The Thames ISC was installed in two stages which were officially known as:

	Phase 1-Thames A (pictured opposite) Phase 2-Thames B Peter Walker* quotes "We always called them (Thames) 1 and 2 - I think the folks who did the 'official' designations said that you couldn't use numbers!"

Thames 1 TXK5 came into service at Mondial House in 1978. Again, two separate incoming and outgoing units, but both had links to the TXK6 Thames 2 exchange. Each unit had around 2500e capacity.

Larger photos: TXK5 switchroom (230k) and TXK5 switch (147k)

ISMC - International Switching Maintenance Centre for TXK5s

• Centralograph Equipment for print outs of call failures.
• Service Equipment Alarm for monitoring forced release of equipments.
• Traffic and Statistical Meters for analysis.
• Electronic Traffic Recorder (MET2  at Mollison ISC, Stag Lane)

Engineering in the '80s

	An engineer planning the route for his next holiday. Photo: Adrian Hughes
	"This is the control room where we were all meant to sit unless there was a fault, part of the Ericsson ethos! Steve 'Ted' Foxley is the ginger haired guy on the right." Photo: Adrian Hughes
	"This is the frame where we jumpered the circuits coming up from the repeater station. The relays behind the frame (on the left) were part of the main routing control." Note the change in this era from the long brown dust coats to the short blue jackets. Photo: Adrian Hughes

Thames 2 TXK6 used the Ericsson AKE13 SPC controlled codebar switching system. SPC was necessary to support the CCITT6 common channel signalling system. It had a capacity of 5000e. The last analogue ISC to survive – it was withdrawn in 1992.

*Peter Walker was the project manager for Thames (extension) and Keybridge in 1981/2.

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Photos: Light-Straw October 2001
Compiled by Light-Straw © 1997-2009