cable was not in by four o’clock the jointing work could not be completed and the following day it was time to go home, Oh dear! At a quarter to four the cable was in and it was by now raining, nothing new for Wales. Faint hearts, etc. I wanted to see the job finished so I went out to make a start. My only hope was Alan would be as equally daft and join me. A little later a jointer’s tent was provided. While jointing continued in the tent I asked Alan who kept shaking the tent? It was the wind buffeting it.
With the worsening weather and failing light, joint number two took considerably less time than joint number one. Later that evening the first circuits were connected via the new cable; testing proved we had 100% success, better than some of our attempts on the Mid-Hants. Although this is only a brief mention, it is a more detailed description of the work than appeared in the recent FR magazine.
The FR working party must be admired for their determination. They carried on working in dreadful weather conditions well after the estimated time for the job had long passed. I for one would have given up in desperation long before.

Issue 120 Spring/Summer 2004 Do, Ron, Ron

Apologies to, I am informed by my ancient music advisor Howard (read that how you wish), the Chiffons. Another musical beginning, that’s two in a row, just wait for issue I 2 I; I am going to work Pacabell’s Canon in D minor, a personal favourite, into the heading.
Getting back to present times, the heading refers to Ron, a new volunteer who joined our small team towards the end of 2003 and, no doubt, now an ex volunteer after reading this piece. To “do a Ron” is to tidy up a telecoms site so those of us less tidy pay a visit and are uncertain if we have gone to the correct location. You put something down casually and 18 months later expect it to be in the same place, not tidied up. One day he found the workbench; I always knew it was there somewhere. As he is happy wasting as much time drinking tea as the rest of us he is forgiven.
Ron made the mistake one day of visiting the Alresford information office to donate some magazines. I happened to be there at the time talking to Robin Hughes and reading the second hand magazines. Who said I spent all my time in the buffet? For some reason, as it does, the conversation turned to telephone exchanges as all three of us have at some time worked for the same telephone company. I asked Ron if he wanted to see our exchange; this is when he made his first mistake — he did.
Mistake number two, accepting a visit to the buffet for tea. It must be something they put in the brew, a bit like the Queen’s shilling, as a week later he joined up. One interesting point is how he gets away with calling Mrs. M. ”Ivy” (Last of the Summer Wine). I have known others being barred from the buffet for far less, like stirring their tea anti-clockwise.

Pesky phones

Before going further I must register my hatred for waterproof phones. While some items may be the best thing since sliced bread, waterproof phones are the worse things in creation and I repeat myself in saying I hate them. You spend ages repairing them and still they will not work. My colleagues on the Festiniog call them coffin phones, no doubt on account of their shape. As far as I am concerned, the best place for these phones is at the bottom of a very deep hole.
Ron, bless him, expressed an interest in sorting Out a number of problems with these phones, which he has admirably done. His work along with the replacement of local cabling will reduce the maintenance commitment. A long time ago, and since on numerous occasions, we have successfully proved that if you laid ordinary cable on the surface it does not last; it goes faulty. The signal post phones at three stations had a lot of surface run cables; various short lengths of surplus armoured cable have allowed for the replacement of nearly all this cable.

Wot’s that?

The picture “postcard from Porthmadoc” that appeared in the last issue has some puzzled as there is no explanation as to what it shows. One idea that it shows the first Welsh space probe after it landed on some distant planet with one of the local aliens attempting to communicate with it are totally incorrect. The view is from the Cob looking up the Glaslyn towards Snowdon, which is in the clouds where it spends a lot of its time. The joint we were doing is Centre and Alan Tibbetts, my FR opposite number, is on his phone, no doubt arranging for tea to be delivered.
When I had my copy call for this issue it was carefully recorded that 500 words were required by the editors so, to keep within my allocation and due to lack of canal stories, I thought to finish a small piece on the Itchen navigation canal which runs…

Issue 121 A new beginning

With the new format magazine, I am reliably informed it now this size as it fits the bottom of a budgies cage better than the old one, I thought I would aimlessly ramble on about the olden times, while some will know the story.
What prompts this delve into this sad fit of nostalgia is while looking for a handbook (never found needless to say) on a particular telephone system I came across a quotation I obtained on a phone system from the very early days of the preservation movement, all of a sudden ones feels very old, the date is not going to be divulged for those who think I am still in the first flush of youth but it was a long long time ago.

