The Railwayana Page

 

 

 

Auction round up - 

results from the latest railwayana auctions

updated 20 June 2010

 

Notes

 

If you are new to the hobby and are confused by the jargon below, visit the Primer. 

 

My comments have a loco artifact related bias. These notes are not intended to provide a full list of prices at the auctions covered. As the results for most auctions are all now available on the relevant website soon afterwards, there is little point in just recording prices here, so comments are generally restricted to those items whose price or other aspects which are IMHO particularly noteworthy. My comments on prices tend to be based on relatives rather than absolutes. Any views on price are purely my own and readers should form their own judgment.

 

I think everyone is wondering just what effect the current economic woes will have on the railwayana market. Railwayana buyers are not necessarily representative of the UK consumer, but an economic downturn is bound to have an effect. In1993, apart from a fall in prices, the supply of quality items tended to dry up as vendors awaited the return of better times. However, the supply currently seems to be unchecked, putting even more pressure on prices. There is not one market of course. The more commoditised sectors such as smokebox numberplates and worksplates seem to happily absorb anything thrown at them but further up the scale, the actual plate is all-important.

 

Any comments/queries to 

 

Auction Reports

fta = first time at auction, nsb = not seen before 

 

 

Sheffield 12 June 2010 Derby results are here

 

Not perhaps Sheffield's finest auction line-up. The single line items category was very modest this time, but there was a good South African cabside selection.

 

Mainline steam loco nameplates. A bit lacklustre apart from Merchant Navy "Nederland Line" which made a robust £26,500, especially noteworthy as the other side sold in the railwayana.net auction a couple of weeks before for £25,500. The King Arthur, "Sir Galleron" failed to sell, perhaps due to an ambitious reserve.

 

WR cabsides  7239 made a stiff £1,600. The catalogue says it was brass, very unusual for a 72xx, as every other one I have a record of is cast iron.

 

Headboards. I thought the "Cheltenham Spa Express" was very pleasing and £950 does not seem expensive for such a nice piece.


Smokebox numberplates. A2/2 60503 made £4,100.

 

Other loco items. I do not usually comment on industrial nameplates, but I noted "Rother Vale No 7" here, as there is a photo of "Rother Vale No 0" in Casserley's "British Locomotive Names of the Twentieth Century" (somewhat prematurely written perhaps, in 1963). I had this book out of the library many times as a youngster, using my mother's library ticket as all the railway books were in the grown-ups section. The plate made £800 here. A Britannia whistle, unusually complete with the mounting casting, made £3,900. I imagine this tempted the buyers as its completeness rather confirmed the authenticity. Britannia had more or less standard Crosby chimes so they would be easy to pass off as the real thing.

 

Other items. There was a fair selection of paintings by well-known contemporary railway artists. Prices I suspect are not what the artists would like. Even £2,000 probably does not translate into that much an hour for the work in creating it. It is all a matter of personal taste but I much prefer the more impressionistic works to the minutely detailed jigsaw puzzle or birthday card for nephew -type works.

 

Chinese railwayana. I cannot recall an auction with more than one item of Chinese railwayana and we had no less than five here, presumably from one source. Chinese artifacts should be fairly plentiful in that enthusiasts have been bringing plates back from China for the last 25 years. Pride of place price-wise went to a (RH) cabside plaque in the shape of a flag, which made a surprising £1,050. The catalogue entry was a bit garbled. What the slogan on the flag says is (it reads right to left - the image in the catalogue is for some reason printed at 90 deg. anti-clockwise to its correct position) - "model locomotive crew" and above that "learn from (the) Mao Zedong (loco)". There was a loco named Mao Zedong and by tradition, the crew was exemplary as railwaymen and good communists. The below is an image of my own such plate (which reads left to right).

 

 

 

The catalogue classifies the JS front numberplate as a smokebox numberplate, and they don't come much bigger or heavier than this. I weighed mine and it measured just under 39kg. This also did quite well, as the weight would put many off, making £480.

 

 

Finally, three worksplates. Surprisingly, the least common, a Dalian 1959 plate from a JS, made less than the two rather more common Datong plates. The Dalian plate made £200, and the two Datong plates £220 (1978) and £400 (1980), both RH plates. With prices like these, expect to see some more Chinese plates emerging.

 

Other foreign items. A cabside plate from an Indian WP made £800, while one from a metre gauge WD made £300. There were about 10 South African cabsides. I thought the prices were a bit subdued. 19Bs are rare and £300 was not expensive for the one here. 19Ds are not rare but plates from the British-built locos are and 3330 was disappointing at £260.

 

 

GCRA Stoneleigh 24 April 2010 results are here

 

Mainline steam loco nameplates. West Country set "Wadebridge" made an impressive £37,000. Who says plates from preserved locos don't do so well? "Manors" have historically been relatively rare at auction although in the last couple of years there have been five such plates. Prices have been inconsistent, disguised by several being sold with cabside etc. "Broome Manor" made a robust £12,500 here, and this despite being neither a particularly striking name nor a Cambrian loco. "Cobham Hall" made a modest £4,500, taking us back to prices 15 years ago. "Counties" (the 4-6-0 version) are also a bit shy, although again there are signs of an increased flow. A curious feature is that nearly all the plates to have appeared have been left hand plates, i.e. without the supporting plate needed for the RHS plate to make it free standing. "County of Caernarvon" here was a LH plate and made £12,000, not over-priced, as it is probably one of the better names. "Kidwelly" from the ex-BPGVR loco, has sold before and rose to £4,800. L&MM "Hilda", not quite up there with "Berry Pomeroy Castle" in the league of impressive GW names, made a decent £5,400. LNER B1 "Dibatag" has now appeared at least three times in auction, falling back to £5,000 here. A1 "Redgauntlet" made £11,500, which does not sound too demanding. B17 "Wynyard Park" failed to sell. This has sold twice before previously but many years ago. LNWR "Queen of the Belgians" from a "Prince of Wales" 4-6-0 had last sold in 1988 when it made £3,300. It made £14,600 here. Over to the LMS, there were a couple of Royal Scots" "The West Yorkshire Regiment", a double liner with replica badge, made £12,600. This sounds pretty modest, even without the proper badge. "Welsh Guardsman", a very nice name, made £12,000.

 

Worksplates. A Dübs 1885 plate from LSWR 4-4-2T 30584 made £3,400. It, or the other plate, sold for £4,600 in May 2009. The catalogue description seemed to think that two of these locos are preserved, which is probably news to most of us. Possibly it is confusing these locos with the Beattie well tanks? The Great Central plate from 4-6-0 "Earl Beatty" made a huge £3,500, which increases the record for a GCR plate by about 300%. I thought the 1905 Hawthorn Leslie plate might have done a tad better than £520, as there are not many HL plates older than this in circulation. The curious Hunslet plate from J94 68008(?) which has 68050 in the centre, made a modest £260. Star of the show was a Lowca Engineering 1899 plate, which made £7,000.

 

WR cabside numberplates. 1010 from "County of Caernarvon" made £3,500. 1655, ex-loco, made a huge £2,450. I thought at first it must have been one of the Dornoch locos, but it seems to have been based for most of its life on the ex-BPGVR. £1,080 seems a lot for Pannier 8701.

 

Smokebox numberplates. Plates from the LMS passenger classes remain comparatively rare. 46117, from "Welsh Guardsman", made a robust £3,300. A couple of 9F plates were on offer and made £1,100 and £1,000, which seems expensive.

 

Classic traction. Class 47 "Odin" made £5,100, showing the demand that is there for the early BR named diesels. The Armstrong Whitworth/BTH 1924 plate from a South African industrial electric loco made £740. A plate from a sister loco appeared 20 years ago.

 

Signalbox boards. The GNSR board from "Craigellachie" made £1,100.

 

Other items. Lynton & Barnstaple artifacts continue to have a devoted following. A small carriage board made £6,200.

 

 

Sheffield 13 March 2010 Derby results are here

 

A fairly lacklustre catalogue by Sheffield standards.

 

Mainline steam loco nameplates. A couple of Jubilees: "Sturdee" was a much photographed late survivor, and "Bengal", an unattractive St Rollox plate which the catalogue entry noted had been "vigorously restored". The latter made £9,000 and the former £8,400. LNWR George V plates are the least common of all the LNWR passenger types. "Miles MacInnes" was perhaps not a name to quicken the pulse and made a disappointing £9,200. GWR "Saint Bernard" had already failed to sell at two auctions and struggled to sell here, although a deal seems to have been done at £11,000. I think it would be better to try and sell something with the stigma of "not sold" writ large privately. It is a very nice plate and seems very good value at this level. The other results were unremarkable, save for West Country "Yes Tor". For a short plate, without scroll, £14,000 was a pretty good result, and the highest priced lot in the auction.

 

Cabsides. £3,500 for ex-loco Castle 5001 is low by historic standards.

 

Smokebox numberplates. Incredibly, 64493 seems to have been the first J35 numberplate to have appeared at auction, and one might have expected LNER fans to have been more appreciative than £360 suggests. A J39, which are common, made £450.


Worksplates. A bit of fatigue seems to be setting in for Lynton & Barnstaple worksplates after the barrage of such plates appearing recently. The previous two made £6,300 each and the one here fell to £3,000, still not cheap. The early bird catches the worm (if you are a seller). An LNER 9x5 from J77 68434 made £920, presumably due to the rarity of the "Rebuilt York" tag. An engraved plate of A3 60036 made £6,100, which is not a record, but seems to suggest an increase in interest. A plate from A4 60034 made £8,100, down from the last appearance of one of these.  "North Eastern Region" engraved plates from L1s used to be highly prized but one from 67728 was disappointing at just £650. The LNER 9x5 from B8 5441 has the dubious honour of having been in auction no less than six times, Sheffield and Talisman sharing the honours with three appearances each. Surprisingly, buyers cannot get enough of it at £320, the price having risen over 200% since two appearances ago in April 2009.


Classic traction. Lots of interest in this sector. The BR Eastleigh plate from electro-diesel E6006 was the first such I have noted, and made an impressive £1,900. "Baby Deltics" are not that rare but the EE plate from D5903 set a new record at £2,900. We also had a record for a Class 40 namer, £1,150 for a worksplate off D222. A unique Brush overhauled plate from 56107 made £1,100.

 

Other items. A GWR brass crest, from something rather special (Dean Single, Armstrong 4-4-0 or a French Atlantic) made a moderate £2,300. What has happened to all the GWR fans?

 

Overseas items. This category was very weak by Sheffield standards. Of note were two nameplates from French electric locos, "Toul" and "Villiers le-Bel", attractive items with shields, which made £900 and £920 respectively.

 

 

 

GCRA Stoneleigh 16 January 2010 results are here

 

A very well attended auction for the final instalment of the Bourhill collection.

