They could be found on nearly every street corner, business, warehouse, manufacturing plant, hotel and stadium, airports, jails …all across North America. Over time they really were everywhere and in constant use. It was a normal part and look of the landscape.

Here is a vintage working 1950s Western / Northern Electric model 233 3 slot payphone. The internal parts of this phone are all present and intact, and it has been wired with a modular network and line cord so that it will work on your home phone line. We can also install a ringer to notify you of incoming calls. Pay phone companies are looking for ways to get more out of their phones - or to get out of the business. In 1998, the country had 2.6 million phones, 400,000 more than today. In that same period, BellSouth has shrunk its pay phone inventory by nearly 24,000 phones.

Three slot payphones were taken out of service in the late 1970′s and replaced with ugly box-like single slot units. They were less prone to vandalism and technology was greatly improved.

The three slot payphone look and functionality was virtually unchanged for 65 years. One of the longest runs of use and manufacturing in US history.

With today’s designs of everyday use items being very square and boxy, not to mention disposable or non repairable, three slot payphones are appealing to the eye and very Americana. Millions were destroyed by the phone company when replaced by the single slots. They were tossed into Lake Michigan from the side of barges, buried in landfills, loaded onto rail cars bound for Mexico to be melted into car parts and other uses. Many survived that fate and some have ended up here with me.

They used to be the “norm” for communicating when away from home prior to the common use of the cell phones. Phone companies were and have done away completely with pay phones due to the high repair and maintenance costs from vandals. Those that are around are usually in big cities and privately owned, not in the best of conditions. In Canada however, they are still owned and operated by Bell Canada and kept up very well .

People lied, cried, argued, were in love, called for help and conducted business; legal and not so legal at times! It was an easy way for the Fed’s to tap phones and listen to illegal conversations involving organized crime and criminal activity. Times were simpler and not as much bureaucracy was needed to ask for permission. Much history indeed!

3 Slot Pay Phones For Sale Best Buy

After years of faithful service and unthinkable abuse, I am bringing them back to their original beauty, look and function……and then some!

All of the payphones are authentic, and completely refurbished top to bottom, inside and out, for another century of service. Take a look at what is available, what is possible and the care that goes into
refurbishing a piece of North American history.

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Converting an A/E 3 Slot Payphone for Home Use

Member: Telephone Collector's International 2003/2004

A couple of years ago, I purchased and received my first 3 slot pay phone. After searching, I found nothing on the web detailing the conversion from coin operation to home operation for this and similar phones, so I thought I would pass along these notes. The phone I converted was an Automatic Electric LPB 82 prepay phone, but these notes could be applicable to other similar phones, including some 50's era Northern and Western Electric 3 slot phones.

See my Northern/Western Electric 233G and Northern Electric QSD3A Pages!

Please don't misunderstand, while I have worked on many non-pay phones, I am no expert on payphones, in fact I am quite the opposite, but learning. However, this conversion went off very well and was 100% successful. Follow these directions at your own risk. These instructions assume you have a similar phone which is properly functioning as a payphone to begin with. Replace any needed components first. It is my hope that this at least will provide you with some needed guidance if you, like me, had never done a conversion on a pay phone before. With the absence of information on converting these phones on the net, it was necessary to 'fly by the seat of my pants' with some guidance from others.

The phone in question was an Automatic Electric LPB 82 55 pre pay phone, similar in many ways to some Northern and Western Electric models. There are many variations in payphones, even within one brand. A close examination of the phone should determine whether any of these notes will be applicable. Since completing this phone, I have seen a couple of phones identical on the outside, but which varied greatly on the interior due to upgrading during the 70's by different refurbishers. This, however, will give even the owners of such phones a place to start I hope.

The Beginning:

Once you have finished the cleaning of the phone, you are ready to begin. First, unlock and remove the top front case of the phone. Once unlocked, tip the front bottom portion of this section out, lift up on it slightly, and it will come clear from the backboard and lower housing. Unplug the wiring harness where it connects to the backboard (some phones may have metal fingers which mate with contacts in the housing to perform this function without a need to manually unplugging the harness). Set this assembly aside for now.

The first step is to determine where the phone line connects, then to connect the line cord.

Lay the backboard/base assembly on its back. In the middle of the backboard, you will find a multi-terminal terminal strip (at least in the A/E). You will note that the top three terminals will be marked L1, G, and L2. These correspond to your line cord connections. If it is another brand of phone, look for similarly marked teminals or for remnants of the old line in for guidance. You will require a spade to modular line cord, or a spade ended line cord and modular adaptor. Connect the red of your line cord to L1; yellow, or ground to G; and the green to L2. Using a strain relief, secure the cord so that it will not pull loose from the phone. Run the other end of the cord out through the oval hole next to the strip.

Step 2:

You can reconnect the front section at this point, and see if it will dial properly. If a 50's or later phone, it likely will not, for reasons mentioned below. If not, remove the upper portion again and set it aside.

What causes this inability to dial, is that in later 3 slot phones and those which have been retrofitted, the dial was intentionally shorted until coins were deposited to prevent people from sticking a pin through the handset cord, or into the microphone and touching it to the booth or other exposed (grounded) metal to get a dialtone, and being able to successfully dial (payphones used lines that didn't give a dialtone until a coin was dropped in, and a ground was placed on the line through the coil). It was a simple fix to solve the problem of people getting free calls using this technique. So what you are experiencing is normal behavior for the phone. In order to use it on non-pay lines, you must disable this feature.

This dial shorting on this phone was accomplished by adding an extra set of contacts to the coin relay - look for a large coil in front of the backboard section of the case [see photo, right]. These contacts are located on the rea