In those far off days shrouded in the mists of time the main, in fact the only, activities were at Alresford, some phones were obtained and the signal box linked to the station house and the goods shed. The first underground cable installed on the railway went from the house to the signal box. Another line went to the goods shed, in those days the home of the carriage and wagon group, who remembers their infamous fry-up created on the fire there, all the food used being past its sell by date
The external phone lines to the station were overhead, no matter which way they were routed someone would arrange for an item to be delivered along with a crane and then knock the lot down, the lines finally went underground with the car park redevelopment.

Where the West Country buffet now stands was the station house garden, here a small second hand shed about 5 foot square was erected, this was the first telephone store, the beginnings of the world famous Acme Supplies it later relocated to the down side waiting room, due to refurbishment being evicted from there moving to 2 Railway Cottages, Medstead where it remains to this day.

With the introduction of STD the public exchange at Hursley, near Winchester, was replaced and the old equipment was purchased for £10, 8 racks of UAX12 equipment, something of a bargain.
Two racks went into service at Alresford, giving a maximum of 25 extensions, this was installed in the main station building on the first floor, they knew how to build floors in those days. The original plan was to rent a couple of “private wires” from the Post Office ( shows how long ago this was) to link to Ropley, but as the way these circuits were going to be routed each circuit would be 17 miles long. This plan was dropped and we put up our own overhead circuits as most of the poles still existed to Ropley, a total of 60 poles.

With the opening of the line to Medstead saw a small PAX exchange being place in service in 1983, in very cramped conditions, in fact space was so limited that the equipment required for the linked numbering scheme had to be fitted at Ropley. This exchange was difficult to maintain but it soldiered on until replaced by equipment in the new S and T building in 1995. This Strowger exchange was placed in service shortly after the last one was withdrawn from public service, there’s progress. Again another hybrid, the racks are from a UAX13, selectors from a PABX3 and a UAX14 and a lot of DIY relay sets. This was the ideal size exchange, nice and compact. The other 3 exchanges take up more space but one had to use what was available at the time. The old equipment went to a new home on the Bluebell Railway.

The station was joined to Ropley by more overhead circuits which by now was becoming a maintenance liability, if the Alresford - Ropley section was working you could be certain the Ropley - Medstead one had a fault, repair that and then the other section would go faulty and so it continued, a decision was made to install underground cable the complete length of the line, the old overhead wiring was recovered by the Swanage Railway and saw further use there. The underground cable suffered badly over the years due to chewing by rodents and at one point we had less circuits working than in the days of the overhead pole route and the Alresford to Medstead section has since been replaced and we are waiting to do the final section to Alton.
A PABX3 from MAFF in Winchester formed the basis of the Alton exchange completing the system, opening via underground cable from Medstead no overhead route was installed to Alton.

Introduction of swipe machines and computers with modems needing external access the arrangement at Alresford needed some changes and the chance acquisition of a Panasonic exchange saw the replacement of the Alresford key and lamp units.
This worked well but could not be expanded or linked to other exchanges to form a network and was replaced this year by a Meridian Norstar exchange. Additional facilities now available include voice mail and call logging. The logger has proved its worth several problems have been identified, one where it was noticed Fax calls going unanswered, someone had unplugged it from the mains and no-one else had noticed

The other 3 stations have one or more external lines and over the years different switches have been terminated on these, depending what was available at the time, recently the Meridian Norstar exchange has become the standard at all stations.
At the time of writing the railway has 2 phone systems, the Strowger one dealing with the internal calls and a separate system for external ones. A plan was drawn up just to have the Norstar system to do everything and allow the with drawl of the old internal system, in 2004 3 Norstar exchanges were linked together, an attempt was made to connect Alton but with no success it will have to wait for the new cable.

With the introduction of computers there is a growing cable network for these, 2 digital links connect Alresford, Ropley and Medstead. Due to these connections it is possible to sit in one of the offices at Alresford and look at the call logger at Medstead, it impresses me, if no one else.

Issue 122 Autumn 2004 20? Al least 22!

In issue 121, under Business Matters, there were listed 20 achievements over the last four years. I feel a further two need adding, so its trumpet blowing time.

Strike up the band

First, a computer network has been installed that extends the length of the line; PC users now have faster net access, internet phone call charges considerably reduced. Separate e-mail addresses have been set up so, instead of one person getting all the incoming e-mails, they now go to the relevant individual’s computer. Even the telecomm department has its own e-mail address. In the past, spending on telephone matters has been very frugal. It was only last year we discovered what a budget was and what it could be used for; it came as a bit of a shock when it was realised it allows one to purchase things. What has been spent on the computer network makes the telecom spend seem like a King’s ransom.
Second, there has been the replacement of seven miles of underground cable and the introduction into service of four Meridian Norstar exchanges to replace outdated equipment. As someone recently pointed out, they only know the phone system exists when something goes wrong. Sometimes I feel we are wasting our time and efforts.

