Post & Telegraphs (P&T)

Hagar · 10-07-2007 6:10pm

I read somewhere that 999 was chosen as on a rotary dial phone the number "9" was the second furthest around and took a lot of effort to dial thus eliminating accidentally dialling it three times in a row.

I remember a fire safety ad on tv as a child instructing how to dial 999 in a smoke filled room. It went something like "locate the dial with you right hand allowing your index and middle finger to occupy tha last two holes. Remove your middle finger from the hold and dial three times with your index finger."

The 112 on the other hand is quicker to dial. The continentals may have figured that the odd false alarm was better than a missed alarm call.

On digital phones / push button it makes no difference

Wishbone Ash · 11-07-2007 11:31pm

Victor wrote:

If you look at phone boxes, post boxes and manhole covers you can see the different generations of logo.

There are lots of Queen Victoria and King Edward British postboxes still in use. Although painted green the VR and ER are still there. I'm always amazed that many people never notice such things!

Hagar wrote:

I remember a fire safety ad on tv as a child instructing how to dial 999 in a smoke filled room. It went something like "locate the dial with you right hand allowing your index and middle finger to occupy tha last two holes. Remove your middle finger from the hold and dial three times with your index finger."

No offence Hagar but that seems just absurd! Two lungfuls of smoke are enough to kill. Why on earth would someone be trying to telephone the emergency services from a smoke filled room? Getting out should be the first priority!

Owen · 11-07-2007 11:40pm

Wishbone Ash wrote:

There are lots of Queen Victoria and King Edward British postboxes still in use. Although painted green the VR and ER are still there. I'm always amazed that many people never notice such things!

There's one on Patrick's Hill in Cork, where it meets Wellington Road. And no one ever notices the difference in Logos.

Hagar · 11-07-2007 11:46pm

Wishbone Ash wrote:

No offence Hagar but that seems just absurd!

Non taken. How long is it since the Govt distributed Iodine tablets as part of their anti-nuclear policy? The defence rests your Honour.

UrbanFox · 13-07-2007 8:14pm

The old telephone system was great for getting your sister out of the bathroom.

If you dialled 17, waited a few seconds and put the receiver back the phone would ring just like a normal incoming call. That used to get the wagon out of the bathroom for fear of missing one of those all important hair, makeup and boyfriend conference calls.

When she picked up the phone all she would hear would be a whine accompanied by the sound of the bathroom door closing behind her. Tee.. hee... as Denis the Menace used to say

Owen · 13-07-2007 9:33pm

UrbanFox wrote:

If you dialled 17, waited a few seconds and put the receiver back the phone would ring just like a normal incoming call.

Genius! I remember doing that, but had forgotten until you brought it up.

zippo22 · 13-07-2007 9:58pm

At the time of decimalisation it was 2 New Pence for a local call on the A/B public phones. The 2 New Penny coin was the exact same size as the old ha'penny coin and there were a lot of them still around.

19-07-2007 1:24am

byte wrote:

Ah I vaguely remember the ol' Renault 4 postvan's alright. I can't find any on Google Image search, though I did come across a P&T Lorry.

As the URL to the image might suggest, that very vehicle is preserved in the National Transport Museum in Howth. I was there a couple of months back and there she was!
My first memory of telephones was my grandmother, she had one installed in 1983 complete with rotary dial. The socket on the wall still has the P+T logo on it even today and the line is now being used for DSL, albeit with pretty high line attenuation. Seems to still work fine though.

jos28 · 19-07-2007 3:32pm

Anyone know if you can get die cast models of the old P7T vans ?

Sir Graball · 26-07-2007 12:52am

Ha Ha! This is great!

