Bob Duberry - I joined the GPO at 16 and was a YIT, Youth in Training, as it was then, straight from school. I had to have an interview and pass a maths test to get into Long Distance Area. I did my two years training in Faraday and as there was no "subs apparatus", we were at a disadvantage when we did out A and B courses at Charles House in Kensington, and had to go to Park training school to get a bit of Pole Climbing in. I guess I was at Faraday about ten years before you. In those days you had to do a year going round the sections, about 6 weeks on each I think, And then after the first year you were selected for Auto or Transmission. There used to be 5th Floor Carrier and 4th Floor Coax, as well as the sections you mentioned. When STD started I was a T2A in Citadel and our section did the acceptance testing on the new Register translator Magnetic Drum equipment as well as the new Auto switching exchange Using the new 4000 type two motion selector, all in NE Block. When I was a "Youth", we did time in North East Repeaters and in those days, you could still get into the floor above the repeater station which housed some very large manual exchange positions, left over from the war and still festooned with all the "Walls have ears" posters. All this was ripped out in the late fifties and the new STD switching centre built in its place., Some of the names on your web site, were the guys who had the job of training us yoofs and I guess they were at least ten years our senior, so a lot of them must have passed on. I remember Pete Pausey in Trunk Mech, where all those fiendish motor uniselectors were, being quite a lad. One memorable Saturday morning (Overtime of course), the Micklewhite man brought his brand new tape recorder in to serenade us workers. and Pete thought it a great idea to place a hot soldering iron on a rubber cable under the lid of this prized possession. Mr Micklewhite was not amused.! Stan someone was the LTO there and had a side line of selling classical records. So many people had little schemes going.
I have some pics taken at the time and if you are interested I could mail them to you. I guess, like me, some still find the site interesting with all its history. I still find it hard to believe that its now all vanished other than the facade. I remember being told that NE block could never be removed because any explosive would damage St Paul's. The walls were about 6ft thick. There was supposed to be a scheme to fill it full of water and freeze it to break it up! Did you ever come across Bertie Wisdom ? I'm not sure of the section, but it was where all the mechanical regenerators were. He was quite a character. A religious man who would never join the Union , but was a fantastic teacher and an excellent engineer . I remember Dave Jenkins, swapping serial numbers of relay sets, and putting them onto Bertie's section when he couldn't clear the faults.
Edmonds was an important name in my GPO history. When I was still at school I met the Brother of the Woman who was my Boss. ( Was doing a beer round after school for pocket money). Having no idea what I would do when I left, he suggested The Post Office and got me an interview. His name was Mr Edmonds and at the time, was the AEE in charge of Continental Semi Auto on the second floor in SE Block. Any relation?? (No, or I would have risen higher than Level 1)
 I am attaching a pic taken in NE Block during Register Translator commissioning around 1959. In the picture are Bill Ingram, Phil Graves, (Left later to join the Leo Computer Team at Cadby Hall), and I think Jim Martin. After STD went live I applied for a transfer to E in C's office, and joined the group developing the sort of tester that you can see in the picture. Eventually we were making very sophisticated flood testers that were used in the early acceptance trials of the first electronic exchanges. Got my AEE while I was there but after a couple of years left BT to join the commercial world and eventually had my own small company.  Some of my contemporaries stayed in and accepted very generous pay offs in their 50's and came out with excellent pensions. Don't think its the same these days somehow.