Etiquette, has it a place in the 21st century?

In the old days, if one was after a favour, you could ring the person, enquire after their health and other niceties, and then eventually work round to what it was you were after in the first place. These days, with the World Wide Web and such things technical, instant communications now allow one to receive an e-mail “when are you going to joint our cable?” Good ole Mr T, phones’ supremo from the Ffestiniog, no idea what he was on about but further enquiries revealed the job involved repairing a damaged cable at Dinas on the Welsh Highland Railway, the one that actually goes somewhere.
Over the phone it was mentioned that the damage had been temporarily repaired by someone using a pop bottle as a join. Never having heard of that type of joint before and not wanting to show my ignorance by not knowing what it was, I didn’t ask. Maybe that is what they call a joint 31A in wildest Wales, who knows? A date was agreed for a visit, any excuse for a few days away. On arriving on site it was soon discovered that a pop bottle had indeed been used as a joint, a plastic orange Tango bottle to be precise. One wonders why we bother with proper cable joints when you can use the contents of a waste bin.

Chaos theory

We have just endured our regular exercise; Operation “Cut the power off without telling anyone and see what happens”. A good time to do this is during the day when the phones are at their busiest at Alresford. If anyone had asked me beforehand of the outcome I could predict the result and yet again I was not to be proved wrong, after a while things stopped working.
As mentioned above, as well as phones we now have links between all four stations connecting various computers, so something happening at Alresford can have an effect further up the line and it did. The links went out of service and it was several
days before complete service was reinstated, More resilience is being built into the system but no doubt we can look forward to it all happening again next.

CessNet

In an earlier edition of Mid-Hants News mention was made of possible links for computers between Ropley and Medstead and, maybe later, on to Alton. No sooner was the ink dry than these circuits were installed and in use and CessNet is now 10 miles long.
All stations are inter-connected via digital links; the main use at the time of writing is to allow access to the exchange call loggers and to give Internet access to the office PCs at Ropley and Medstead. I know I am boring people to an early demise going on about these loggers but they are wonderful. One can sit in the exchange at Alresford and see the time the train went over the Butts Junction treadle; from the same location a call terminating at Ropley can be traced back to its source, great fun. But they have serious uses. During the last Thomas event the Alresford information office was getting calls intended for others. By looking at the loggers it was identified that the callers, at another station, were dialling four-digit numbers on a system needing only three digits. The matter was resolved in a few minutes. One could imagine the time that could have been spent looking for this non-existent fault without the use of the loggers, as the person making the calls were emphatic they dialled the right number; the loggers showed otherwise. This was accomplished without leaving the exchange at Alresford.

Every day tale of simple folk

Unlike the PWay department, who seem to remember the most mundane of their activities for their articles, (Saturday the 9th - morning - poetry reading Wanders
Curve, afternoon - flower arranging Sun Lane Cutting) have trouble remembering what has gone on to write about. I suspect it is something they put in the tea. A log is now being kept of day-to-day activities, so this should provide the start of some really enthralling articles in years to come. I can feel an article coming on now based on “noticed from the call logger a train at Butts Junction treadle - time 14:45.08”

Moving on

Recorded in the last issue in the building department notes was the loco department offices re-locating into the station house. Not mentioned is the requirement to turn the existing telephone exchange into a disabled toilet, after the old equipment is removed one must hasten to add; I am assuming that is the intention (note to one’s self — better check).
The room containing the exchange is around 7ft by lOft and the Strowger equipment fills it. The Norstar switch sits in one corner on a wallboard about 3ft square so it can be seen that when the old equipment is removed there will be a lot of spare room. Thus, the use of the room as a telephone exchange is not justified. The Norstar switch will be moving into the house on the first floor, along with the computer equipment. The power unit, due to its weight, will be moved into the cellar. Moving the exchange and keeping it all working should be a bag of fun.
We have found a new home for the old Strowger equipment; a brief piece on the Railway web site about the demise of the old exchanges produced a huge amount of interest (one person), so some time in the future various bits of it will be making the journey to darkest Sussex, depending on how much we can pile into Peter’s van.

