At the time there was an idea to keep it as a museum item so the public could see a working example of the type of technology that was the core of the UK telephone system for most of the 20th century.
It was later decided that it was not practical being open to the public located in an operational building plus the space it occupied was needed for additional equipment so the old exchange was dismantled and placed in store.
Recently the management were approached to see if there was any interest in resurrecting this idea, the storage for the equipment was far from ideal and it was deteriorating.
If there was interest it would be moved to better accommodation, if not there were several people interested in giving it a new home off the railway.
Following a positive response sufficient equipment has been salvaged to make a small demonstration exchange.
At present the only intention is to store the equipment in secure conditions should it be required in the future.
I have no idea where this exchange will be located or when but my thoughts are to have a number of phones connected to it so calls can be made and viewed, this type of exchange has the advantage that bits move and it makes a noise.
To allow more to be seen working a 4 digit exchange will be built.
Over the years a large amount of telephone items have been collected and if space permits some of these will also be displayed.
Another possible addition will be a Norstar Compact switch, this will be connected to interwork with the Strowger exchange giving a comparison between old and new systems.
Two reduced height UAX13 racks will be used with a third kept in reserve should it be required.
(Someone has since decided to scrap this rack. No comment)
Before this project was started there had been a large amount of old Strowger equipment and loop disconnect phones disposed of as it was no longer required, further disposals have been put on hold until the needs of this system are known.
The railway are to make a bid to the lottery fund and this is part of the submission,
I expect all the available money will have been squandered on the Olympics.
The above piece was written in 2007.
Rack layout has altered since this picture was taken - second rack behind