 

Nameplates The last of six Coronations to appear at auction in a little over 13 months, "City of Liverpool", made a respectable £33,000. Double line Jubilee "Gilbert and Ellice Islands" made £18,200, somewhat down from when John Bourhill bought it in  September 1999 for £26,200, but reasonably robust in this market. This was one of three Jubilees: "British Columbia made £13,600, which suggests that other things being equal, a longer plate makes more than a shorter one, and "Victory" made £8,500. The rather prosaic Patriot "Bradshaw" (named after the railway timetable publisher), made a respectable £9,000. This had failed to sell at another auction recently. LNWR Prince of Wales" made £15,000. LNER D49 "The Cattistock" and matching fox made £14,000, A3 "Sunstar", no stranger to auction, made £9,400, and there were a couple of B1s, "Eland" (third time at auction) at £7,800, and "Harry Hinchliffe" at £6,500. GWR "Farleigh Castle" made a moderate £9,200. I understand that this was not the plate sold at Sheffield in October 1991, described there as "re-riveted". "Heveningham Hall", one of the Halls requiring a longer back plate than usual, made £6,900. Last but not least, a plate from Isle of Man Railway 2-4-0T No 3 "Tynwald" made £8,000. It is difficult to say whether this is high or low as the plate is incredibly rare, as nearly all the locos are in existence and presumably most still have their original plates.

 

The industrial pairing of "Peckett No 2" and matching worksplate was a pleasing combination and made £2,200.

 

Headboards "The Royal Scot" (the standard BR design of plate) made a modest £2,500. It is not actually that common a plate, and as prestigious as you can get. "The Aberdonian", another impressive name, made £2,000.

 

Smokebox numberplates 32689 appears to have been the first E1 at auction and made £1,750. Ivatt 41225 made £1,100. There is quite a range of prices for this class, the record being £2,600, ranging down to around £700 (in recent years). A3 60062 made £2,900. B1 plates seem to be sought after at the moment, 61231 making £1,000 here.


Worksplates Several small De Winton plates from vertical-boilered locos have emerged over the years and at least one has passed through ebay. An 1892 version made a class record here of £3,600.  An unrestored 1891 rectangular  / scalloped Andrew Barclay plate was rather pleasing and £1,850 did not seem too demanding. The engraved plate from A3 60043 did well to make £4,400 as the LNER name had been filled in. In contrast, a large engraved GNR plate from an Atlantic made £1,400. An LNER 9 x 5 from 60062 made £1,050. Manning Wardle No 1361 of 1897 from a Lynton & Barnstaple loco was selling for the third time and fell to £6,300, from £8,200 at its last appearance in 2001.

 

Classic traction An ex-loco BTH worksplate from a Class 15 made £950, not far short of the class record. An English Electric plate from preserved Deltic D9009 made £2,200. Class 74 rebuilt plates are fairly rare. One from 74009, selling for the second time, made £1,600.

 

Signalling A W&T large staff, "Byfield - Fenny Compton" made an impressive £2,100.

 

Hawkseyes "Binton", an SMJ station, made an impressive £1,900. "Tebay", probably the plate which sold in 2006, made a more modest £660.

 

Overseas items An ALCO 1916 plate from a RENFE 240 made £720, which seems quite pricey. An ex-loco Baldwin plate of the same vintage from a Cuban loco made £320.

 

 

 

Sheffield 5 December 2009 Derby results are here

 

Nameplates. A fairly moderate selection by SRA standards. I thought the "Erlestoke Manor" name and cabside set would do rather better than the £12,000 it made. "Manor" nameplates are not that common relative to the number of locos, and Erlestoke is quite a pleasing name. Britannia "John Milton" appearing for the first time since 1991, made £12,000. Castle Class "Earl Bathurst" and cabside made a very moderate £11,000. Assuming £4,000 for the cabside, this puts the nameplate in mixed traffic 4-6-0 territory. The Earls are difficult. Some of the names are pleasant enough but the different radii between name and splasher are not to everyone's taste (the plates were originally fitted or destined for smaller "Dukedog" 4-4-0s). B17 "Belvoir Castle" made a surprisingly robust £9,300, more than A3 "Colorado" at £9,000. Jubilee "Conqueror", the second such plate this year, fell slightly to £8,000. "Littleton Hall" name and cabside made a miserable £6,000 which must be a new low for a Hall in recent times. The cabsides still fetch £1,500-ish so this puts the nameplate at £4,500, 1995 prices.

 

Headboards "The Fair Maid" is rare but made a modest £1,500.

 

Cabsides. The number of cabsides being sold as a lot with the nameplate will be noted. Of the separate cabsides, "Hall" 5931 made £1,450.

 

Smokeboxes. The market can still not get enough of Britannia smokebox numberplates. 70006 made £3,200. B1 61255 made an impressive £900. It made £800 on its previous outing.

 

Worksplates. The engraved LNER plate from A4 60002 made £9,000. The £2,700 paid for the Sharp Stewart engraved plate 2967 of 1881 made a new record for the builder at £2,700. The plate had sold previously in 2003. Pre-1900 Peckett plates are rare and a nice example No 474 of 1890, made £1,800.

 

Classic traction. A cabside from D1028 "Western Hussar" made a robust £3,200. The complete set of name and number made £7,400 in January. A nameplate and crest from Peak "The Cheshire Regiment" made £7,600.

 

Boxboards. Swynnerton Junction, a BR enamel, made £820.

 

 

GCRA Stoneleigh 3 October 2009 results are here

 

GCRA continues to sell the Bourhill collection. My impression is that prices for the nameplates are weakening, not really surprising in view of the quantity passing through the market this year, and condition of the plates seems to be a factor. Most people are not shopping for nameplates of course, and there seems to be a lot of money around at the £500 - £1,000 level. Totems and single line tokens, staffs etc remain popular. Enamel station direction signs are quietly building a fan base.

 

Nameplates. Patriot "Duke of Sutherland", rather nice, made £10,000. Coronation "King George VI" made £39,000. A1 "Boswell" struggled a bit and finally made £8,000, very low for an A1. Badged double-line Scot "The Northamptonshire Regiment" was pretty disastrous at £12,200. The plate appeared to have been skimmed. D49 "The Bedale" with an original fox, made £13,200. B1 "Murray of Elibank" made £9,800. Director names are generally not sought after but this aristocratic moniker would be an unusual talking piece on the wall. Britannia "Charles Dickens" should have done better than £8,400 and LMS "Princess Victoria" set a marker for single line Princesses at £17,000, which will not please owners of same. The nameplate badge from 46126 made a remarkably low £940. Were there doubts as to authenticity? Jubilees continue to be firm, "Renown" making £8,500.

 

Smokeboxes. The caption to 70028 in the cat. suggested the plate was acquired direct from Kingmoor shed, had not been sold previously etc. I understand that this is not the same plate which went through Sheffield in September 1998. It made £3,200 here.

 

Worksplates. A Manning Wardle plate from L&B "Exe" made £6,300 ("Lew" made £8,200 in 2001).

 

Classic traction. "Western Envoy" and cabside made £6,000. Name seems to be important for these - see September Sheffield results.

 

Single line items. As is usual for GCRA, a good selection and prices continue to be a bit arbitrary. The Festiniog Railway miniature staff is a rarity at auction - presumably from the Boyd collection - and made £1,300, rather cheap compared with L&B tablets. A large W&T staff Skibbereen - Baltimore made £640. This may also have been a Boyd item - he was familiar with this part of Ireland. Another W&T large staff, "Ryde South - Brading" from the IOW, made an impressive £2,500. I thought the IOW was token territory, so perhaps this is a great rarity. Square tablet "Girvan - Pinwherry" made £460. Generally square tablets seem to punch below their weight - a similar tablet made £99 on ebay last year - but I would have thought they demanded a bit of a premium because they are far less common than the circular ones.

 

Hawkseyes. "Bromsgrove" made a hefty £1,850, about 10% up on its last appearance.

 

Totems. I do not usually report these but interesting to see both Shap and Beattock in the same auction. Both had appeared earlier this years in GCRA auctions. "Beattock" tanked to £520 (from £1,550) but Shap more than doubled, to £3,300. In both cases, it seems likely that the condition of the item had some impact on the prices, plus perhaps a fully flanged Shap totem is more desirable than a wall fixing variety, and a half-flanged Beattock totem less desirable than a fully flanged version. Another classic WCML location, "Tebay" is hardly scarce, but was vigorously bid up to £2,300.

 

Other items. Running-in boards are usually difficult to shift but "Thurso" made £1,700. Location, location, location.

 

 

Sheffield 12 September 2009 Derby results are here

 

"Duchess" "City of St. Albans" failed to sell. A very nice name to my mind, although the loco itself was one of the shyer Duchesses - try finding a photo of it. Of course there have been a lot of Duchesses in the last 12 months which must have some effect. BTW, City of Coventry (tender plate, Lot 343) surely was not withdrawn from Camden in 1964? Camden had been shut to steam for some time by then. A2 "Chamosssaire" nearly halved in price from its previous outing in 2007, making £12,500 here. Jubilees are holding up well and "Invincible" made £10,200. D49 "Hertfordshire" made £8,000. "Saint" "Stanford Court" appearing for the third time, made £8,100. "Yarmouth" from an Isle of Wight E1 was a tad disappointing at £7,000.

 

Classic traction. "Western Crusader" name and cabside made a very robust £10,500

 

Worksplates. The 1952 NBL plate from an East African 2-8-2T made a surprisingly firm £360.

 

Smokebox numberplates. Yet another Britannia, 70034 this time, making £2,500. Ex-loco Black Five 44697 selling for the third time, rose to £820, not far short of the record.

 

Loco whistles. The LNWR whistle from an 0-8-0 made £980.

 

Overseas items. There was a plentiful supply of South African cabsides. Notable was a 19A, very rare at auction, which made an undemanding £400. A GCA plate made a record for its class at £820.

 

 

GCRA Stoneleigh 18 July 2009 results are here

The big question was whether the market could continue to digest the riches of the Bourhill collection – and it is worth bearing in mind that there were plenty of other plates in this auction e.g. some of the plates which used to be on display at Loughborough GCR station. The answer appears to be a qualified yes – read on.

Perhaps the star of the show was the signalbox board “Shap Summit”, a BR enamel job, which made an enormous £13,400. This previously sold for £2,000 in June 2000.

Onto the nameplates. LMS Duchess “Queen Elizabeth” is not everyone’s cup of tea. A prominent loco in the early days, it was a Scottish-based loco for much of its career, and a relatively early withdrawal which kept it out of the limelight of the last couple of years of the Duchesses. Having said that, it is prominently associated with the blue streamliner era. In the event, my reservations on the attractiveness were unfounded and the market spoke with an emphatic £51,500 voice. There were a couple of badged-LMS plates. I thought Patriot “ Southport ” was presented very poorly. The black background to the badge made the actual crest look very small (and photos of such badged-plates in service suggest that they were generally unpainted), and the lining made it look fussy. Coupled with a less than evocative name, I thought it did well to make £24,500. Jubilee “ Southern Rhodesia ” will always be remembered for having made £16,800 in December 1989, in the early days of Sheffield , when such prices were unheard of. The badging of this plate seems to have been a somewhat arbitrary decision by the LMS. It was very nicely presented and made £28,000. £14,200 for “Benachie”, a GNSR D40 plate, was also robust, as was £14,000 for Britannia “Owen Glendower”, although the latter fell slightly from its previous appearances. Black 5 “Lanarkshire Yeomanry”, rare but with the ugly St Rollox font, made £15,200. Common or garden Jubilees continue to be robust, in contrast to say King Arthurs, “Meteor” making £9,000 (in spite of being allocated the graveyard slot of Lot 492) but helped no doubt by this being an ex-Royal Scot plate. Another Royal Scot badge, this time from “Velocity” of its eponymous early predecessor, made £6,100.

