I lived in a small place that had terminal-per-line SxS. Terminal per
> line means that the line is designated by a number; an additional
> number is required to desginate the party and the number is listed in
> the directory that way without any hyphens or other distinctions.
I lived for a time in Whitefield, Maine which was served by the North Whitefield CO (207-FIieldstone 7 later 207-549 when EAS to Augusta, Maine was added.) The original machine that was installed was a #356 SXS machine. The difference between a #356 SXS and a #355 is that a #356 SXS machine was installed as TPL i.e. terminal per line so FIeldstone 7-2391 to 2390 were individual lines with the tip and ring side of the line had five possible ringing cadences with the possibility that if it was required you could have 10-party service. Each person on the line by their directory number you would know what their ringing cadence was. This provided a real problem if there was a disconnection on the line for providing any sort of intercept. IIRC there was only one "specialized" intercept machine that had to be used if a line was disconnected or changed for any reason.
The #355 SXS machine on the other hand was a terminal per station machine so a party (if you had a party line) could be anywhere in any bank of numbers in that CO. Later the CO was rebuilt and new selectors/connectors were added adding terminal per station capability and all parties in that CO were changed to new numbers. This facilitated easier switching of people from 8 party service to two party and private lines. Eventually of course the SXS machine (installed ~1952) to be replaced with some sort of digital machine (I'm guessing either a 5E or DMS.)
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A friend of mine who lived in Lafayette, Indiana in the 1950-60's had no working phone service (the line had been cut off) but he said he was still able to recieve calls even if not make them. If you called his number, the phone would ring once, you picked up the receiver, listened through the 'not in service' intercept message, then went ahead and talked to the caller anyway. PAT]