Issue 123 Winter/Spring 2005 Farewell old friend

Disappearing without undue ceremony last year, after giving nearly 10 years of mostly distinguished service, was the can of relays, wires and electronics connected to the Butts Junction treadle in Alton exchange. Using the internal phone system, this operated a buzzer in the signal box at Medstead indicating the location of the train. In the course of the year it could generate over 3000 calls. Once I proudly told the person who donated the electronic sender unit the number of calls it was making annually, only to be brought down to earth by being informed in its previous existence it would do that number in a few days. An extension off the Alton Norstar exchange now does the job.
Another departure, most probably not lamented, is the Panasonic switch used at Ropley for the signal post telephones (SPT5). The Mk 2 version, this had had to be put into service in a hurry as the existing arrangement needed somewhat urgent replacement; the keys were falling to bits and the Panasonic system provided a simple solution. The thought of the amount of work required to make a replacement system meant the job was given a very low priority, not that it had been any priority at all.
Let’s change the signal post telephones again I have been taken to task numerous times for hoarding things; I now feel fully justified in keeping “junk, rubbish” call it what you wish. By chance, a small key and lamp unit that had once been used for the Medstead SPTs was found in store along with its phone, I hasten to add, when discovered, something else was being looked for at the time. If this unit was re-used, a large amount of work at Ropley for a new system would not be necessary. By raiding different locations on the Railway, enough bits were sourced to make a cost reduced relay version providing four circuits.
The Mk 3 is a cheap and cheerful version SPT system. The others on the Railway have electronic ring tone generators; time and interest did not permit making another. Anyone using a phone now gets an interrupted tone instead of proper ring tone to indicate something is happening.
While on the matter of keeping bits, some relays were required for another job. The cans of relays from the original Alresford key and lamp units, carefully put away for a rainy day many years ago, sourced the needs. I have no idea how long they have been lying about.

An enigma

There were a number of the vague third hand reports of the sort that the Railway specialises in, problems with the phones at Alton: “what problems?” was the question; “don’t know” was the helpful reply. Checking several times at Alton produced no faults but then one was not sure what one was looking for. Eventually, a message was received from a source whose information could be relied on, giving details of the numbers that could not be contacted and from what phones. Armed with this information, another visit was made to Alton and it was found you could not make calls to a phone with a number ending in the digit 1 if the phone being used had a dial; another dial type phone was tried with the same result. Try the digits 2 to 0, all was fine, use a 1 — nothing. A tone dialling phone gave no problems. Slightly perplexed, tried the same tests at Medstead; it is a similar model exchange and got the same result. To cut a long story short it transpired if you used a dial phone you could not dial any number if it contained the digit 1 on any of our four Norstar exchanges.
One solution was to have no numbers with the digit 1; it would have meant a number of extensions being changed on a system that had not been in full service for very long anyway. An explanation to the problem has now become apparent and, accordingly, there no way to make dial phones work fully. The number phones with dials was small, all on platforms. Plans had already been made to replace these anyway so this programme was brought forward, which then caused another problem, thankfully non technical. When the door of the new type phone box was shut, the bell was not very loud so an external tone caller was fitted per phone and this makes lots of noise, albeit not LSWR style ringing.

The Hobbits

Recently, the remains of a breed of previously unknown three-foot tall creatures were discovered the Far East. Maybe readers are unaware that much nearer home the Railway has its own breed of strange creatures; let’s also call them the Hobbits. These creatures are never seen but now and again one hears their mutterings and murmurings in the background. They have very odd likes and dislikes:
they much prefer something very old that does not work properly or even work at all to a modern version that does its intended function, like the platform phones mentioned above. Replace it with a phone that does work in a box not designed by one of their idols (Brunel, Leonardo de Vinci, William Morris) and their entire world collapses. Oh well, such is life.

A bit more about SPTs and why not

A continuing problem has been the signal post telephones. When we got them they were all second hand cast offs and a lot have had intermittent faults. Thanks to Pat Butler obtaining some modern versions, half have now been replaced; the transformation to the service has been remarkable. The known troublesome ones were the first to be replaced. I now think the way forward is not to mess about with the existing old model SPTs but, if they
faulty or display intermittent problems, to replace them with a new one; it may be also worthwhile to gradually change them all anyway. I understand a case has been made to include for the replacement in next year’s budget.

And finally

Using my skills of prophecy, which admittedly never worked when I had a go at the lottery, I predict there will be a piece in the permanent way article about
clock at Medstead. This item should be ignored at
cost. It will be a travesty of the truth and the product
a mind fuddled by too many cups of tea and bacon butties in the West Country Buffet.

