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[burakkucat]

Four pictures were passed to The Cattery and I've attached them, below. They are not best quality photography and I suspect that they were taken with a mobile telephone.

However they may be of interest to those who have never seen the basement of a telephone exchange . . .

Image-1 shows the massed ranks of E-side cables passing through the gas & water seal between the basement and the "cable pit".
Image-2 appears to show some jointing work in progress on an E-side cable. Note the faults-man's telephone hanging at the right hand side.
Image-3 appears to show a 1200 pair E-side cable where it is transformed into six 200 pair cables, the six cables then ascending (I presume) to the MDF, above.
Image-4 appears to show a closer view of a paper insulated E-side cable, opened up for jointing work.

[Black Sheep]

Got a shudder at piccie 4, when I spotted the paper-insulated cable !! Horrible stuff.

Most 'Cable Chambers' are neat and tidy, but what the pictures can't give you is the smell. A lot of them smell very musty, especially ones prone to flooding.
Thanks for posting up for those who may have an interest, as it's an aspect of Exchange's that is seldom seen. 

[kitz]

Thank you for sharing,  I have seen a brief glimpse of similar, but as it was in the dungeons we weren't  allowed to stay long other than a quick peep around the door.   There were also generators and other stuff down there and due to health and safety (or so I was told) the air wasn't clean so visitors like myself weren't supposed to go in without masks.   BS may know why this would have been or what it was all about?  I didn't inquire further as it really was dark and dismal and cold down there, so not a place I was keen to hang around to take photos.

[Black Sheep]

First I've heard of having to wear masks, Kitz ??. All Exchanges come with their own little quirks, like flooding, ingress of gas, but I've not heard of 'Poor air quality' as being a cause ….. ever. There are fixed-gas detectors in the chambers, so any ingress would set the alarm off and no-one would be going down there. Baffled ?? Yes, I am. 

The only time we (when I was on the 'Power Maintenance Team') ever wore masks, was if we were charging up the massive battery wet-cells. The fumes these gave off were awful !! But, these haven't been in existence for approximately 25yrs'ish ?.

[kitz]

Was a while ago now so I cant recall properly.  But Im pretty sure the 'visitor' aspect was stressed, and something about the air quality/gas.   May have just been the guy who was showing us round..  like I say it really was a bit dismal and cold down there, perhaps he didnt want to hang around either

[Black Sheep]

Damned awful places to work in, cold and eerily creepy. Certainly don't miss working in them.