42a and 751 Police Telephone Box (1936-60)

Mark & JacquesTaking your cue on using the iPhone, I tried using mine & it worked great....the flash is right where it needs to be. Below is a photo I took of the underside of my pre-war Police Box, and it clearly shows the ridge running around the perimeter of the inside roof...this is missing or in distinct on the post-war version. And as Mark mentioned, the color on the pre-war one is quite a bit darker....more like a purple/blue. Best regards, Terry

Hello Terry & Jacques, Our recent correspondence over the Police Telephone Box prompted me to look at my #750 Telephone Boxes to see if there are internally recognisable casting variations. Looking at / photographing the inside was far trickier than with the police phone box because of the narower size. However, a cross beneath the top dome of one box is clearly visible, whereasa on the other, only a single line is detectable - but I think one or two numbers can also be made out. I've attached two photos and wonder if anyone else has found similar inscriptions. Kind regards, Mark

Hello TerryThank you for your offer for some photos but I think that now I have what is needed. What I am looking for is pictures of the different markings of the hut and a picture of the door side of the Johilco box as well as it's height so that one can compare the scales. The photo on the right shows the Johilco box but not the most interesting side which is the door's side. The Encyclopaedia has already been updated according to the recent discoveries by some of the members of this forum which unfortunately are too few.

Mark--When I was re-looking at the Talk Model Toys discussion on the Police Box, I remember reading a comment that there also appeared to be a size difference between the pre-war and post-war 750 Phone Box. I only have a post-war version, so could not comment further. Maybe someone with both can confirm.....Best regards, Terry

There is a size difference between my prewar and postwar telephone boxes that I always ascribed to zinc pest, but now in light of this discussion I'm not so sure. For one thing, the prewar box is heavier than the postwar, and I think I can see small differences in the casting, too. At such time as I have any success in photographing these, I'll post the images in a telephone box topic. If this box also is different, the question then becomes 'why?' Damaged tooling for both just seems too unlikely. Of course we know that the first prewar figures were made to a larger size than the later ones and their postwar equivalents, so while it would be logical that they'd get smaller telephone boxes too, the fact that it's so hard to tell the difference even all these years later really makes one wonder if it would have been worth the effort ...

Hi Jonathan, very interesting comments. I don't have a pre-war phone box (yet!), so look forward to anything you can find out from your own research. Kind regards, Mark

Hello Terry & MarkAll this is very interesting but be carefull, there seems to be a confusion. The blue box is not a 'telephone box', it is a 'Police hut' and discussions about the red telephone box should not be here but in the 12c thread. For a better understanding, I am transfering part of this discussion to the 12c thread.All the best. Jacques