Post #2027507
2025-09-17 19:45 UTC
@leymoo Early 80s… likely still strowger equipment
The details get a bit tricky, but a fault could lead to equipment not properly being marked as busy, so subsequent callers end up connected to the same pair
Capital would have had dedicated main exchange equipment, and its own PABX on-prem, which complicates things
I expect the “night service” function on the PABX put a fault on the busy marker wire
I know a couple of BBC switchboard ops from that time who might be able to confirm… I’ll ask!
Replies (2)
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@leymoo@hachyderm.io 2025-09-17 19:53
@lpbkdotnet ok this is amazing detail - I have friends of friends in THG but it’s not something I have detailed knowledge of.
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@SilverArrows@autistics.life 2025-09-18 07:46
@lpbkdotnet @leymoo that sounds similar to what my techie uncle said when I showed the OP. "I think I know what was happening but hard to explain. It was just a bad pbx configuration, it was early seats for companies to run all electronic pbx systems and security was minimal as was the knowledge to make them secure. In essence when the operators shut down for the night it was auto answering and all the calls ended up connected together." I definitely know what all this means.