• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

Rescuing two PDP-11 systems in UK from a former big British Telecom underground shelter in central London ???

Wildfire

Experienced Member
Joined
Jul 1, 2014
Messages
252
Location
Germany, near Göttingen
Hello folks,

are there people out there who would accept this challenge to rescue the systems if they are worth to be rescued ?

I always find it a pity when things eventually will be scrapped or just rot away in those places.

Yesterday i saw accidentally a video ( 3 parts, and 1 or 2 extra besides the main vids ) with the following screenshots.
One can clearly see the two identical systems, harddrives are not there anymore which is normal for a place like that.

The interesting thing is that there still are two up and running elevators, the urban explorers got in through a labyrinth of ladders - but later found the elevators
which still seem to be used bc this is the only normal access to the part of the area... - and they also left the underground this way.

So in my opinion ( and if i would live in the UK ) - even if it is unknown if all boards are still present - i would try to get in contact with the right people,
do the needed paperwork and rescue those systems bc of the history of having been used in the cold war times in those shelter.

My primary goal of this thread is to eventually point the right people to this systems,
but also want to hear opinions of the other people if they would do it or not and why ?

This is the video where i saw it:

Circa after minute 55 there comes the part where you can see the two racks
and also some maybe interesting telco racks a bit later who can also be of interest for saving.

Screenshots follow as reply...
 
Screenshots...
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot_20230917_152430_Firefox.jpg
    Screenshot_20230917_152430_Firefox.jpg
    1.3 MB · Views: 63
  • Screenshot_20230917_152857_Firefox.jpg
    Screenshot_20230917_152857_Firefox.jpg
    1.3 MB · Views: 66
  • Screenshot_20230917_152919_Firefox.jpg
    Screenshot_20230917_152919_Firefox.jpg
    1.2 MB · Views: 61
  • Screenshot_20230917_152947_Firefox.jpg
    Screenshot_20230917_152947_Firefox.jpg
    1.2 MB · Views: 61
  • Screenshot_20230917_153242_Firefox.jpg
    Screenshot_20230917_153242_Firefox.jpg
    934.1 KB · Views: 59
  • Screenshot_20230917_153255_Firefox.jpg
    Screenshot_20230917_153255_Firefox.jpg
    951.1 KB · Views: 58
  • Screenshot_20230917_153113_Firefox.jpg
    Screenshot_20230917_153113_Firefox.jpg
    1 MB · Views: 65
It looks like two identical cabs - but one is pointing backwards - there is a 8" SMD Fujitsu drive chassis (for the 2322 / 2333 drives) in the bottom half of both that can take 2 drives and PSU side by side and one appears to be fitted in each...

Would be great if it could be set free - but legitimately of course...

The cabs are older late 1970s ones used with the older 11/03 systems and RK05 drives, typically - so they have been upgraded a few times up to the mid/late 1980s I would say
 
It just so happens I work for BT so I'll find out about those machines (if indeed they belong to BT) and save them if I can.
I'd point out of course that it appears that those folks are trespassing on private property (not sure it it is BT) - possibly in an environment that is quite unsafe.
I hope nobody on here is daft enough to follow their lead.
 
Last edited:
It just so happens I work for BT so I'll find out about those machines (if indeed they belong to BT) and save them if I can.
I'd point out of course that it appears that those folks are trespassing on private property (not sure it it is BT) - possibly in an environment that is quite unsafe.
I hope nobody on here is daft enough to follow their lead.

👍
It would be so cool if the systems can be rescued...

You should watch the complete 3 video set and eventually also the over 5 hour live talk, there are also given some informations.
In the 3rd video at the end they leave the building through an blue emergency door - so no key from the inside, only one needed to get in from the outside.
In the 2nd video there is a house number 39 seen...
I attached 2 screenshots from the end of the 3rd video, you can see what this is and where they have been...
Bc of the naming i assume this may be BT, but also eventually governmental...
You should be able to find out if you can get in touch with the right people at work imo :)

The environment should be safe when you got in there through the blue door and use the elevator.
I for myself would still wear a hardhat and bring an oxygen warning device with me.

These explorations can always be seen from two sides, for myself i do enjoy seeing them as long as nobody gets badly hurt.
And i think that those old unknown places should be explored and captured in video to let at least see the people how it is and was in those places.
Too many places get destroyed and noone knows how it has been inside...
The best way is always to do it official with permission.
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot_20230918_000434_Firefox.jpg
    Screenshot_20230918_000434_Firefox.jpg
    993.2 KB · Views: 8
  • Screenshot_20230918_000641_Firefox.jpg
    Screenshot_20230918_000641_Firefox.jpg
    1 MB · Views: 8
As a retiree from France Telecom, I don't think BT would have used DEC's Vax for its telephone exchange.
BT's system X was developed by their R&D team and with local manufacturers, system Y was UK's name for Ericsson's AXE.
In France we had a similar story to system X with E10 and 11F (I worked in 11F).
From what I found on Internet there was no DEC equipment in system X.
Indeed it might have been used for customer service or something similar where I have poor experience.

Wikipedia says the military might have used the tunnels in the 1990'.

 
As a retiree from France Telecom, I don't think BT would have used DEC's Vax for its telephone exchange.
BT's system X was developed by their R&D team and with local manufacturers, system Y was UK's name for Ericsson's AXE.
In France we had a similar story to system X with E10 and 11F (I worked in 11F).
From what I found on Internet there was no DEC equipment in system X.
Indeed it might have been used for customer service or something similar where I have poor experience.

Wikipedia says the military might have used the tunnels in the 1990'.

Hi - the systems in the photo are DEC PDP-11 systems...
 
Haven't watched it all but at 1:00:29 it says June 1989 BT.

Also in video 3 there is some nice disk drives

Would be great for a museum to have quite a collection of most likely unused systems.
 
On one of the racks is written "Zeta Systems".
I heard or read that name before but atm dunno where.

A quick search gave at least that there has been a company who was Calcomp like in the plot business,
another thing is ZETA Lisp ( an OO Lisp ) what i found.

There must have been a lot of terminals or modems connected to the racks, at the bottom of the left rack one sees a lot of Emulex connector panels.

There are some kind of stickers still attached to the right rack, but not readable in the video, so there may be a chance to figure out who had or serviced this systems...
 
i wouldn't expect to see lisp there (seems like a very strange place for it), my best guess is zeta were a DEC OEM
 
Back
Top