Several people, when taking about the era they model jokingly said they need a time machine for their layout. That got me to thinking about my and my brothers favorite time machine, the Tardis from the old BBC series Dr. Who. My brother will be coming up for the holidays and I was wondering if I could get a model to drop into the layout and see if he would spot it. Walther’s has a few N scale phone booths but nothing that would work. Anybody have any idea?
I’d imagine that the UK modelers would have the red phone booths in OO and N, but I’ve never seen a call box for sale, nor on any UK layouts.
I think you’ll have to settle for the Master’s column…
The Tardis is actually a Police phone box (from the days before radios were small enough to carry easily) - Police “on the beat” would use them to call the station to report incidents or request assistance. I think they may also have been available to the general public for emergency calls though I’m not sure about that. Langley Models have them as whitemetal castings - go to www.langleymodels.co.uk and type “Police” into the search box, they have them in OO and N scale. Hope this is of use!
AH, beaten to the punch by a real Brit. I am a HUGE fan of Dr. Who, I only wish some station I could get would still carry it, I miss watching it on a regular basis. I may have to include one on my layout, after all he MUSt have popped in to the USA at SOME point - I was driving on a back road one day and nearly ran off the road when I saw a genuine Call Box sitting next to a house - someone’s either a fan of the show or a fan of the Biritsh Police.
–Randy
Strangely, the Doctor’s only been to the US twice:
Season three: The Gunfighters.
1999: Fox TV Dr Who Movie.
In both episodes, the Doctor was shot at. Gee, makes you think about what the BBC thinks about the United States!
Looking at the booth I’d think a passable copy could be bashed-up from some styrene sheet and Grandtline or Tichy doors.
Randy
One episode of the first season of the current BBc/CBC “Dr. Who” series takes place in the U.S. as well. It is set in a huge, secret underground bunker outside of Salt Lake City where a collection of artifacts from all the aliens that have visited earth are kept. The episode is titled “Dalek” because, well, there is a Dalek as part of the collection.
This seems to be diverging pretty far from model railroading, though I too would love to have a Tardis tucked away in a corner of my layout.
Yes! Langley Models has just the thing.
Thanks for the help.
I could have sworn that “All Curls & Teeth” (Tom Baker) was in a scene at the top of the Empire State Building. I could be wrong.