So, pretty good results. However £13,200 for double-line Royal Scot “The King’s Dragoon Guardsman” made it the bargain of the auction, and I thought £14,600 for A2 “Tudor Minstrel” was undemanding for one of the best known names in the class (i.e. the Peppercorn A2s), although you would need a block and tackle to lift it. D49 Hunt “The Quorn” made a modest £11,000, but it had a replacement fox, and the very short name is not very attractive for the length of backplate. King Arthur “Sir Villiars” made £7,000. West Country “Axminster” (no badge), GWR straight “County of Hants” (Counties are not common), and Llanelly and Mynydd Mawr “John Waddell” all failed to sell. Presumably these are not Bourhill plates and GCRA appears to be pushing the envelope to throw these into the already rather richly flavoured pot. Still, they managed to avoid the ubiquitous “Hall” plate.

Headboards as a class did pretty well. “The Caledonian” with shields, made £4,000 which was a bit weak compared with “The Thames-Clyde Express”, great name but common as headboards go and in polished condition, which made £3,600, “The Midday Scot” at £4,100, and “The Royal Highlander” at £2,100. My favourite of this batch was “Butlins Express” which made £2,000.

WR cabsides. 4410 made £4,400. Restored cast iron 6418 made £940 which seems aggressive. Perhaps it was the Banbury connection?

Worksplates. There were a couple of LNER engraved plates. That from A2/3 60521 made £4,300, while that from A4 60003 (LNER filled in) made a stiff £7,200. A curiosity was the Midland Ry Rebuilt 1923 plate, apparently from a 4-4-2T which made £900.

Smokebox numberplates generally did well as a category. 45527 (Southport) in ex-loco condition made £2,300. Yet another Britannia 70050, selling for the second time, made a very robust £3,800.

Loco whistles. A Britannia chime made a very reasonable £1,600.

Key tokens from Wales are up and down like a fiddler’s elbow, continuing a pattern established for some time. Take “Llanidloes – Moat Lane East”, here £980. According to my records this was the ninth appearance. Portmadoc - Criccieth, £600 in May made £150 here.

 

Sheffield 13 June 2009 Derby results are here

 

SRA is a bit over-shadowed at the moment by the Bourhill collection passing through GCRA. With so many plates currently available, anything less than prime is going to struggle, and so it proved.

 

Starting with the mainline steam nameplates, Merchant Navy "Union Castle", definitely prime, made £27,000. Jubilee "New Hebrides" made a respectable £9,000. A3 "Tagalie", is no stranger to auction and continued to fall in price, to £8,400. Standard 5 "Etarre", not the same side as sold in December 2008, made £5,000. By comparison, it (or the other side) made £2,500 in 1996. B1 "Sassaby" made £7,100, LNWR Precursor "Ajax", selling for the second time, made £8,000. "Crawley Grange" and "Arbury Hall", both with cabsides, failed to sell. A numbered D49 Fox made £3,700.

 

In classic traction, genuine stuff, before BR went in for namings big time, is holding up well, EM1 "Jason" made £6.000, not that great a drop from £7,300 it made in March 2002, esp if you add in bp. Warship "Rapid" has been in auction three times and held up quite well at £6,200. "Western Marksman" actually rose in price from its last appearance in 2004, to £7,300 here, although last time it sold without cabside.

 

Worksplates. The Hawthorn Leslie plate 2318 of 1894 was the earliest I have recorded at auction from this manufacturer, and made £700. The engraved LNER plate from A3 60050 made £4,100. The LNER plate from 60515 with the company title filled in, made £2,300.

 

Smokebox numberplates. Duchess 46239 made a hefty £4,600. Yet another Britannia, this time 70027, made £3,300. Why are Brit smokeboxes so common at auction and yet rarely fail to make decent prices?

 

Other items. The LNWR cabside from "Hardwicke" made £2,600. I think this has been in auction before.

 

 

 

GCRA Stoneleigh 25 April 2009 results are here

 

We had all been waiting for this one, with GCRA putting the first instalment of the Bourhill collection through, contributing to a catalogue stacked with desirable things. The timing seemed unfortunate with the global economic situation expected to limit the punters' enthusiasm to spend. Well, we were proved wrong, with some very robust prices for major items and some seriously expensive relative prices for minor items such as key tokens. Whether the momentum can be sustained for the second instalment remains to be seen. The venue was packed.

 

There is a theory circulating, applicable to consumer good purchases as much as railwayana, that with interest rates so low, you might as well spend it. Not sure that is entirely logical as a contrary argument - lack of investment income coming in - would tend to inhibit discretionary spending.

 

The mainline steam nameplate class was of unusual quality. "Duchess of Atholl" (not clear if this was the plate sold at Sheffield in February 1992) made a stiff £39,000. "Princesses" remain a bit of an unknown quantity as very few pass through auction. "Princess Helena Victoria" is one of the large double-liners and a rather pleasant name. It previously sold in April 1993, so seems to enjoy recessions in the market, and it made a respectable £30,000 here. "Royal Scots Fusilier" and badge is very eye-catching and £32,000 did not seem excessive in this environment. Jubilee "Conqueror" made £8,800. The other regions were represented: "Clan Mackenzie" made £19,200. Clans are in danger of losing their rarity status, with 20% of all plates now having been at auction and 25% of the free float. West Country "Seaton" plus badge and scroll made £20,000 - not sure that is very expensive. Its badge alone sold for £15,500 in April 2006. Schools "Lancing"  made £9,600, disappointing but we have not had a Schools for a few years. Another one for sale in May may give a better idea of levels, although the name of course is very important. A3 "Cameronian", one of the Gills sans plates, made £10,800, and the second V2 plate to appear in quick succession, "St Peters School York" made a robust £24,000. D49 "Aberdeen-shire" made an undemanding £6,200 and GWR "Moseley Hall" brought up the rear at £4,650. We have not seen prices like that for 10 years.

 

There were several headboards, notably a horizontal format, aluminium "Royal Scot" at £6,400 (down from its previous appearance) and, fta, "The Lakes Express" which made £3,400.

 

In smokebox numberplates, notable was the first A1X plate to appear at auction, 32670, which made £2,900 (why are they so scarce)? One of the few Kings to appear, 6019, made a new record for the class at £3,600, but Lord Nelson 30851, appearing for the second time, fell to £1,600.

 

In lineside furniture, there were some robust prices in signalbox nameboards, but LMS "Hawkseyes" were very subdued for some reason. In the former category, "Quintinshill" made a huge £3,300. At its previous outing in 2000 it failed to sell (I seem to recall the reserve was £800). Famous name of course. "Oxenholme No 2", an enamel plate, fell to a modest £270, although "Shap" another enamel plate, rose to £1,550. GWR "Chelsea & Fulham Signal Box" made £1,850.

 

In Hawkseyes, "Hest Bank" fell here to £300 (from £2,300 in June 2007, in unrestored condition), while Low Gill fell to £520, from £1,250.

 

Cambrian single line tokens were bid to mystifying levels. Very few of these are rare. Why the new found interest? Have a number of collectors recently retired there?

 

Although I do not follow totems, there were some very good names, and particularly Scottish names here, including "Kyle of Lochalsh" at £6,400 and "Connel Ferry" at one seems to me to be a very disappointing £1,000. Of the others, NE "Thornaby" made a stiff £3,200 but I thought WR "Rhayader" very disappointing at £1,350 - images of a bucolic line on innocent summer days long ago etc. Perhaps surrounded by so much choice, the bidders concentrated their fire power elsewhere?

 

 

Sheffield 14 March 2009 results are here

 

Nameplates Jubilee "Hawkins" did very well to make £11,000, perhaps a few eponymous collectors bidding? A3 "Book Law" made £8,200, not far off "Hall" prices, but not one of the better names. The name, number and cabside set from "Iford Manor" did poorly at £11,700. "Manor" names are rare at auction for some reason - I can count only six including this one out of a class of 30 locos / 60 plates. Iford is not a great name but you would anticipate at least £1,000 and change for the smokebox and £2,500+ for the cabside, making the nameplate only £8,000.

 

hokk_norton_manor.jpg (40395 bytes)

However, one imagines that some Manors would still do very well e.g. the above, were it to become available.

 

"Lord Nelsons" should be rare as there were only 16 locos but no fewer than 10 different plates have been at auction. "Lord Rodney" made £12,000 here, I suspect not too bad a price in this market. A "Grange" name and cabside set, "Trellech Grange", made £8,500, not a bad deal for the buyer. Grange names are remarkably lacklustre in general but this one is quite pleasant, if obscure. "Britannia" "Shooting Star" is a very good name and, at £15,100, shows that buyers are still out there for the right name. Isle of Wight plates usually sell but "Bonchurch" here did not. I thought the "Rood Ashton Hall" name and cabside set would do better than the £8,500 it made. Double-barrel Hall names are not common. Conventional wisdom is that names from preserved locos are not as attractive as those from non-preserved locos. I am not totally convinced that this is a reliable guide but possibly this was a factor here?

 

Headboards "The South Yorkshireman" is a considerable rarity and first time at auction. It made £7,200. Contrast that with "The Royal Scot" which made an undemanding £2,500. According to my records, the only previous such plate (this is the standard curved design rather than the more elaborate horizontal format) failed to sell - very strange. There are concerns about the authenticity of some plates but I did not hear of concerns over this one.

 

WR cabsides "Dukedog" 9028 made a robust £3,100. As noted, there were several cabsides selling with nameplates.

 

Smokebox numberplates A bit of a commodity market but demand seems to be there for most plates at up to around £400. A number of notable examples from the Southern here. "U"s are not common and ex-loco 31615 did very poorly at £450.  Southern "USA" plate 30062, rare at auction, made £920, not quite a record. "Schools" 30933 made £1,700, not bad. From the other regions, a Jubilee, 45715 (a St Rollox casting) made a robust £2,900. Jubilee plates are apparently still in fashion. Plates from Caley 4-4-0s are exceedingly rare and 54482 made a very moderate £750.

 

 

Classic traction I thought the splendid name "Royal Inniskilling Fusilier" and badge from "Peak" D63 might have done better than £6,000. An ex-loco example (presumably not this one) sold at GWRA in November for £11,000.

