The Severn Valley Railway is lucky enough to be home to a number of the familiar old red telephone boxes, kept in preservation. These are not the property or responsibility of the SVR S&T department, but on occasion S&T department members have provided assistance and advice in their restoration. Some pictures are included for general interest.
The commonest type of 'phone box in evidence are the type that were a Post Office standard for many years, and are the archetypal British telephone box. This type was known by the Post Office as the "Kiosk Number 6", abbreviated to "K6". There are examples of these at Bridgnorth, Arley and Kidderminster stations on the SVR.
A more unusual example is the "Kiosk Number 4" (K4) at Bewdley station. This was a larger and earlier design of 'phone box, which was in turn based on the original K2. Apparently, this type of kiosk was nicknamed the "Vermillion Giant" by Post Office engineers of the time. The thing of note about these was that they were envisaged as 24 hour Post Offices and had, as well as telephone facilities, Postage Stamp dispensing machines and Post Boxes built into them. Only a few of these were made, about 50, as I understand it, and many of them were sited adjacent to railway stations. Only a handful now survive, and the SVR is fortunate enough to have this example on loan.
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| Restored telephone kiosk (type K6) at Kidderminster. Clearly taken shortly after a 1940s weekend, judging by the tape on the windows. (The tape was a wartime precaution to reduce injury from flying glass in a bomb blast.) | |
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| Unusual K4 kiosk at Bewdley station. Steve Bradbury and Ian Satterthwaite pose to provide a sense of how big this kiosk is. In the rear view, the stamp machines are visible, as pointed out by Ian. As usual, clicking on the photo provides the full picture! | |
If you are in Worcestershire, and are interested in Telephone boxes, then the National Telephone Kiosk Collection is at Avoncroft Museum of Buildings in Bromsgrove, and repays a visit - as does the museum's collection of historical buildings, but that's off the point!
Details of the museum (opening times, how to get there, charges, etc.) are at the Avoncroft Museum website, however there is no information about the kiosk collection, apart from the mention that it is housed there.
The SVR telephone system has a large number of telephone instruments connected to it. Wherever sensible, we tend to make these of a type that require low maintenance. However, in places where historical telephones are appropriate, we have a small number of interesting 'phones. Some of these do not belong to the SVR, but to enthusiastic individuals who leave them on "extended loan" to the railway, because they like to see them in the setting.
Most of these 'phones are not on public display, but are to be found in signal boxes and booking offices.
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| Restored "Auto" type 'phones. The type of telephone with a dial was invented for use with "automatic" exchnges - hence "auto". The alternative type was a "manual" ("Number please") exchange, where operators manually switched the call through. | |
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| This is one of the black "bakelite" 300 type telephones. In this case it is an "Omnibus" 'phone, as used in booking offices and the like. | As an illustration of an array of old wooden wall mounted telephones, here is a view of the back wall of one of the Bewdley signalboxes. |
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A closer view of some of those signalbox telephones shown (or should that be "shewn") above. |
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Severn Valley Railway Telecomms Homepage | |
Details of some of our phones and telephone kiosks |  |
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| Copyright © Chris Wright 2000 | |
Last updated: 27th November 2000 | ||
| Page URL http://cgwright.demon.co.uk/sv-phone.htm | |
Email me mail@svrtel.org.uk | ||