Railwayana gems to pique any collector’s interest – David scours the classifieds so you don’t have to...
STEPPING UP TO THE PLATE WITH FIVE-FIGURE PURCHASES
GW RAILWAYANA’S two-day sale of Railwayana, Posters, Advertising and Motoring items, held over March 16/17, achieved five-figure prices and the auction grossed an impressive £800,000 overall. There were plenty of items to suit most budgets among the 929 lots.
Not surprisingly, Lot 300 GWR cast brass nameplate King George VI ex ‐6028 was popular with bidders. The original condition plate reached a hammer price of £16,000.
Not far behind was another GWR cast brass nameplate, this time with a double history. Lot 450 Earl Baldwin was ex-Collett ‘Dukedog’ 4 ‐ 4‐0 and then ‘Castle’ 4 ‐ 6‐0 No. 5063. The lightly cleaned, original condition plate was sold for £15,500.
Some locomotive nameplates regularly achieve five-figure sums, but worksplates tend to usually reach prices in the hundreds. However, Lot 273 was no ordinary example. The catalogue description said it was “One of the earliest UK ‐based industrial worksplates to have survived”.
Hawthorns & Co. Leith Engine Works No. 138 1856 was from an 0 ‐ 4‐0 pannier tank. The lightly face-restored cast brass plate came complete with correspondence from the National Coal Board dated January 1963. The hammer fell at £12,000.
Combined cabside oval nameplate, numberplate and worksplate Brasenose 3321 Reg. No. 1744 Great Western Railway Swindon Works made its auction debut and made £7,500.
An interesting cast brass nameplate from a Burry Port & Gwendraeth Valley, later GWR 0 ‐ 6‐0T locomotive, was Pioneer, that made £4,000.
An LNER ‘D49’ ‘Hunt’ 4 ‐ 4‐0 left-hand plate The Berkeley ex ‐222/2754/62754 with fox emblem sold for £7,500. A right-hand fox emblem sold for £500.
Southern Railway nameplate Sir Sagamore ex-Urie/Maunsell ‘King Arthur’ 4 ‐ 6‐0 No. 771/30771 was sold for £5,900. Bodiam, ex-LBSCR ‘Terrier’ ‘A1’ 0 ‐ 6‐0T sold at £5,600.
The next scheduled main auction from GWRA is to be held on July 20 & 21.
SALE HIGHLIGHTS
LOT 2633 Collectors’ Items SOLD etc. Sale, Tooveys, March 21 £600
Among a wide variety of items in a West Sussex-based mixed sale was a GWR cabside numberplate 6325 from a Churchward-designed ‘4300’
Class 2 ‐ 6‐