 

 

GCRA Stoneleigh 17 January 2009

 

The market is surprisingly robust if this auction is a guide


Nameplates. "The Durham Light Infantry" appears to have been the first V2 plate to pass through auction. It made £20,000 which is not too shabby in this market, especially as a late BR naming and rather specialist plate which would not appeal to that many. Its smokebox, selling for the second time, made £2,300. K2 "Loch Oich" made £7,200, not bad for not the most appealing name of the class. A1s are in the news, which may explain their robust prices. "Bon Accord" made a very respectable £16,700, nice plate, nice name but you need a crane to lift these. Standard 5 nameplate "The Green Knight", no stranger to the auction room, made £6,000, 

 

WR Cabsides 2918 made a record for a "Saint" class at £4,200.


Smokebox numberplates. 84013 selling for the second time made £1,550.


Worksplates. An Avonside plate from GWR 0-4-0ST 1104 made £1,150. A GCR 1920 Gorton plate made a hefty £1,100, presumably because it may be from a "Director" or B3.

 

Other loco bits. The brass crests from Dean Single 3035 made £1,650. Difficult to gauge the price of something like this but this does not seem that demanding.

 

Classic traction A nameplate from "Conquest", one of the five Class 41 "Warships", made an impressive £11,200. A Class 43 "Warship" nameplate "Tenacious" made £6,000. "Western Hussar" and cabside made £7,400. A BR Crewe "rebuilt" plate from a Class 74 made £1,950. These seem to be rare, this being only the second one I have noted. An AEI/BRCW 1960 plate from a Class 81 electric made £900.

 

Single line equipment Prices for tokens etc continue to be all over the place with no apparent logic but this auction suggests that prices are firm and increasing. As usual for GCRA, there was a lot of such items but I mention only the Bath - Midford tablet, not common, which made a modest £540.

 

Overseas items. ALCO worksplate no 74208 was described as from a metre gauge MacArthur but is surely from an SNCF 141R. It made £450.

 

 

 

Sheffield 6 December 2008 results are here

 

Based on the results here, prices are holding up in certain categories (we had three new records in smokebox numberplates) but there is no doubt that by the standards of the last 10 years, prices are generally weak.

 

Nameplates. GWR "Star" "Princess Charlotte" struggled in the room but sold afterwards at the reserve of £12,000. As the cat. said, this has to be one of the better "Star" Princess names. A couple of non-mainline plates. An ali. replacement plate from Metropolitan Railway "Dick Whittington", made £2,500. Dinorwic plates are usually keenly contested. "Lady Joan" struggled a bit to make £1,500, perhaps due to the name itself and perhaps due to the loco having been re-named(?) to "No 1" in 1948. West Country "Swanage" made £10,000 which is not a bad price for a preserved loco plate without scroll. B17 "Lincolnshire Regiment" was a tough sell and went for £7,000, presumably the reserve. Not quite such a resonant name as "Royal Inniskilling Fusilier"! Star billing went to LMS Pacific "City of Chester", one of the Duchesses which lasted until the end. £28,000 does not seem too bad in this market although some way from the £55,000 for "City of London" in 2006. GWR "Farnborough Hall" was offered as one lot including cabside and smokebox. Generally the feeling seems to be that by lotting as a set, the vendor foregoes an opportunity to maximise the price for each item (although it seems a shame to deliberately split a set), but here it almost seemed there was a marriage effect to get to £10,000 - say £1,500 for the cabside, £700 for the smokebox, then £7,800 would not be a bad price for a Hall nameplate at the moment. "Etarre" would not be everyone's favourite for an Arthurian name from a Standard Five, and £6,600 did not seem too shabby.

 

Worksplates. £1,000 seems pricey for a 9x5 from B1 61247, notwithstanding this was a named loco. The engraved plate from A3 60097 made an impressive £8,500 despite having had the company name filled in. Contrast this with that from 60111, fully engraved and with the apparently scarcer "&", ex-loco condition, £3,000 to the gentleman at the back. There must be a reason as this sounds very low.

 

Smokeboxes. Several records here so the market cannot be that weak. Caledonian 0-6-0 57345 made £720 which may be a record for one from this class. Caley 0-4-4T 55269 made a record for its class at £1,000. SR 31915 also made a record for a W class at £1,000. Plates from Southern 700 class locos are very, very rare. What according to my records is only the second to appear, 30317, did not really make the most of this advantage and £550 was less than half what the previous one sold for. 44113 made a surprising £1,000, which is actually a long way short of the record for a 4F which is held by 44559 at £1,800 (which was an S&D loco). The numberplate from 60097 made £3,200. 90117 made £780, a lot for a WD, but the casting was unusual, with serif "1".

 

Incidentally, I see that 58192 has sold, yet again, this time on ebay (for £293). This must be the most auctioned smokebox plate of all. I can count seven appearances.

 

WR cabsides seem to be weakening noticeably. Ex-loco 4099 made £2,950, 5063 £3,000 which is low for Castles, which for some years have generally been around £5,000. Cabsides from 43xx are very rare at auction. 4358 is only the second I have noted and £800 is not expensive by the standards of the last 10 years. The previous 43xx made £800 in 1993.

 

Classic traction. A nameplate from Warship "Swift" made £4,000. These appear to be weakening along with the rest of the market. An NBL worksplate from E3042 made a huge £2,200. The previous one at auction, in 2007, made £320,

 

In other loco bits, a pair of regulator handles from A4 60031 made £2,100, no doubt helped by the presence of the original paperwork. A "Southern" roundel from a "Battle of Britain" made £8,000.


Direction signs.  BR NE sign "Londesborough Road Station" (a Scarborough station) made £1,800, as befits something which is "exceedingly rare and desirable".

 

Signalling. The LNER boxboard "Ilford Station" made a robust £1,100. 

 

South African. 19C 2478 made a miserable £180. Surprising as poppet valve locos don't come much better looking than these. I have said it before but why are 25NC plates so expensive when they are one of the most common? 3420 made £1,500. A Class 1 cabside made £480, down from £980 for an ex-loco example in September.

 

Other foreign. £260 seems pricey for a Kolomna plate from an L. Eastern European plates continue to cause problems for cataloguers. The "Uzinele 23 August" (Malaxa) plate is from a Romanian n.g. loco, not a Soviet Er. David Love, who provided this info, wrote an article a few years ago in the erstwhile RCJ on Er plates. A Skoda plate ascribed to an Indian loco was actually a tender plate.

 

 

 

Railwayana.net November 2008 prices are here

 

A very good selection of items for this internet/'phone auction. I do like the large, and for the most part, good quality images on the site which surely others should follow. Look at the images of the Great Central and LBSCR worksplates - much more effective in making someone want to buy than a tiny image in a printed catalogue. It would be even better if the catalogue writer could resist using crass comments such as "would enhance any collection".  I find expressions of that ilk on ebay extremely grating. It's unnecessary, the items will for the most part sell themselves. It would be difficult to say that the auction evidenced a recession, although some of the prices were definitely in the reasonable category.

 

Nameplates. Not a bad offering of BR steam plates. Britannia "Rudyard Kipling" made a reasonably solid £13,050. "Banbury Castle" also did quite well at £15,500. "Eaton Hall" however plumbed new depths for Halls at just £5,250, which is around the level in the mid-90s. To the extent the recession hits railwayana, this is the sort of item where it will show up.

 

Headboards. "The Thames-Clyde Express" has been one of the more common plates over the years and there are rumours that not all are genuine. The one here was according to my records the first to appear for seven years and looked genuine enough, making £4,250.

 

Smokeboxes. Duchess 46226 made a healthy £4,650. It last sold at auction complete with nameplate. Perhaps even Duchess owners need to raise the wind occasionally? Southern plates, as there were the least locos, are the least common but there were several on offer here. Q1s are not common and 33028 made £1,500, just short of the class record. 31764, an L, made £760.

 

WR Cabsides. The £780 for 9707 may be explained by it being one of the condenser-fitted locos.

 

Worksplates. Beyer Peacock "half-moon" worksplates are usually well received, an 1882 version from a NSWGR loco making £1,350 here.

 

Classic traction. A lot of modern diesel plates, some being sold on behalf of EWS. Otherwise, the plate from "Peak" "The Staffordshire Regiment etc" with badge, made £9,500.

 

Some nice loco whistles. The very pleasant LSWR Adams whistle was not demanding at £520, but a similar price for an SAR chime was surprising as these are neither rare nor particularly handsome. A Bulleid example fetched a modest £340.

 

Other items. A GWR chimney said to be from "Hinton Manor" made £1,050. A regulator handle said to be from A3 "Flying Fox" made £860.

 

Some nice cast iron. A matching pair of GWR "cross the line by bridge / subway" made a low-ish £180 each, while an LMS version of the classic LNWR BoT made £370.


London Transport. The vendor who sold a "Tottenham Court Road" target at Pershore a couple of weeks before for £800, did rather well with his timing as one here made just £370.

 

 

 

Stoneleigh 4 October 2008 prices are here

 

This was well attended, prices were robust and few items unsold. However, the economic turmoil was about to hit the UK in a big way, although perhaps diversifying out of bank deposits into railwayana will become a better alternative than putting it in the mattress?

 

Stars of the show were a Nestles chocolate machine, which made £5,000 and an L&Y platform ticket machine, which made £3,000.

 

Continuing on a machine theme, single line signalling equipment remains sought after, and a Tyers token machine made £1,300, although a Spanish RSC/Webb & Thompson miniature staff instrument made a more modest £300. Readers may be interested in the Welsh Highland's acquisition of 17 RSC miniature staff machines from Ireland - described as token machines in the press announcement www.welshhighlandrailway.net/news.asp?dismode=article&artid=248.

 

Talking of single line equipment, some rare Irish narrow gauge staffs were on offer. An LLSR Buncrana - Tooban staff made £600, and CDRJC staffs Raphoe - Glenmaquin, Letterkenny - Glenmaquin and Stranolar - Castlefinn made £290, £320 and £120 respectively. In tablets, "Barnstaple Town - Pottington" shows the danger of bidding these up when, based on the numbers engraved on specimens passing through auction, there must have been at least 23 such. The one here made £300 compared with three earlier examples which made four figures, one of which over £1,500. Generally, GCRA seems to have a healthy supply of single line tablets, tokens and staffs.

 

Offerings in the nameplate section were typically modest but prices were reasonably robust against recent trends. A3 "Tranquil" made £11,000, not bad. King Arthur "Vivien" also did reasonably well at £9,800. The price of Arthur nameplates has generally tanked over the past 18 months but there are some good names out there which have never appeared. Continuing the Irish n.g. theme, an elderly nameplate from CDRJC "Inver" made £2,800. A fair number of CDRJC names have appeared over the years but they have never broken out of the £3,000 bracket.

 

Shedplates. I see that brass 52A codes are now considered to come from diesels rather than A4s.

 

Direction signs continue to perform well. A rare L&Y one, pointing to Hindley Station, made £620. "LMS Station Turvey" made £420.

 

The Lostock Hall Engine Shed signalbox board made a surprisingly robust £840. I say surprising as many buyers would be put off by the sheer length.


Some nice LMS "Hawkseyes". "Old North Road" (Oxford - Cambridge line) made £1,250, but I was surprised that the very pleasantly named "Thornton-in Craven" made only £500.