I worked with P7T /Telecom Eireann/Eircom from 1980 to 2006 as a technician. The orange Bedford was known as a 'Gang Truck'. 5 and 7 man gangs used them. They were originally green ( army ref) but apparently they were too easy to hide in country areas so they decided to make them orange so they'd be more visible. There was a section behind the cab called the 'cubby' where the gang sat and 'stuck on the tea'. The front was reserved for the Foreman, Leading Hand and the Official Driver.
Commers, Dodges and Renaults were for two/three man and single units. We referred to the Renaults as 4L's. I had to do my driving test in a 4L,I remember it had a column gear change.
Someone posted about the black and cream rotary dial phones. I remember subscribers had to pay extra for the cream version.
Memories!!

looksee · 26-07-2007 8:00pm

I do remember that we had to wait 4 years to get our phone installed, that was fairly typical at the time and we only got one then because the government pulled out all the stops to catch up on the backlog.

Wishbone Ash · 04-08-2007 6:23pm

Sir Graball wrote:

We referred to the Renaults as 4L's. I had to do my driving test in a 4L,I remember it had a column gear change

It wasn't really a column mounted (as in steering column) but more of a dash mounted type, if I recall correctly.

Hagar · 04-08-2007 6:40pm

4L was a model designation in the Renault 4 range. It was not quite accurate as the van was offically the "Fourgonette".

See them here in all their glory.

There are still many of them driving about here in the south of France. The dry weather is a bit kinder to the bodywork. Some have had the bodywork cut back to pick-up style and look quite good.

The gear stick arrangement was typically French and was also found on other cars notably the Citroen 2CV.

beechersbrook · 15-03-2014 11:33pm

The P&T truck shown here is a Bedford TK gang truck, fleet number 295 E 79 (or maybe 297 E 79?). This finished its days in Cork as a driver training truck. It was donated by Telecom Eireann to the National Transport museum in Howth. I hand painted and refurbished this truck, prior to the handover, at the company's garage in Farranree, Cork. To answer It BeeMee's question, this also referred to the year of registration, 1979. Up to the split to Telecom Eireann and An Post in 1984, a seperate fleet numbering system was in place, where the "E" stood for engineering (telephones) and "P" was for postal. Prior to 1979, the year wasn't used for the fleet numbers e.g. A111 would have been an engineering vehicle whereas 111A would have been postal. These numbering systems (A-Z) were continued by Telecom Eireann/eircom and An Post.

ardmacha · 17-03-2014 3:26am

It was done for simplicity of the mechanics of the phone. Mechanically dialling 000 would have been easier, but would have been problematic for the phone system, so they went with 999.

999 originated in the UK, where 0 was used for the Operator. 9 was used as part of short codes for main exchanges anyway, so on a main exchange you could get emergency by dialling 99.

Phone boxes had special dials which meant that 9 and 0 were free. This meant that if you were tapping a number like 309, you only had to tap the 2, then you could dial the other digits, which was useful as tapping 9 would probably lead to an error. Not quite sure how this worked in Ireland, which came into this arrangement later. Interested to know.

There's one on Patrick's Hill in Cork, where it meets Wellington Road. And no one ever notices the difference in Logos.

There are also rare Saorstat Eireann postboxes.

C.K Dexter Haven · 17-03-2014 10:01am

Here's half a P&T van, early 80s on the Green:

whisky_galore · 19-03-2014 4:14pm

1010174_10151407878170518_429313917_n.jpg

This P&T item had a close shave with a skip!

Capt'n Midnight · 22-03-2014 8:37pm

Gosub · 22-03-2014 9:00pm

Boy does this thread roll back the years! I started in the P7T in 1973, just as the new orange and white vans were being introduced into the fleet. My first van when I was made an "official driver" in 1974 was a VW T1 transporter split-screen, fleet number K20. It was fantastic!

I remember the very long wait for phones back in the bad old days of lead cables with paper insulation over the copper pairs. Only after Telecom Eireann was formed in 1984 did serious network upgrading start. Up to that time most of the work was devoted to keeping up with the maintenance of a creaking network.

