I was near the end of my “Youth in Training” two-year course (Y2YC), having been employed by the Post Office Engineering Department since May 8, 1939, and came to hope that I might work as an engineer on the new automatic exchange.

Just before the end of my training I was surprised to be offered a course at the department’s training school to learn all about the intricacies of automatic working and I eagerly accepted.

The date for the changeover was early May – the first, I believe, but it might have been the eighth – and I managed to get home for that Saturday.

A mere Y2YC name was not on the list of guests for the occasion but I managed to sneak in and hid myself in a corner and got out without being noticed after the changeover.

I remember that there was a tense silence while it was confirmed that there were no calls, especially emergency calls, in progress at the old exchange.

Then there came the order to cut out the old manual exchange and then connect subscribers to the new one.

One could feel the tension while listening for the first calls to be dialled and the test call to 999 was found to be satisfactory thanks to the Post Office’s clerk of works and the foreman of the contractor’s staff.

I then sneaked out without detection and returned at the end of my course to spend many happy times in Spalding and other exchanges in the area.

The picture in the Lincolnshire Free Press shows, just to the right of the jib, a view into the battery room which housed two batteries of 50 volts each. Beyond that was the apparatus room which was much bigger, occupying the whole width of the building.

The windows at the top of the building gave light into the manual room where the telephonists worked on the switchboards.

GEORGE PACEY

Main Road,

Quadring