 

In other items, a brass badger motif from a bridge at Brock on the WCML made £660. A pair of Furness Railway "squirrel" platform seats ends made £1,000, despite lacking a bunch of grapes from one end. There seem to be two designs of such ends. One type has a "web" strengthening the rear leg and the other type does not. One is tempted to conclude that the latter is an earlier design, and the web was added when breakages started to occur.


In foreign items, a Henschel 1937 plate from an SAR 2E electric made a huge £950, easily a record for a Henschel plate and possibly for any South African worksplate. Apparently there were only three 2Es.

 

 

Sheffield 13 September 2008 results are here

 

It was noticeable that the main auction had been pruned to 450 items, probably a sensible step, with the less valuable items being moved into a telephone auction. The catalogues for the main auction, telephone auction and postal auction were combined in one document for the first time.

 

Sheffield continues to dominate the nameplate sector although time was when B17s and "Halls" would have struggled to get into the catalogue. "Pioneer" a BPGVR "absorbed loco" made a robust £8,000, LNWR Precedent "Balmoral" £9,800 (why are there so many Precedent plates compared with the more modern George V or Prince of Wales class?). D49 "Dumfries-Shire" made £8,200. King Arthur "Sir Gaheris" failed to sell. It obviously has not sunk in amongst the vendors that Arthurs, at least the less evocative names, are over-supplied. The regimental crest from Castle 4037 made a huge £10,000. "Compton Castle" made a surprising £18,000, which looks expensive on today's market. Princess Royal "Duchess of Kent" which should have been great, was a bit of a disaster. The catalogue write-up was slightly off-putting and the state of the plate looked awful, apparently skimmed. Skimmed plates to me and I suspect other collectors, are unattractive. It failed to sell. "Birchwood Grange" did very well at £9,300 and B17 "Kilverstone Hall" about par at £7,000 (in very nice condition). "Marrington Hall" made £6,000.

 

WR cabsides. A couple of Castles made £4,000 each.

 

An engraved LNER worksplate from A4 60034 made an expectedly robust £10,200.

 

Smokeboxes. The write-up for 78007 strangely omitted the fact that this was a Cambrian line loco at one stage in its history. 78xxx are not particularly common and one with a Cambrian pedigree might have been expected to make more than £450. Q1s are rare. 33002 was selling for no less than the third time but still made £1,000. "West Country" 34031 was selling for the second time and rose to £2,500. A3 60105 also made £2,500. Generally these prices look pretty robust to me.

 

An A4/Britannia chime whistle, unattributed, made a healthy £2,100.


SAR cabsides. 25NCs are commoner than most but 3426 still managed to make £1,250. A 19D however did reflect supply, making just £200. The best looking SAR loco type IMHO. GM Garratt plates are not so common and 2300 made £1,050. A GMAM plate, which are very common, made £750. A 15BR made £700. Why did S2 3784 make £700?

 

 

 

Stoneleigh 12 July 2008 results are here

 

GCRA are struggling to find nameplates to headline their sales, but the material they do have is not bad. As usual, their lack of foreign material does not help variety. I am amazed none of the auctioneers advertise in CRJ.

 

There was only one mainline steam nameplate, and it was a very good one, West Country "Ottery St Mary". Not only is this one of the most attractive names in the class, it is one of the few which have the smaller letters, which to my mind look better. Its presence was a bit of a mystery as I would have thought this a plate to hang on to, but even more surprising was its failure to sell. They don't come better than this. I know it does not have a shield but most of the ones that do have rather prosaic names.

 

Worksplates. Robert Stephenson plates from GWR 2-6-0s are not common. One from 6370 made £560. A relatively early Andrew Barclay plate, 811 of 1897, made £1,100.


Smokeboxes. The enthusiasm for A1 plates continues. 60117 , ex-loco, made £3,200. V2 60961 made £1,050. I have said it before but V2 smokeboxes seem to be unusually rare. I have recorded less than 11% of the plates. Other uncommon plates, more relative to the theoretical supply than absolute, are Bulleid pacifics - 34088 here failed to sell, and Standard 82xxx tanks, 82002 making £1,100. Jubilee 45573, selling for the second time, made £2,800. Relative to the cost of the nameplates, Jubilee smokeboxes are very expensive.

 

On the classic traction scene, a "Sir William A Stanier FRS" from 86101 made £6,000. Warship "Daring" fell to £5,500, from £6,000 six years previously. A worksplate from a Park Royal railbus 79970-74, albeit unimpressive in itself, was very rare, and made £420.

 

Lots of single line material. A rare "Strathyre - Glenoglehead" token - I have not recorded one before - made £460. A W&T large staff "Maesycrigiau - Llanybyther", fta(?), made £1,400.

 

Direction signs continue to be popular and rightly so in my opinion, An LNER sign for West Monkseaton station made £1,600. A BR (E) sign for New Barnet Station made £920.

 

Cast iron. The attractive LBSCR cast iron trespass notices continue to be popular. An example made £760 here.

 

Other items. A rare Great Central enamel made £1,000. A Birmingham tramways destination indicator box made £480.

 

 

 

Sheffield 14 June 2008 results are here

 

Somewhat belated. I thought the offering a bit lacklustre. Perhaps there are just too many auctions?

 

Nameplates. IOW "Fishbourne" made a robust £11,500, ex-loco condition and perhaps one of the better names. A1s seem to be surprisingly popular at the moment. They have generally been considered less desirable than A2s (which were LNER locos, with classic Gill sans lettering).  "Bonnie Dundee" here made £19,250. King Arthur "Sir Hectimere", made £8,000, about par. A3 "Sandwich", a moderate name, failed to sell, despite being one of the Gill sans plates. Merchant Navies while not rare, are not that common, and "Peninsular & Oriental S N Co" is probably one of the best names in the class, and the enamel appeared to be in very good condition. £28,500 did not seem that demanding, as one might have expected some strong interest from the man who collects the locomotives. The smokeboxes are significantly scarcer than the nameplates - no doubt one reason being that there is only one smokebox, but two nameplates, and 35006's plate was again not as demanding as one might have expected, at £3,100. LNWR Prince of Wales "Falaba" made £6,600.

 

Headboards. I thought £3,900 was very modest for "The Scarborough Flyer", to me the nicest of all headboards, with its brass suns. "The Robin Hood" is rare, having appeared only once before, and made £2,200. A real surprise however was "The Cunarder", a painted board, which made £7,900 on its first appearance.


Smokeboxes. One wonders how many "Duchess" plates survive, as they are certainly rare, and several of those that have appeared have appeared more than once, flattering the figures. 46223, appearing for the second time, made £4,500. Standard Class 5s seem to have become very common recently.

 

 

Auction Summary - GWRA Pershore 10 May 2008 and others

 

It is some time since I put up a report. This is partly because of lack of time, partly due to there being so many auctions, and partly due to (IMHO) not terribly interesting results. Pershore was interesting as with the second part of an impressive collection of nameplates from a deceased estate passing through, there was a lot to take note of. Being an estate, the artifacts just had to be sold, so it may be that there were no reserves.

 

Nameplates According to my records, there have been 38 mainline UK steam loco nameplates at auction since 1 January, which I guess is a lot by historical standards. When the market tanked in 1993, there were fewer auctions and the main effect was the drying up of supply. That has not happened this time although one person is apparently propping up prices for a range of items, not just nameplates, so imagine what it would be like without his bid. Of the 38 plates, seven were unsold (at the time I noted the results). It is fair to say that there were very few (none) heavy hitters in this 38. Prices one has to say were generally weak but within that generalisation, A1 plates seem to be surprisingly expensive, and Halls have held firm at the sort of £6-7,000 established in the last couple of years. Fallen angels are the Arthurs and Jubilees, although again, having the "right" name has a lot to do with it. Arthurs are appearing with great regularity but the absence of the plates from pre-1926 locos (these generally have more famous or evocative names rather than being named after obscure knights with even more obscure spellings) continues. I wonder why? Sir Durnore at Pershore made a less than chivalrous £5,000, Sir Sagramore made £8,000 at Stafford and the same for Sir Torre (one of the less inspiring pre-1926 names) at Sheffield. Among the Joobs, Camperdown did not sell at railwayana.net, Ontario made a robust £10,000 at Stafford, but Zanzibar was a big surprise at Pershore, making just £6,700. The other side (I assume) sold in September 2002 for £17,100.


Castles have, shall we say, found a new level, in a sort of £12,000+ range. "Earl of Birkenhead" made £16,500 at Pershore, not bad, as Earls are not everyone's cup of tea due to the different centres of the radii of the nameplate part and the bottom edge of the backplate. "Earl of Ducie", which was a rather more celebrated loco, made £12,000 at Stoneleigh. Cranbrook Castle, having had a sojourn on the Sheffield for sale page, made £15,000 complete with cabside. Again, the name (and the loco)  is everything.
West Countries remain solid and the surprising strength of A1s has been noted.

 

Having said all that, I think it is wrong to assume that the market is a finite pool of cash and the punters in the hall are the universe of bids. The very act of buying a nameplate is capricious - hardly an essential of life - and were auctioneers to go out of their way to get the sale - e.g. sending photos and actively soliciting bids in advance as a certain auctioneer did in his heyday - I think there are other bids out there. I noticed that one or two items at Pershore (not nameplates) appeared to have been sourced from ebay. It is a mistake however to think that arbitraging from ebay to an auction is a no-brainer. Some things do sell better on ebay, but there are undoubtedly successful arbitrages to be had from time to time.

 

Loco whistles There have been two A4 whistles in the last few weeks. That from Kingfisher, complete with finial, made £3,650 at railwayana.net. That from Lord Faringdon (no finial) made £5,200 at Pershore. There is a general concern with A4 and Britannia chimes as they seem to be more or less standard Crosby chimes with little way of authenticating them. Thus trying to establish some provenance is very important. I would be helpful if one of the auctioneers could try to construct a record of where the various A4 whistles are. The whistle from A3 "Blink Bonny" fell to £700, from £1,350 at its previous outing in December 2006.

 

Worksplates There was a very early Nasmyth Wilson plate at Pershore, No 199 of 1878, repatriated from Aus, which pre-dates anything else I have seen by 14 years. It made £2,200. The LNER engraved plate from early diesel shunter 15002 made a deserved £2,600. The £8,400 which the worksplate of A2 "Steady Aim" fetched at Stoneleigh in April was notable.

 

Signalbox boards continue patchy. "Arenig Signal Box" made £1,450 at Stafford, a gem for someone's collection. Another GWR plate "Heathfield Signal Box" made £2,150 at Pershore, about four times the price eight years ago.

 

 

 

Great Central, Stoneleigh 19 January 2008 results are here

 

The auction, apparently very well attended, rather confirmed the difficulty of extrapolating any particular direction for the market as a whole. What to make for instance of bidding A1 “Meg Merrilies” up to £25,000 when the same (or other side), in unrestored condition, fetched £17,000 in September 2007? Straight “County of Stafford” made just £13,500, vs £24,650 for “County of Oxford” in April last year. Is the RHS plate that much more desirable? B1 “Nilghai” made a robust £9,600, especially remarkable for an unremarkable antelope and a difficult name to pronounce. “West Country” “Braunton” and scroll made £14,000, about par and possibly helped in this case by being an extant loco.

