Butts Junction treadle
A requirement in the early days of operations to Alton was an indication at Medstead signal box when the evening dining train left Alton station. It seems sometimes the train left with no one telling the signalman at Medstead whose first indication of the train’s arrival would be when it arrived at the down home signal.
It was not possible to have a direct circuit between the two stations due to a shortage of cable pairs.
A simple solution was developed which in different guises still provided service until March 2010.
At Butts Junction was a trackside treadle which operated a relay in the Alton telephone exchange which in turn sounded a buzzer in the station office.
An additional set of relay contacts activated an auto dialler relay set connected to an extension line circuit, the relay set is shown below; this dialled a number connected to a relay set in the locking room at Medstead signal box via the internal telephone system. This relay set would answer the call, sound a buzzer and send a signal back to Alton to release the call. The signalman could either cancel the buzzer or it would auto cancel after a delay.
The first attempt was a proper auto dialler which proved unreliable, this was replaced by a DIY set comprising of an electronic sender previously used in STD equipment, a type 4 uni-selector, timer and a number of 3000 type relays completed the relay set.
Over 3000 calls a year were connected by this circuit, I was impressed with this figure only to be told in its previous life the sender would handle that number in a few days.
The circuit was provided on the understanding it was an indication only and not to be relied on, if the telephone circuits were busy between the 2 exchanges on other calls and the relay set activated the call would result in no connection.
Meters connected to the circuit indicated 95% of calls were be connected successfully.
With the introduction of the Norstar switches the Hotline facility was used to provide the service, the old relay set has been retained for possible future use in the demonstration exchange.
The Butts Junction treadle circuit was taken out of service 5th March 2010 with the introduction of the Alton colour light signalling, see below
Shown below is the first attempt - it proved unreliable and was replaced by the version above
Recorded at the time the following comments -
"Withdrawn from service was the Butts Junction treadle circuit to Medstead, surprisingly the expected complaints about loss of this service didn't happen".
The comment above about the ceasing of the Butts Junction treadle circuit and no complaints, a little premature maybe. Early May and there are mutterings of some form of replacement circuit wanted by the Alton Station staff. The subject was raised several times during a visit to install the station HDSL link. It wasn't me who wanted it to be taken out in the first place.
Developments are afoot, watch this space.
A new circuit has been provided at Alton to indicate the arrival of an up train, this replaces the old Butts Junction indicator.
Known as "The noise", when the signalling is in the automatic mode a train approaching Butts operating the treadle to instigate the signalling also causes buzzers to sound in the station shop and the office for a short period.
A down train has no effect.
The Aton train arriving indication has been well received, I only know this from third hand information, not been told officially.
Code phone test circuit
Often the only time to check a fault was out of hours and if it was a problem with the code phone there would no one else to co-operate with. This relay set allowed simple checks to be made by one person.
Memory is now fading how this worked but the relay set was connected to a final selector number at Alresford, no doubt in the 228X range, plus the code phone circuit.
By dialling the directory number one would connect to the relay set, dialling a digit one would cause a signal to be sent on the code phone circuit and sound the buzzers in the phones.
Pressing the call button on the code phone would operate a relay in the access relay set, this would result in a tone being sent which could be heard on the auto phone.
Remote Junction Busying
One problem with bothway junctions if there was a fault at the local end and the circuit was required to be taken out of service it meant a trip to the far end to busy the outgoing equipment. To overcome this problem the circuit was devised.
Accessed by dialling XX88 at the distant exchange subsequent digits would be dialled into the relay set. The first of these digit indicated what was required, a digit 1 would operate a remenant relay in a relay set to busy it, a digit 2 would unbusy a previously busied junction, 3 would indicate the present state of a junction. The next digit decided which junction needed to be busied, a single digit was sufficient as no exchange had more than 8 outgoing junctions.
ROSIE
Remote Oscillator Switching and Indication Equipment, it was found during trackside cable faulting there was a need to remove an oscillator that had been connected earlier this could mean a trip back to the exchange.
ROSIE overcame this problem, it was connected between the oscillator and the pair to be identified along side the trak.
By using the trackside phone dialling XX68 would disconnect the tone to allow any testing and dialling XX64 would switch it back on.
Congestion announcer
This was salvaged from a closed Group Switching Centre and adapted to fit in a Box connection 301.
Used in the Ropley Strowger exchange it gave an announcement "All lines are busy, please try later" followed by a couple of tones.
Retained for further use in the demonstration exchange.
Picture below to show that items are sometimes thrown out.
62 type carrier shelves in the scrap metal skip at Medstead.
Within a week someone had salvaged the shelves and they have gone to a new home.
Kiosks
K6 kiosk at Alresford, restored with A and B coin box.
Located in the former BT Solent telephone area this box was donated by BT ThamesWey area.
One day the mobile BT kiosk cleaning team turned up to clean the box!
K6 kiosk at Medstead.
Now fitted out internally.
Located in the former ThamesWey area this box was donated by the BT Solent area.
Silence cabinet at Medstead.
Since dismantled and now in store, future plans are not known.