Phone Trip to Head Waters, Virginia (Northern Telecom Centurion pay phone)

Head Waters, VA (McDowell exchange 540-396) has probably one of the last central office controlled (non COCOT) Northern Telecom (Nortel) Centurion pay phones in the state of Virginia, and probably most of the United States. (Centurions are still in use in Canada, but in the US they are very rare). This video was recorded on December 21, 2021 - the first day of winter. It was 25 degrees F outside and it was quite cold. However I wanted to capture this pay phone just in case it was removed by Spring of 2022.

That being said, I probably spent way too much time and detail in the intro, as I wanted to let the viewer know how pay phones USED to work in the heyday of pay phones, with TSPS/OSPS and TOPS for long distance, etc. This pay phone is a "post pay" pay phone where you only deposit the money after the called party answers so you can talk to them.

If you want to skip to the phone calls themselves, go to 16:09

The audio I got from the pay phone was very low volume and I had to amplify it quite a bit for you to hear it. If I make it back to do another Phone Trip, I promise to do a better job with the audio.

I intend on going back in the spring of 2022 if the pay phone is still there to do a better Phone Trip, but wanted to share what I had now.

And sorry for the shaky camera - it was cold!

Visit Telephone World at https://www.telephoneworld.org

(Yes I said "High Waters" a few times in the intro. That's incorrect - it's Head Waters.)