 

Smokeboxes were generally buoyant but helped by some reasonable quality plates, 60028 at £5,500, 60093 £3,400 (a record for A3s not numbered 60103) , 60115 (from the aforementioned Meg), a new record for an A1 at £4,600,

 

In worksplates, the Hudswell Clarke / RSH 1952 plate from a Pannier seemed expensive at £2,100. A GNR engraved plate from a J6 seemed very good value at £480.

 

There was a good showing in classic traction. The BTH plate from a Class 15 made a new class record at £980. “Warship” “Druid” nameplate made a respectable £6,400 and Class 47 “Thor” (an original plate), £4,800. The English Electric worksplate off E3100 made a hefty £1,050.

 

“Fenny Compton” made a new record for an LMS “Hawkseye”, at £2,800. Good to see that GCRA has reverted to using the “Hawkseye” term. If only they would record the numbers of signalling tablets in the catalogue…..

 

Talking of which, tokens and tablets are all over the place. This truly seems to be an impulse buy area. A token “Evercreech Junc North -  Glastonbury and Street” made an amazing £3,300.

 

 

Sheffield 15 December 2007 results are here

 

General impression seems to confirm the weak-ish market, although care should be taken in extrapolating any particular trend or level across the whole market. 

 

Nameplates. "Clans" remain uncommon. "Clan Mackintosh" was only the third such plate to appear, and the first for four years, and made a respectable £21,000. D49 "Hunt" "The Hurworth" made £17,000, not bad in this market for a plate with a replacement fox. "Oakley Grange" and cabside did very poorly, making just £9,000. If one assumes a conservative £2,000 for the cabside, this assumes £7,000 for the nameplate, no better than a "Hall". "Jubilees" surprisingly are proving to be quite resilient in this market, "Hyderabad" making a solid £11,600 here. Herewith a graph of prices since 2000 with a moving average trendline, showing a fairly gradual decline (I have excluded "Prince Edward Island" as this has a distorting effect). The blip in 2002 was "Zanzibar", which appears to be coming up for auction again in 2008 - not many opportunities to buy an LMS plate with a "Z"! 

 

 

Time was when Sheffield would have been a bit reluctant to allocate one of its half dozen nameplate slots to a humble Hall. However, in what I assume is a reflection in the shortage of plates in the current market (presumably buyers are not rushing to sell at today's prices), "Heatherden Hall" and cabside was on sale and made £9,100. "Battle of Britain" "Manston" and crest, has sold before, albeit back in 1994 when it made £12.100. It failed to sell here, presumably due to an over-optimistic reserve. As a dispassionate observer, this would not be my must-have BB and perhaps others thought the same.

 

Smokeboxes were mixed but generally good. "Joob" 45698 made £3,000, but 77019 just £500. The first D49 plate to appear, 62734, made a modest £750 although it had been welded. M7 30022 selling for the second time made a new class record at £1,400 but £950 does not look excessive for 30087, the first B4 to appear. 41532 made a record for this small class at £980. 84019 made £2,200, not far short of the record for the class.

 

Worksplates were rather humdrum with a few exceptions. An 1891 Robert Stephenson engraved plate was rather nice and £2,550 does not seem demanding. Following the excitement of the plate from 60004 at Stafford, that from 60006 was dragged up to £10,200, somewhat surprising, as the LNER had been filled in and this is the third time it has appeared, most recently in April this year.

 

Overseas. There were a number of SAR cabsides. Of note was £800 for an "S" and £720 for an S1, both huge new records, but only £340 for a 19C. An 8B, the first to appear, made £400. 


Classic Traction. Ex-loco Class 47 "Colossus" fell to £3,500 compared with £5,000 at its previous outing in 2004. Class 60 plates remain fickle, "Scafell" selling (for £2,000) but "Great Whernside" not. "Ex-loco "Vulcan Enterprise" from a 37/9 made £2,720.

 

Other. BR enamel station direction signs continue to be sought after but still offer good value compared with many totems.

 

 

GWRA Pershore 24 November 2007 (results are here)

 

The impressive selection of nameplates on offer had caused quite a stir in the market when first announced. In some ways this was a bold move, as it is generally acknowledged that the market is not that deep and glutting the market is likely to depress prices, hence the rather miserly dribble of plates that Sheffield puts into each auction. My overall impression is that prices were not that great, with the exception of "Nottingham Forest". 

 

LNWR Precursor "Thunderbolt" was a very nice name. Precursors ain't that common, and as a class, they tended to have the best names. It realised £11,800 which, if you include buyer's premium, is a class record. A1 "Great Eastern" was the first crested A1 plate to come to auction and I thought was rather disappointing at £19,000. "Battle of Britains" are usually sought after and "219 Squadron" had a good badge and motto. The £22,500 it realised was very poor - is there an explanation? I had assumed a minimum of £30,000. Star of the show was B17 "Nottingham Forest" complete with football, which made £43,000. "Footballers" are actually very rare at auction. A number of plates are with the clubs and some have replacement balls, so original sets are not plentiful, but this one was a bit over-restored for some tastes. "Taunton Castle" and cabside 7036 was a very nice set and £18,900 is not a bad price in today's market, as the BR Castles are eschewed by GWR diehards. "Royal Scot", "The Artists' Rifleman" made a poor £12,000, barely more than a "Jubilee". Finally "West Country" "Budleigh Salterton", with shield and scroll made £21,000, again very moderate. The crest of "Bude" alone made £19,000 in 2006.  In the midst of this plenty, GWRA managed to stick in a "Hall", "Westwood Hall" and cabside, which made a respectable £10,100. A kingfisher plaque from the eponymous A4 made £4,600.

 

Other items of note were the small bronze framed LT roundel for "Cannon Street", This size and design of station name is the most sought after LT artifact and (from my limited data) is a record price. "St Johns Wood" made the same in the recent railwayana.net auction. An uncommon Drewry worksplate of 1941 made £330. A "Merchant Navy" whistle from 35025 sold for £2,600, and was so complete that the buyer ended up with quite a lot of the locomotive. The Starbuck Tramway builders plate was very uncommon and £60 seems a bit of an aberration.

 

 

GCRA, Stoneleigh 6 October 2007

 

A bit of a curate's egg. Plenty of reasonable quality items but lacking a bit of oomph.

 

There was a very limited selection of nameplates, only one mainline steam plate. As Singapore Airlines leads its advertising with its first class offering, so auctions rightly or wrongly are judged by the nameplates on offer. Armed with buyer's premium, an auction house can easily offer no-commission deals to vendors, and it is difficult to believe that no one wants any cash for their nameplates at the moment. The one mainline steam plate was GWR "Saint" "Charles J Hambro", which did not appeal, despite the rareness of the letter "J" in GWR plates. It failed to sell even at the modest reserve of £6,000. 

 

WR Cabsides. Dean Goods 2396 made £3,900, which appears to be a record for one from this class. "GWR" pre-fixed 795 made £2,300.

 

Worksplates. A 9x5 from a GER tram loco, selling for the second time,  made £1,200. £620 is unusually pricey for a B1 Vulcan Foundry plate.

 

Smokeboxes. 69105 was the first N10 smokebox I have noted at auction and £450 does not sound very demanding. Royal Scot 46155 made £2,700. 

 

Classic traction. Class 40 nameplate "Scythia" rose to £6,100 on its second outing despite the impressive score mark. The NBL plate from early Warship D603, made £3,100, surprisingly slightly less than the plate from D833 made in July. Nameplate "Leviathan", from a Class 50, and ex-loco, made £3,250, which is the lowest price I have seen for one of these.

 

Signalling. The potential for prices to collapse between the first token/tablet/staff to emerge for a section and the next continues to be well illustrated. A Barnstaple Junc-Barnstaple Town tablet made £1,250 here, compared with £3,300 12 months previously. Having said that, "Littleham - Budleigh Salterton" did the opposite and rose to £720. Tyers key token instruments continue to be popular and one here made £1,500.

 

In totems, "Evercreech Junction" made £9,600. There are a lot of quality totems emerging and demand is very robust for the top end, but I sense prices are weak for more mundane offerings.

 

In overseas items, New Zealand cabside AB 758 made £720, which is a record for any NZ cabside according to my limited data.

 

 

Stafford 29 September 2007 results are here

 

Stafford is not so well know as some of the more established auctions but seems to have a viable model by holding two auctions a year, which offer some very good quality items, rather than go for more lots/auctions and be forced to fill up the catalogue with items which would sell better on ebay. There were a number of fta totems and it is noticeable also how tokens rebounded after a dismal showing at Sheffield. There were several ex-loco WR cabsides with their sacks as delivered from Swindon which sold well. Note that there is no buyer's premium here and Stafford's other USP is that it displays reasonable quality (in some cases, good) images of all the lots, which makes it stand out from most other auctions, who have not really come into the internet age. 

 

Star of the show was a worksplate from A4 60004, which made an astonishing £21,000. The other side sold for £4,800 in 2001.

 

Nameplates. A good selection if nothing quite out of the top drawer. Ex-loco Brit "Robert Burns" made £17,700, which is not that far short of the record set by "Solway Firth". A nice plate but strange that two plates which would probably not make too many collectors' list of top five Brits should hold the honours. B17 "Milton" did better than I would have expected at £8,400. K2 "Loch Laggan" however performed miserably at just £7,500. Surely K2s are worth more than this? 2003, when two K2s made £17k or above, seems a long time ago. £8,000 was hardly demanding for a "Grange, and "Hardwick Grange" is not a bad name. 

 

key tokens were generally well contested. "Stourport on Severn N - Bewdley South" is the first such I have noted, which made £480. "Criccieth - Afon Wen" managed £75 in Sheffield and £190 here. "Borth - Llandre" made four times what it did two years previously, at £250. I thought "Llanbrynmair - Cemmes Road" might have done better than £300 though, as I have not recorded one in auction before.

 

There were a number of South African cabsides from diesel and electric locos in ex-loco condition.

 

 

Sheffield 15 September 2007 results are here

 

A new venue (Derbyshire County Cricket Club) and a new buyer's premium (10%). General impression was that this was not Sheffield's best bill of fare, and there seemed to be an unusually large number of unsold lots by Sheffield standards. Prices quoted here, as for other auctions, are shown exclusive of BP.

 

The slate of nameplates was not bad, but possibly at the expense of unrealistic reserves? B17 "The Essex Regiment", no doubt helped by the ability to marry it up with its badge, made a creditable £15,000. GWR "Star" "Princess Mary" made £12,000. Early GWR plates are difficult to forecast and it is difficult to say if this is cheap or expensive. "Jubilee" "Neptune", a Corkerhill loco and an early withdrawal, made £8,800. A1 "Meg Merrilies" was in some ways the star of the show, making £17,000. West Country "Saunton" and scroll failed to sell, as did A4 "Sir Ralph Wedgwood", although I understand a sale of the latter was concluded later at £25,000. Despite the attempt to puff it up in the catalogue, I can't imagine many who were not trainspotters at the time, and who cannot recite all the A4 names by heart, being smitten with this name. Names of men in suits just don't sell well. "Sir Persant" also failed to sell. This is not a particularly noteworthy character in Arthurian legend, nor would its brevity appeal to those enthusiasts who like to buy their Arthurs by the pound and don't mind the obscurity of the knight in question. 