As an aside, I remember attending a management seminar in Dublin. At the time BT were rolling out fiber to customer premises. One attendee asked a senior manager what the plans were to compete with this. I nearly fell out of my seat when the (very) senior manager answered "There is no need to compete. Who wants 2 meg broadband in their home?" Not long after this, the manager was shifted sideways to the projects wilderness.

darkdubh · 24-03-2014 12:39pm

C.K Dexter Haven wrote: »

Here's half a P&T van, early 80s on the Green:

I'm just about old enough to remember the P T logo and the orange and white vans though of the latter it was more from seeing decommisioned ones sitting in yards.I remember seeing the old Renault 4 post office van that was used in War Of The Buttons sitting in a lot in Skibbereen about 20 years ago I wonder what became of it.

Silvera · 25-03-2014 6:27pm

jos28 wrote: »

Anyone know if you can get die cast models of the old P7T vans ?

Here ya go! €15 from www.irishstamps.ie
http://www.irishstamps.ie/shop/p-830-model-van.aspx

Great thread btw! I recall the orange-and-white P7T vans too.
In later years I worked for a bodyshop where we painted vans
in Telecom Eireann colours.

MugMugs · 26-03-2014 9:31am

I'd heard the myth that there was a "Television Detector" Van alright but I never thought for the life of me that they actually went through with it and made a mock up van

Classic !

whisky_galore · 26-03-2014 9:34am

The Beeb had them as well...http://www.oobject.com/category/sinister-bbc-spy-vehicles/

Gosub · 26-03-2014 10:44am

MugMugs wrote: »

I'd heard the myth that there was a "Television Detector" Van alright but I never thought for the life of me that they actually went through with it and made a mock up van

Classic !

Oh there was a detector van alright. It was parked in Sandwith street depot and went out in the evenings. It was driven by postal staff. They could even tell what you were watching on your telly.

MugMugs · 26-03-2014 11:37am

Gosub wrote: »

Oh there was a detector van alright. It was parked in Sandwith street depot and went out in the evenings. It was driven by postal staff. They could even tell what you were watching on your telly.

A technology they lack in modern day. :pac:

10 out of 10 for smart thinking though.

whisky_galore · 26-03-2014 11:52am

Smacks of urban legend/scare tactic, there was vans or a van. Might have bugger all equipment in them though. If they supposedly covered the whole country, they should have a whole fleet of them and they would be sighted all over the place.

Besides, it would be reasonable to assume that in the 70's/80's in most places, there would be at least one tv per household and the glow from them could be seen quite easily in the evenings if curtains weren't drawn. No need for 'detection' equipment.

Gosub · 26-03-2014 2:14pm

MugMugs wrote: »

A technology they lack in modern day. :pac:

10 out of 10 for smart thinking though.

CRT screens have been readable from a distance for many years. You didn't know that? Sad.
They were real. They were packed full of the technology of the day. Why would I make that up? Jeez some people.

Gosub · 26-03-2014 2:21pm

whisky_galore wrote: »

Smacks of urban legend/scare tactic, there was vans or a van. Might have bugger all equipment in them though. If they supposedly covered the whole country, they should have a whole fleet of them and they would be sighted all over the place.

Besides, it would be reasonable to assume that in the 70's/80's in most places, there would be at least one tv per household and the glow from them could be seen quite easily in the evenings if curtains weren't drawn. No need for 'detection' equipment.

There were 6 if memory serves. 2 were based in Dublin. As I said, one in Sandwith St. Covered the south city, one based in Distillery Rd covered the north city.

I don't understand the scepticism. This is all a matter of historical record.

whisky_galore · 26-03-2014 2:46pm

Gosub wrote: »

There were 6 if memory serves. 2 were based in Dublin. As I said, one in Sandwith St. Covered the south city, one based in Distillery Rd covered the north city.

I don't understand the scepticism. This is all a matter of historical record.

Is there an echo in here? Where is this 'historical record' you speak of?

Gosub · 26-03-2014 4:33pm

whisky_galore wrote: »

Is there an echo in here? Where is this 'historical record' you speak of?

Surely it could be found on Google?

Do you think I'm making this up? If so, why would I?

Post & Telegraphs (P&T)

Comments