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Black magneto desk phone in a black casing seated on a metal base of light grey colour. It features a Bakelite handset with a black braided cord. On the right is a black hand crank used to make calls to the telephone exchange. It was broadly used on railways in Germany and other countries. A well-built device with loud ringers and the ability to endure harsh weather. The code OB refers to a system of coded railway communication developed in Germany. The coding concerned the ringer's volume and duration during calls from and to adjacent and remote train stations in order to identify the train's position. It was used in Germany as the main railway intercommunication device until the beginning of the 1970s.