Issue 124 Summer 2005  Three lofts and a cellar

There are some very reckless, possibly dangerous, people on the railway. I don’t mean
those who go into the buffet, ring the bell on the counter and shout “shop” and don’t run away, but those who sit down somewhere quiet and have a think without realising the consequences. One such person is M.W. from Ropley, initials have been used to try and protect the guilty party. I will hasten to add straight away that the person concerned is not Mark Walden, who is the good guy in this sorry tale.
MW. sat down one day and put his grey matter into action, or he may have been stood up for all I know, and it may have taken place over the course of several days, weeks even, who knows, who cares. Anyway, however long it took or where it took place does not matter, for what he came up with is a plan to convert the telephone exchange at Ropley into a disabled toilet. Radical thinking. Only one small snag, at the time the room contained the equipment that dealt with local calls, switched calls up and down the Railway plus the terminating point for lots of cables, at the time a fairly important location.
For a while, I had realised that, when the old Strowger equipment was removed, the new Norstar exchange would feel rather lonely in a large empty room. Someone had suggested a couple of comfy chairs, TV and it becoming a retirement facility for jaded telecom department members, but why bother going to Ropley when one gets such a warm welcome in the West Country buffet.

Suitable accommodation

Around this time, the Railway had got access to the station house and all sorts of things were going to happen there — a new shop, pub, catering facility, opium den, it depended what time of day it was and which way the wind was blowing on what was happening. I am led to believe phases of the moon also had some bearing on matters; examining goat’s entrails did not feature in the deliberations despite the rumours.
With M.W.’s plan in mind, I went to see the other M.W. (manager of the building department, I hope you are keeping up, I’m losing the plot). “I have heard mutterings of turning the telephone exchange into a WC,” I said. “Yes,” he said. “Then I have a cunning plan,” I said. Stop this! This is becoming like one of those awful sketches “That’s Life” used to do. He said, she said and so on until the cows came home.
I suggested to Mark I was quite prepared to move the exchange elsewhere as long as we had suitable accommodation plus there would be the benefit to the Railway that far less space would be needed, otherwise squatters rights to the existing room would be claimed. We had been there over 25 years. That long? You get less of a sentence for robbing a bank.
A small section of one of the upstairs rooms in the house has been partitioned off and has become the new comms room. No longer just a telephone exchange, it also contains computer equipment for connecting the station to the outside world so making it the “comms room”, in fact the computer rack is the biggest item there. This is not our first floor exchange; the original automatic one on the Railway at Alresford was upstairs, a UAX12 way back in the late 1970s. Happy memories.

Three lofts

Certain unnamed people (well, mostly only one) made a bit of a nuisance of themselves during the renovations of the house. The building department would do some work, finish and A.N. Other would move in at the first opportunity and start cabling. The
chance was taken when a ceiling was down to run cables through a loft for the 10cc department offices. A large hole was drilled through to the loft space of the existing building; this was promptly filled with telephone cables.
The partition wall was started for the exchange and a new distribution case suddenly appeared and was fixed to it; the previously run cables were then terminated. The wall was completed, the Norstar switch fixed to it and the comms rack installed. The IT equipment was then successfully moved from the old exchange. The switch was powered up ready and the room next door was still being plastered. My apologies to Mark for being so impetuous; he must have dreaded coming in and seeing what had appeared since his last visit. The secret is to do work on a Saturday when the building department are not about, then keep a very low profile on Sundays when they are.
Muggins got great satisfaction running the new cables involved as it meant going through three lofts, one previously never visited before. This is a good time to mention, to be published soon, Acme Publications’ Loft spaces of the Mid Hants Railway, a concise illustrated guide. Place your order now.

And a cellar

Originally, the power unit was going to move into the same room as the equipment. However, after weighing a single battery cell on a set of bathroom scales Mrs Walden has kindly lent for the occasion, and making some calculations on a scrap of paper, it was decided, due to the excessive weight, to put the power plant in the cellar from the outset before it made its own way there via two floors.

Competition

I had intended entering Ian’s competition (issue 123) as I thought I had a slight chance of winning, that was, until one realises what first prize, a “fun day with the Saturday gang” involves. Start the day at Medstead with a cup of tea. Wander off to Alresford carrying a large lump of metal (purpose of metal unknown). Visit buffet, more tea and attempt to “wind up” the staff. Catch first available train back to Medstead and return to mess room. It is now midday, I have no idea what happens next, most likely even more tea, as by then the telecoms department would have done a full day’s work and departed.

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Issue 125-134
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