 

WR cabsides. According to my records 4401 was the first 44xx to appear in auction and made a hefty £4,900. Castle 4097 achieved the unusual distinction of not selling for the second time at auction, having been offered through Kidlington a couple of years previously.

 

Smokebox numberplates. This sector seems to be bucking the trend and seemed generally robust. Jubilee 45667, a Midland mainline loco, made £2,800. West Country 34042, selling for the second time at Sheffield, made £3,300. 30837 made a new record for an S15 at £1,150. 72006 made a new record for a "Clan" at £3,600. Yet another "Britannia" appeared, 70050, which made £2,800. The surprise of the day in this category was B1 61369 which made £1,100, which is a record for a non-named B1. 41712, which has sold before, rose to £950.

 

Worksplates were a bit subdued. I was surprised the very nice engraved plate with "rebuilt" strip from K1 "MacCailin Mor" did not make more than £2,600. I thought it might go for double this amount. The LMS plate from 41528 was also a bit of a rarity (the only Derby 1907 plate to have appeared, only one from this class etc), and ex-loco, and £300 seems undemanding. The LMS Stoke 1921 plate may be the same one that sold at Lytham many years ago. Certainly very rare. It made £850. A Beyer Peacock plate from an LMS Garratt sold for £1,450, less than half of what they were fetching at the peak.  

 

Classic traction. Deltic nameplate "The Green Howards", a brass plate, was appearing for the second time and struggled to sell, having made £25,000 on its first outing. NBL plates from "Warships" continue to be popular with that from D840 making £2,550 here.

 

Other items. I thought the "Hawkseye" from Millers Dale might have made more than £850. This seems very modest for such an evocative location.

 

Overseas items. The SAR 19D 3363 cabside was the first 33XX to appear and made £800, a record for a 19D. 2659 made a more usual £250. A third plate, 3338, had unusual narrow numbers and was less appealing, making £270. An ALCO worksplate and its matching USATC plate from a Thai MacArthur went very cheaply at £150 each.

 

thai_macarthurs_feb74.jpg (106622 bytes)

 

 

Great Central 14 July 2007 results are here

 

Quality was OK but little stood out from the routine, as perhaps witness the length of this report, but perhaps I am getting lazy. I think reverting to four auctions per annum may be a struggle. 

 

Mainline steam Nameplates were in short supply. Early GWR plates do not appeal to many but "Earl Cawdor" from a "Badminton" made a respectable £16,500. This is a section of the nameplate market which holds a lot of potential, as there are some great names out there. The obligatory Hall, "Wolseley Hall" this time, failed to sell. I think such plates may be better sold privately.

 

Smokebox numberplates from the small class of Crosti fitted 9Fs are rare and 92028 here made £1,450. 31634 made a new record for a "U" at £1,100.

 

Classic Traction. NBL plate4s from Warships are rarer than you would expect. That from D833, only the third to appear according to my records, made £3,200, which makes it the third most expensive diesel plate. The damaged NBL plate from D601 Ark Royal made £2,510 on ebay last month.

 

Signalling. As expected, the BR green enamel box board from Midford on the S&D made big money, £3,800 in fact, which is a new record for a boxboard. A Kings Cross enamel board, in three sections making 20 feet in total, looked more like a running-in board that just happened to be clagged to the signal box. It made £1,100. A "Delabole - Port Isaac Road" tablet rose 150% to £1,050 from the last appearance of one of these in April, presumably because this one was not stamped "out of use". A Railway Signalling Company key token for Broom Nth - Alcester made a stiff £1,600.

 

Direction signs. I thought "Bath Spa" was slightly disappointing at £1,950.

 

Irish. I thought the £250 for the enamel station sign from Madore modest. 


Overseas. Appearing for the first time at auction according to my records were cabsides from Class 36 and 37 SAR diesels, both ex-loco. Both made £170.

 

 

Sheffield 16 June 2007 results are here

 

A lot of Irish material in this auction, but it is noticeable that (G)WR cabsides and signalbox nameboards have both dwindled to a handful of items.

 

Nameplates. LNWR "Baltic" made an impressive £17,000, only the third "Claughton" to have appeared. B17 "East Anglian" made a modest £7,000. An RAF badge from a "Battle of Britain" made £8,100, somewhat down on the recent example last year. Isle of Wight "Alverstone" made £8,100, the lowest price since 2000. A3 "Robert the Devil" made £15,300, not bad for an A3? Standard Class 5 "Linette" made £5,800, not bad. Star billing was for Merchant Navy "Elder-Dempster Lines". The condition of the enamel in the centre is important when buying these plates, and according to the catalogue description, the one here had been repainted. In the circumstances, £28,500 was not a bad price. 

 

Irish nameplate, "Lough Melvin", from one of the SLNCR 1949-built 0-6-4Ts, made £8,600 which must be a record for an Irish artifact.

 

Worksplates. A Doncaster engraved plate from 2-6-0 43062 was expensive at £720, although not a record for the class. One of the comparatively rare engraved "North Eastern Region" plates from an L1 made £1,550. The LNER engraved plate from A3 60060 had had the LNER filled in but still made £4,200. Beckton Works worksplates are exceedingly rare as they only built two locos, albeit numbered 30 and 31. No 31's made £2,400. No 865 of 1886 is the earliest Black Hawthorn plate I have noted at auction. It made a modest £1,000, the letters being quite worn, and this was of a smaller, less attractive design than previous plates. Engraved Neilson worksplates are very rare, and an 1891 plate from an industrial loco made £1,700. The LNER 9x5 from B1 "Chiru" had a spectacular fall in price, from £1,200 in January 2006 to £580 here.


A Nasmyth Wilson tenderplate from a GNR(I) loco made an impressive £820.

 

Smokebox numberplates. A4 60015 made a new smokebox record at £7,600. A4 plates remain very rare at auction.  Duchess are less rare but not prolific. 46250 was selling for the second time and rose to £4,600. No shortage of Britannia plates though and 70030, selling for the second time, surprisingly made a new record for the class at £3,600.  73087, from "Linette", made £1,300. Ex-loco 67600 made a new record for V1/V3s at £1,000.

 

In classic traction, Class 87 nameplate, "Earl Marischal", ex-loco, made £5,900. £460 is the highest price I have noted for a Darlington plate from a Class 25.

 

In totems, £2,800 for "Fort William" seems to be a major disappointment.

 

LMS Hawkseyes. "Hest Bank", appearing for the second time, made a new record for the category at £2,300.

 

In signalling, boxboards were disappointing but plenty of equipment. A Kimbolton & Huntingdon wooden staff and ticket box made £2,600. Sheffield has a complete run of Lynton & Barnstaple tablets going through, "Blackmore-Wooda Bay" making £2,400 here. The previous example at Pershore last November made £6,300, illustrating the dangers of bidding for the first to appear of an item of which a number may exist.  "Sidmouth Junc - Ottery St Mary" offered an even greater proportionate collapse at £200 (from £720 first time out). A Tyers No 6 tablet instrument made £300. An Achnasheen - Strathcarron 25" token, not common in auction, made £750. A "Dingwall - Garve 25" key token made £1,050. The word "North" is ground off from these. As the numbers imply, there may be at least 25 in circulation so buy with your eyes open at these prices. An LMS/Railway Signal Co token machine, not common at auction, made £2,900. The Lentran - Muir of Ord key token was interesting as there are also tablets for this section. It made £300. The second "Rose Street - Clachnaharry" tablet to appear in two months made £1,050 vs. £720 at GCRA.

 

Overseas items. A strength of Sheffield remains its foreign coverage. A Walkers 1909 plate from a PB15 (the earliest Walkers plate I have noted at auction) made £200. A Railway Works Ipswich plate from a C16, selling for a second time, rose to £520. Rogers plates are very rare, and the market for North American plates is really ebay. I have only noted one Rogers plate on ebay  though (photo below), which made USD2,660 a couple of years back. A similar plate here made £500, a sweet deal for the buyer.

 

 

A Chinese Dalian 1961 plate from a JS was mis-described as from a JF. Apart from the fact that JF production finished in around 1957, a JS plate, which is quite large, would not fit on a JF which had no flat surfaces. These were screwed to the "skyline" casing around the dome, sandbox and main steam pipe. The following photo shows an undated similar plate on JS 5593 at Tumen shed in 1998, plus a 1960 example. The plate here made a very modest £95.

The usual assortment of South African cabsides. Of note was 19C 2463, although to call it very rare (this is the fourth I have noted at auction) robs us of superlatives for 19As and Bs, only one of each having appeared. Nevertheless, I thought £700 not demanding for one of these pretty rotary cam valve geared locos. A US Army Transportation Corps plate from a Korean S160 made £300, its matching ALCO worksplate making £300 also. Splitting a lot in this way seems to be poor form, as the plates clearly belong together.

 

 

Great Central, Stoneleigh 28 April 2007 (results are here)

 

I suppose it is time to start referring to this auction as Great Central Railwayana Auctions, rather than Kidlington, as the link with Kidlington has finally been severed by the move to the new venue at Stoneleigh.

 

Nameplates. The inevitable Hall, "Arbury Hall" complete with cabside and smokebox, made £7,600. Allowing for BP and estimating a price for the numberplates, gives a price for the nameplate c. £6,500. A3 "Sunstar" was selling for the second time and fell from £14,200 in December 2001 to £10,000 here. LNWR "Mars", an Alfred the Great" a great treasure unearthed, made £8,000. Strangely, this is no less than the fifth "Alfred" to appear.  Ex-loco GWR "Frankton Grange" made £9,000, about par.

 

WR cabsides. GWR prefixed 2186 was the first ex B&M loco cabside to appear at auction and made £3,000.


Smokebox numberplates had a quiet day. £780 for "King Arthur" 30775 does not sound expensive.

 

Worksplates. A 9x5 from a Y4 was the first I have noted at auction and made £580. Lots of LBSC interest. A Rebuilt Brighton plate from a B4X made £4,000, a simple Brighton Works 1906 plate from a C3 £1,350 and a Southern cabside from a "Gladstone" £2,700. The Sharp Stewart plate from the B4X made £500, and was notable for being the highest number SS plate I have noted at auction by a wide margin (4777 of 1901) although SS continued until 1903 when it merged into NBL. Sentinel plates complete with knight are fairly rare at auction and I did not think the £600 for that from an LNER Y3 very expensive. The engraved plate (LNER filled in unfortunately) from A4 60006 was selling for the second time and rose to £5,800.

