13/08/2026
I mentioned our telecommunications project in my last update as just one of many things happening around the site, but after a flurry of messages from people wanting to know more, here is the full (long) story!
The museum has actually housed a telephone section for nearly 20 years. Our regular telephone engineer, Graham, along with long-distance volunteer David, have been working away on these displays with great success. We already have operational UAX 12 and UAX 13 exchanges running, plus an ex-Luton Town Hall PABX 3, alongside various other historical pieces.
Although I wasn't a GPO employee myself—I was with GEC/Plessey—I spent plenty of time in and out of local exchanges. A few years back, I realized that these classic electromechanical systems were disappearing just as rapidly as historic steam and diesel plant did. Today, virtually none of this original equipment remains inside operational BT exchanges.
Fortunately, dedicated collectors preserved equipment of all shapes and sizes over the years, and some of these reference collections are now coming light.
We have recently taken on the extensive collections of the late Paul Grafton and Martin Loach. By merging Paul’s collection with the hardware we already had in store, our aim is to erect a display as close as possible to a full, working main exchange with various technologies on display.
It might seem a bit niche to some, but a public main exchange display of this scale exists nowhere else in the UK. Along with the disappearance of the hardware itself, a whole raft of specialized trade skills—spanning generations of exchange engineers—has vanished too. We hope this new main exchange section will serve as a fitting showcase for that heritage.
The intention is to provide working suites of 2000 type non-director, pre-2000 director, TXK1, TXE2, Sys X plus UXD5 & UAX7 locals along with PABX and other equipment plus a working MNDX from Martin.
We still have a TXE2 and other equipment to extract from BT sites, couple of pics below, if you know the sites please do not comment.
Lastly, a lot of thanks due to everyone involved in the big move going on, three 40ft artic loads, sterling work sorting and loading by Sean, Andy, Dave and Kevin at the remote end, I feel more like a logistics manager than a curator at the moment.
