Delete comment from: Ken Shirriff's blog
As a hardware CE in the late 60s I was called in from fixing unit-record gear to help with the installation of the first model 85 in the San Francisco Data Center, which was an all-hands-on-deck effort for the local branch office. I recall the steel frames being installed then lots of copper piping for the coolant system being plumbed into them.
I also recall how the weakest link in all of these systems was the console printer. It was a beefed-up Selectric typewriter but even with improved bearings, the Selectric mechanism was never meant to pound away printing OS messages constantly 24/7. When the console printer failed, DOS or MVS stopped and nothing could be run until it was fixed. So the CE who had Selectric training was liable to late-night callouts at any time.
Apr 8, 2019, 3:14:43 PM
Posted to Iconic consoles of the IBM System/360 mainframes, 55 years old