[dfields69]

I picked it up today took pictures and will post tomorrow.

[Bob Andersen]

The suspense is killing me ;)

[dfields69]

So I picked up this beast Sunday. I apologize heartily for the delay in providing an update. It has been a chaotic week. Work computer died and I'm work from home, strained my gut dragging this radio up onto my back porch ( I miss my 20's when I could carry a side by side phono/radio up a flight of stairs by me self lol). So the bummer is, there is nothing in that area below the chassis. The mystery grows, however, when I saw that the dummied knobs were done at Philco. The jewel light over the dial opening, I was prepared to write off as a later add on but it is centered so well and was never hooked up to anything. Makes me think it might have had something to do with the dingus that never made it into this cabinet. I cannot figure a way to get the 650 tube layout tag off of the one under it to see what it was supposed to be. That might have provided a bit of enlightenment. At any rate, here are the pictures following this message. I need a black 1936 Philco round knob if anyone can spare one. I provided a picture of  quick test area I did onto he left side of the center panel of the cabinet. Bee-yoo-tee-ful veneer. I will save this oddball and post video of it in my living room vibrating the windows, floors, my fillings etc. when I get it done. I just bought my first home in July; a 2 story brick 1930 bungalow with a killer living room. The front bedroom upstairs is my man cave where I'll bring the chassis to life.

[dfields69]

                                                           

[Ron Ramirez]

So, the second (WR) chassis was missing. Did they just have two shafts stuck through two of the three front panel bottom holes (under the 655's shafts) that were connected to nothing behind the panel?

That's a bummer. The mystery continues. But you have a unique Philco cabinet at a very good price, at least.

[dfields69]

Yes Ron, the knobs were on factory made dummy shafts. But look at that chassis! And the speaker. They're clean as a pin. The 42 outputs are Raytheons and the driver is a green label Sylvania 42. The rectifier is a Cunningham. Someone took very good care of this thing for a long time.

[Ron Ramirez]

Yes, but someone down the line pulled the WR three-shaft chassis out of the radio, and likely cut off the shafts to make "dummy" shafts to hold the extra three knobs. It didn't leave the factory without the WR chassis which appears to have been originally installed upside down under the 655 chassis in the cabinet.

I was really hoping we could document that previously undocumented WR chassis, but perhaps this find will somehow result in more of these strange Philcos coming out of the woodwork and, eventually, perhaps one with its WR chassis intact will turn up.

Until then, enjoy your find.

[dfields69]

Hey there Ron. Have you or anyone else found out anything about what that mystery unit in this radio did? I'm fixing up the cabinet right now. I have a 1937 11 tube Airline on the table for a friend, then I'm going to restore the chassis. This looks like a powerful set; two 42 outputs and a third 42 for a driver like the 118 chassis from 1935. I love Philco radios. Built like tanks.

[Ron Ramirez]

No, without a WR chassis to examine, I have no clue what it did or what it looked like - only that it had three controls. And these things are undocumented save for the cabinets (page 1, post #15, this thread).

[dfields69]

I'll post some pictures when I get this thing finished. It's really grown on me. I hope I can d a good job of repairing the veneer on the bottom of the cabinet.

[Ron Ramirez]

Sounds good. I'm sure there are several of us - myself included - who look forward to your work and seeing the finished product.

[Greg]

Seem like there should have been a cable connecting the two chassis? I don't see a connector for one.

You would think that if nothing else, they would have shared the speaker (PA system??), but again, no connector.

They must have been separately powered, separate ON/OFF... But phony knobs.

Looks like a ground wire coming off the chassis. Maybe to the second chassis??

Curious.

[Ron Ramirez]

Yes, it does seem there would be some sort of connection between the 655 chassis and the WR chassis - unless someone removed an original 650 chassis as well as the WR chassis many years ago, and installed the 655 chassis.

We will never know.

And until a WR chassis turns up (if one ever does), we won't know its purpose or its original intended function.

In any event, dfields69 still has a very rare, very unique Philco cabinet and perhaps the only 655 console using a U speaker.

[Brad Winder]

Could it possibly have been a secondary amp for one or more Wired Remote speakers?  The lower knob seems to be the style used to switch between sources (eg - main speaker, remote a, remote b) and the other two controls could have been for on/off and volume. The jewelled "on" lamp mounted above the dial would make perfect sense, letting you know the amp is turned on. The different U speaker and the modified connections between the output transformer and the voice coil would make a tap to take signal to the input of the amp.

[Ron Ramirez]

We don't know, and won't know until a WR unit turns up intact. The WRs are not documented in any Philco service literature that I am aware of.

There must be a few still out there in the wild...