Police boxes in action during World War 2

[Fardels Bear]

Not sure if this has been mentioned already.

The other day I was given the BFI dvd set "If War Should Come":

http://www.amazon.co.uk/General-Post-Office-Collection-Vol-3/dp/B001UL7SJO/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1285307630&sr=1-2

which is a 2 disc set containing British wartime documentaries.  Imagine my delight when I got to the documentary "War and Order" on disc 2, and saw police boxes "in action" during a police exercise in London.  You can se the whole thing in YouTube:  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5beV1ESPudk

Meantime:

[wayne venomous]

Brilliant! 


I keep expecting to see one of these in the background:

[Fardels Bear]

Just noticed they have got shades over the lantern to comply with blackout.

[hb88banzai]

Great find!

There are at least three different boxes shown (possibly four), noting that the closeup shots are of a different box than either of the two boxes used for long shots (with a possible fourth showing only a lintel sign and part of the roof). Similar sandbagging and barrier installations were used, but they are identifiably different. All appear to be Barnet type boxes, but only the two used for long shots are definitively so.

On the closeup box, I notice the St. John badge seems to be the same as the Olympia box badge (four screws and all), and the phone door sign appears essentially the same as the Barnet box, save that a few letters (most notably the "H" in TELEHPONE) appear wider, with possibly some minor alignment differences as well.

Also note the early type blue phone door and window frames rather than white on all three boxes that show these, and that all three that show the phone door have the hinges on the right.

Very nice.






EDIT: I just noticed that on those shots that show them, the bevels on the the doors appear to be significantly less (a shallower angle) than on the concrete panels next to them, as was apparently the case on the Barnet box itself. If the concrete panels are the measured Barnet angle of 22-22.5 degrees, then I get the impression the door inset bevels would be at most half this, or 11 degrees off from a right angle, with the possibility that they are as little as 0 degrees (no bevel at all) as ironageman had the impression was the case on Barnet when he took his measurements.

[peted]

In case anyone wants 'clean' caps of the boxes shown, I have cunningly used photoshop and multiple frames stitched together to remove the officers from the pictures:

EDIT: the image uploader is timing out... I will post them up somewhere else and link...

[Avadh]

In the first picture it looks as though there is some slight damage on the left hand door and the centre divide strip. Also an unusual type of lamp fitting can be seen in the other pictures too.

[hb88banzai]

In the first picture it looks as though there is some slight damage on the left hand door and the centre divide strip. Also an unusual type of lamp fitting can be seen in the other pictures too.

Yeah, obvious damage to the paint and maybe a bit to the concrete on the center divider and the right pillar (actually a little bit to the left pillar as well, seen in another capture).

The "light fitting" I believe is a blackout compliant housing slid over the normal beacon and lamp base to make sure no light escapes during an air raid blackout.

[peted]

Can I reply to this now?
Here are the snaps...