TSPS operator in the early to mid 80s
Tom:
I was a TSPS operator in the early to mid 80s. It was the funnest job I've ever had. I am still interested in the science and history behind TSPS (internal link), including regional and company variations of the console layout.
I worked in two different GTE offices, Indio CA and Beaverton OR, where the operating procedures were essentially the same, with minor variations. Key placement and verify worked differently, Beaverton's TSPS would not time a dial rate calling card call initiated by an operator, and so on.
GTE-NW had two tiny offices, La Grande and Coos Bay, that used a very old semi automated system called TSD or Toll Service Desk, I believe made by Nor-Tel. I never hear about it nor can I find anything on the web about it. When they called us at Beaverton Inward the Coos Bay operators were somewhat limited in what they could do with it.
Why did I leave? I left operator services because I enjoyed all the lamps and pushing all those keys. I figured OSPS would be too tame and mundane for me.
R.B.
Thanks for the e-mail. In the mid 1980s Beaverton was a toll center using an ESS switch. La Grande and Coos Bay were also toll centers, but both used crossbar. It's reasonable to assume the older XB switch limited services compared to the more modern ESS, hence the limits of the Toll Service Desk equipment.
Haven't found anything about TSD on the web? Hmm. Northern Electric, then Northern Telecom, now Nortel, is a Canadian company and Canadian patents (external link) are fairly easy to search. I keyed in the words "Northern Telecom" and "Toll Service Desk" and got Patent #946499, the illustrations of which go well over 100 pages in .pdf. If you want the explanatory text then select the "Disclosures" button to get another .pdf. Here's the TSD console layout from that patent:
http://www.privateline/Snyder/NorthernTelecomTSD1.gif
(Huge file to make the keys readable)
Compare and contrast to the Bell System console for TSP or Traffic Service Position:
http://www.privateline.com/circuits/TSPconsole.jpg
Also a very large file.