Doctor Bachmann

[Radioguy]

Unfortunately we don't make a train shaped like a police box....

As others have said, you have made Star Trek and STAR WARS sets, so it's actually hard to comprehend why you haven't sought this license as well. Incidentally, those sets didn't look like NCC-1701 or the Millennium Falcon either... 

That said, any Doctor Who fan who knows anything about licensed merchandise knows the first right of refusal ought to lie with Dapol, as they, aside from producing trains in the scales we know, also produced the official Doctor Who action figures in the 80s and 90s. If I ever expected a N or HO set, it would have been from them.

However, if by some stunning chance they wouldn't produce any, a UK-based producer still seems more realistic, and Hornby seems the next most likely choice. They have plenty of licensed brand experience as they were the official producer of Thomas The Tank Engine in AC trains before Bachmann obtained the license.

Still, with producers ever-dwindling, Bachmann really ought to be vying for this. The time is right to try, what with new contracts being done for the new series merchandise.

Really, there's something poetic about a Doctor-branded engine with companion-branded carriages following behind...

[Warflight]

I just got in from Who Con (heading back early tomorrow to put on a panel) and I brought this up there... a LOT of folks LOVE the idea, and would totally buy a Doctor Who themed train set (and they too talked of making a UNIT train)

[Terry Toenges]

Len - You make some good points. Is the track that the diesel is on perpendicular to the trestle or going under it at a slant? Camera angle is deceiving.
Here's another thought. On the upper track, it looks to be 14 or 15 boards between bents. Are those ties that are part of the track or boards that are are part of the trestle? I've seen model railroad trestles both ways - with boards laid across the stringers and then track and ties on top of that and then where the boards across the stringers are the ties and the rail laid directly on them.
The ones on the trestle look closer together then the ones on the ground so they probbly aren't the ties.
I know it's not E-Z Track on the trestle but for E-Z Track - 14 ties = 3 5/8"  15 ties = 3 15/16".

[Warflight]

I think there is only one way to solve this... somebody buy it, and send it to me, and I will be happy to give accurate measurements in both Imperial, as well as metric!

It's a tough job, but, I'm willing to take one for the team here! It's the the nice kinda guy I am!


MWA-HAHAHAHAHA!!!!


(Oh... wait... ignore the maniacal laughter...)

[Terry Toenges]

I used to watch Dr. Who many years ago in the 70's and 80's. I haven't watched it since it's rebirth. I guess it has a whole new following in the younger generations.
I actually worked for U.N.I.T.'s sister organization when I lived in New York in the 70's - U.N.S.S. United Nations Security Section

[Len]

Terry - If you look at the crossbeam just above and behind the diesel it parallels the top edge line of the diesel. The only way that can happen is if the lower track is perpendicular to the upper track. If it was at an angle the top of the diesel would not parallel the cross beam.

Len

[Terry Toenges]

Is this what you are talking about? The front part looks higher than the back.

[Len]

Terry - I popped the pic into a software package I used for office layouts and threw in some dimension lines. To save a lot of guessing, I just called the diesel an F7, which has a 15' top of railhead to top of cab height. So I popped a dimension line on it, and set it for the distance from the top of the rail to the top of the cab and called that 15'. It doesn't matter what the actual dimension it was showing was, I just wanted a known distance line to measure with.

So I did a few 'copy & paste' actions on the dimension line, then rotated them to the horizontal and laid them on the bents. It took four scale 15' lines to get for the first bent on one end to the last bent on the other. 4*15=60, so allowing for a bit of fudge factor because the trestles on a slight angle in the pic, I'd say the trestle is somewhere between 65 - 75 scale feet long. Not including the rock formations on each end.

Len

[Terry Toenges]

65-75 in HO or O?
In HO:
65 scale feet X 12 = 780" / 87 = 8.9655" long
75 scale feet X 12 = 900" / 87 = 10.345" long
In O:
65 scale feet X 12 = 780" / 48 = 16.25" long
75 scale feet X 12 = 900" / 48 = 18.75" long

[Len]

Sorry, I should have been more precise, 65 - 75 HO scale feet.

Len

[Radioguy]

I just got in from Who Con (heading back early tomorrow to put on a panel) and I brought this up there... a LOT of folks LOVE the idea, and would totally buy a Doctor Who themed train set (and they too talked of making a UNIT train)

Really, the more I think about it, are we 100% certain one hasn't ever been done?

Back in '07 or '08, I remember seeing pictures from the UK of counterfeit series-branded cheap Chinese R/C cars and similar toys you'd expect to find in a dollar store, so there's a chance something unofficial might even exist. Plus, it's a property that has been going since the 60s. There had to have been interest, and possibly even a cheap plastic set at some point.

Perhaps someone else can pin this down?

[Len]

Found a Shinkansen "Doctor Yellow" set:


A "Doctor Pepper" set:


And a "Doctor Mort" set:


But no "Doctor Who" set anywhere.

Len

[Terry Toenges]

Len - I'm going to go to a new thread with this. I hate to keep messing up their Dr. Who thread with my trestle stuff.
I'm sorry guys.

[Radioguy]

No worries. I'm sure a mod can do a thread split to make a new thread from the OT discussion (at least most board software allows mods nd admins to do it)

As for Doctor Who and model trains, it seems the Doc himself is one of us:

http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Model_Train_Set_(short_story)

Saw some fun being had among the O-gauge folks...


http://cs.trains.com/ctt/f/95/t/247927.aspx