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Anyone based near Nuremberg or know the area very well?
computid - 16/4/19 at 02:06 PM

Hi All,

I've purchased a large and obscure vintage computer item (Well, an entire mainframe...) thats located near Nuremberg.

It's part of a property clearance auction and as such needs to be moved within 14 days. The issue is I'm not entirely sure how big it is and how much of it I can fit in a luton box.

Does anybody know of a storage company that they'd recommend where I could store it for a few weeks whilst I organise collection? Also, recommendations of a Nuremberg based van hire company that will rent a 3.5t luton box with a tail lift would also be great.

Cheers!

JMW - 16/4/19 at 02:43 PM

It's not an IBM 360 by any chance is it? Cut my teeth on a 360/50. All of 256k of memory. 90k production partition, 70k for testing, rest for spool if I remember rightly.

gremlin1234 - 16/4/19 at 05:41 PM

quote:
Originally posted by computidAlso, recommendations of a Nuremberg based van hire company that will rent a 3.5t luton box with a tail lift would also be great.

Cheers!
be careful hiring a van abroad to bring it home, there are rules against uk based drivers, using foreign plates here.

Theshed - 16/4/19 at 07:29 PM

eBay before pub = good

eBay after pub = bad

overdriver - 16/4/19 at 10:10 PM

Well if it's what I cut my teeth on - English Electric LEO III - you'll be hard pressed to squeeze it into a full size shipping container due to the bulk of the 'assembler' cabinets replete with thermionic valves and bakelite circuit boards! EE System 4, IBM 360/370, ICL 1900/2950+ series etc. were more compact with micro integrated circuitry. Even smaller were the 'mini mainframes' such as IBM Series 1, IBM System 3X, ICL 2903 or even DEC PDP11.

Whether it can fit into a Luton or need a Pickfords removal van will also depend on what peripherals - tape decks, disc drives, printers, card/paper tape readers etc. come with it.

Sorry I can't help with Nuremberg storage etc. but thanks for the opportunity to wander down memory lane.

Michael.

overdriver - 16/4/19 at 10:45 PM

Hang on a minute. You're in Leighton Buzzard, is it something perhaps destined for Bletchley Park by any chance?

Michael.

computid - 17/4/19 at 12:42 PM

quote:
Originally posted by JMW
It's not an IBM 360 by any chance is it? Cut my teeth on a 360/50. All of 256k of memory. 90k production partition, 70k for testing, rest for spool if I remember rightly.


IBM 360 Model 20, so the rather odd one of the bunch! Got a few peripherals with it as well e.g. disc drives, tape drives and punch card readers but I need to see it to determine condition

quote:
Originally posted by gremlin1234
quote:
Originally posted by computidAlso, recommendations of a Nuremberg based van hire company that will rent a 3.5t luton box with a tail lift would also be great.

Cheers!
be careful hiring a van abroad to bring it home, there are rules against uk based drivers, using foreign plates here.


Not intending to hire to bring it home, just looking at options of moving it to store locally in Nuremberg so I can collect it with an English van (or two) at a later date.

quote:
Originally posted by overdriver
Hang on a minute. You're in Leighton Buzzard, is it something perhaps destined for Bletchley Park by any chance?

Michael.


I've been a Volunteer at The National Museum of Computing at Bletchley park for around 11 years. Whilst it's not headed straight there due to space constraints, that's where I intend to have it on display at some point in the future (perhaps in working order after we've hopefully restored it).

JMW - 17/4/19 at 03:46 PM

Good luck with this. Sounds a fascinating project.

In terms of getting it working, what OS did the 360/20 have? Maybe a DOS and possibly one of the disks will have it on there. What we need is a retired IBM systems programmer (not me unfortunately) who would know how to IPL (boot it up in ibm m/f terms) and configure it.

You will also need a ibm compatible card punch (and cards!) as this is how most input to it will be achieved. I think it needs to be ibm compatible as ibm didn't use ascii it used a proprietary encoding system called EBCDIC and I think this impacts on the hole patterns on the cards. May be wrong here though.

Since this forum never ceases to amaze me, maybe there's a sysprog on here? Or maybe the OP is one?