 

Classic traction. The market for artifacts from diesel and electric locos seems generally subdued at the moment, with prices having slipped back from there peak. A Crewe 1961 plate was surely mis-attributed to a Class 46, which had Brush rather than CP electrical equipment, and were built at Derby. I am also suspicious of a Crewe 1965 plate being attributed to D1846, which appears in the middle of a long run of Brush locos. An English Electric 1957 rectangular plate of less common design, from an industrial loco failed to sell. A 1961 plate from a Hudswell Clarke BR shunter D2510 made £940.

 

BR enamel direction signs are very popular at the moment and are emerging as a class which deserves more attention. I am not a huge totem fan, but I do like these direction signs which give more bang for the buck with miniature totem, arrow and station name. Rugby Central made £2,400, Dunstable Town Station £1,800, Victoria Station (Nottingham or Manchester?) £700, MIles Platting £540 and WIlmington (NE) £560.

 

Signalling. I note that GCRA has relegated a number of tokens/tablets to the postal auction, presumably the less choice ones. I am not sure why they do not note down in the description the number stamped on tablets - some may find it useful to see if this is one that is re-appearing.  A "Hatherleigh - Hole" tablet made £1,050. Meon Valley items remain rare and a Tisted - Alton tablet made £840. "Camelford - Port Isaac Road" seemed expensive at £900, as several have appeared. An Egloskerry - Tresmere tablet was the first I have noted and made £1,000.

 

wpe1.gif (6507 bytes)

 

Token/tablet prices are generally firm but prices for more common ones are all over the place - for interest, the above is a graph of Crianlarich - Dalmally, which shows no sort of consistency. I suppose for any low value items, the absolutes are always going to be more volatile.

 

GWR boxboard "Whiteball Siding Signal Box" made £1,600. A Midland Railway enamel board "Wigston North Junction" was uncommon and made £1,150. "Arrochar and Tarbet" from the West Highland line, an NBR or possibly LNER board, was unusual with the name on three lines and made £1,600. 

 

In cast iron, a "Bowes" LNER seatback from the Stainmore line made £1,150.

 

Other items. The flamecut cabside panel from 34017 made £2,000.

 

Overseas items. An Indian Railways HGS cabside No 26819 made £360.

 

 

Sheffield 10 March 2007

 

Nameplates. "Battle of Britain" sets are rare, as relatively few are in private ownership. "601 Squadron" in ex-loco condition, was a nice set, but disappointingly, it has one of the few crests without a motto. Nevertheless, £35,500 seems quite a healthy price.

 

 

A number of LNER plates.D49 "Forfarshire" made £8,200. A2/3 "Chamossaire" (with BR paperwork) made a huge £24,500. A4 "Kestrel" made £25,000, which sounds unexciting for an A4, but this was one which was renamed and arguably did well to make this figure, notwithstanding the rarity of such plates. GWR "Toddington Grange" made £10.800, about par for the market. "Jubilee" "Malta G.C." is a good name, and its Midland mainline background also helped to propel it up to £13,200.

 

WR Cabsides. 2941 made £2,600, which seems good relative value to a Hall.

 

Smokeboxes. 67666 was the first V1 I have noted at auction and might have done better than £640. Brit 70024 was appearing for the second time in six months and managed to lose £1,000 in price at £2,100. 31831 made a new record for an N at £1,000. The BR paperwork no doubt helped. 42799 set a new record for a Crab at £880. Jubilee 45656 made £2,700, another Midland mainline loco. I thought 8F 48073 might have done better than £480, as this was the Hornby-Dublo loco.

 

Worksplates. A GNR(I) Dundalk plate from an Irish P Class 4-4-0 was rather rare and made £680, not very demanding. Sharp Stewart 4697 of 1900 is the highest numbered SS plate I have noted at auction, from a SECR C class. It made £600. The Vulcan Foundry 1887 plate from an L&Y 0-6-0 made a huge new record for Vulcan plates, at £2,800. The previous highest was £1,000. The NB diamond worksplate No 23665 stated to be from 44486 was probably from 44496. This is sloppy cataloguing not a typo, as it gives the wrong history - 44496 seems to have been a long time Stoke loco. 

 

Classic traction. The worksplate from Hymek D7000 and its cabside numbers made £750, not a record for a worksplate alone.

 

Overseas items. The (ex-loco) SAR cabside from 24 3624 made a very low £280. Difficult to explain this one. A 12A cabside made £580, a record for the class. A 3R also made a record at £750. A 15A was the first noted at auction and made £550. £150 seems low for a cabside from SNCF 141R 916 based on track record. A Porter 1919 plate from a US 0-6-0T made a low £200. A Canadian Loco, which the buyer tells me is from an Indian WP 4-6-2 No 7611 (not a WG 2-8-2 as stated in the catalogue) made £500, a record for this mfr (at least in auctions I have noted, the same correspondent tells me that he is aware of higher prices). The Baldwin Lima Hamilton plate from a WG 2-8-2 made £380, a record also for this mfr. There has been a regular series of Japanese worksplates from Thai locos in the last few years. A Mihara rectangular plate from a 2-8-2 was appearing for the first time and made a relatively modest £200. 

 

Signalling. A Lynton & Barnstaple tablet made a predictably hefty £4,800. A very nice pair of Webb & Thompson miniature electric staff instruments made £1,625.


In other items, Pullman artifacts seem to have gone off the boil after the euphoria a couple of years back. The whistle from A3 60036 made £620. The regulator handle from Jubilee 45552 made a surprising £3,200. Just what you need for the living room. Regulator handles usually fetch £200 or so. ("that's nice dear, where are you going to put it?" or perhaps more realistically "You paid how much, for that??")

 

 

Kidlington 20 January 2007 (results are here)

 

This was the last auction at Kidlington, at least for the time being.  The April one will be at Stoneleigh, as they have outgrown the current venue.

 

Nameplates. One of the unusual cabside plaques from BB "Tangmere" sold for £13,200. This seems quite expensive relative to where one might expect the price of the nameplate to be. Perhaps the loco owner bought it? Standard 5, "Maid of Astolat" showed that not all plates from a class are born equal and rather confirmed my contention that the better Authurian names are not the obscure knights, but the more evocative names. In the middle of a rather depressed current market, it made a new class record, at £9,200, helped no doubt by being in ex-loco condition. The Standard 5s have posthumously become rather more celebrated than they were in service, partially perhaps to David Wardale using it as the basis of the proposed "5AT" - his recent paper on the project is here. Another "Hunt" here, "The Albrighton", a very nice length for a Hunt plate. This plate has sold before. The plate itself has a few knocks and the Fox looks like a replacement. It made £14,000. Another K2 Loch as well. "Loch Treig" did rather better than "Loch Oich" at Stafford, in fact it made twice as much at £12,000. The only two K2 plates that don't seem to have appeared so far are Loch Lomond and Loch Morar, both pretty good names. "Haroldstone Hall", with a longer backplate to accommodate this lengthy name, did not sell.

 

WR cabsides. The no. 5 plate from one of the Weston Clevedon and Portishead "Terriers" made £6,600. Somewhat of a rarity to say the least. 54xx plates are not that rare, but 5405 made a new class record at £1,350. Perhaps it was the Banbury connection? 61xx were at one stage rare but statistically this is no longer the case and we have now had two ex-loco specimens in the space of a month, 6117 making £1,000 here. "GWR" prefixed 75 made £3,600. How come so many of these absorbed loco plates are in ex-loco condition? Hall 4924 made £1,850.

 

Smokebox numberplates. 41528 made £680, the class leader and only the second such plate to appear. 62679 was the first D11/2 Scottish "Director" to appear and made a healthy £1,600. N1 31822 was also the first to appear - there were only six locos in total - and made £1,100. Ex-loco "Joob" 45635 made £2,550.

 

Worksplates don't come much better than the fully engraved plate from LNER No 1564 of 1923 - better known as "Flying Scotsman" of course. Once you have assured yourself it is not a "replacement plate", then the price could be anything. It made £16,000, but I am not sure that is expensive. Chapman & Furneaux plates are uncommon, but the one here, 1179 of 1899 had sold before in 2004, and managed to lose over 40% of its previous value, to £1,600. A Robert Stephenson plate from S&D 53809 made £1,900.

 

Classic traction. "Westerns" seem to be popular at the moment, "Western Viscount" and numberplate making £9,500 (ex-loco, Collectors Corner receipt). "Patriot", ex-loco, official receipt, from a Class 87 made £4,000 which seems rather disappointing to me compared with the prices these plates have previously made. Strange, it was a nice plate. Is it really nearly 30 years since the 87s were named? I remember seeing "Royal Scot" standing outside Euston prior to its naming ceremony, in the same position as that classic shot of 46245. Class 47 plate "Vulcan" made £3,500.


Signalling. Tablets seem to be very popular at the moment, and there seems to be a collection of NER boxboards going through. A train staff Criggion Loops / Criggion Station from the Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Railway was not a thing of beauty but sufficiently interesting historically to make £780.

 

Other items. A North Eastern Railway lamplighter was unusual and made £230.

 

 

Stafford 13 January 2007 (results (and images) are here)

 

One of the relative newcomers to the auction scene, but notable for putting decent images of each lot on its website. There was plenty of quality among the 320 lots and some revealing prices (or lack of). The more desirable and less common totems continue to make impressive prices (generally), with a new world record here for "Kyle of Lochalsh" at £11,000, while mainline steam nameplates continue to be weak absent special appeal.

 

Nameplates. D49 "The Garth" had star billing but failed to sell at its reserve of £20,000. The catalogue stated that the fox was original, but it looked to be a replacement in the photo, with very prominent fur. (a correspondent points out that the fox sold with "The York and Ainsty" in 2004 was ex- The Garth, but that one definitely looked the real thing). Coupled with a rather short, spaced-out, name, the effect was not very appealing, despite BR paperwork. Buying "Hunts" is very, very tricky, as many erstwhile owners will tell you, and if you are tempted to buy anything that is not totally right, it just nags and eventually will be on the exit list. Southern Atlantic "Peveril Point", withdrawn in 1944, also failed to sell. Plates such as this only appeal to quite a specialist sub-set of the market. Jubilee "Orion" was very disappointing at £6,000. Aesthetically the name is a bit short, not enhanced by bunching all the letters together. "Brit" "Moray Firth" made a respectable £14,200. Its smokebox numberplate made £2,000, slightly less than its last outing. K2 "Loch Oich", selling for the first time, made a feeble £6,000, a long way from the £17,600 for "Loch Rannoch" in 2003. Not quite as good a name of course. Loch Oich lies between Loch Lochy and Loch Ness in the Great Glen, near Invergarry.

 

Headboards. Having not had one before, another "The Devonian" appears one month after the first and at £2,000 made about 40% of the price.

 

WR Cabsides. 6114 made £1,050, some way short of the record.

 

Worksplates. LMS 1936 plates have a good chance of coming from a Joob, rather better than GWR whistles claimed to be from a King,  but prices have fluctuated wildly. The ex-loco one here made a robust £460, a restored one £320. £1,200 sounds a lot for a 9 x 5 from a J83 and perhaps the reason was that this had Sharp Stewart on the plate. Checking my records, I have only seen one other example.

 

Smokebox numberplates. B1 "namer" 61026 made £1,600

 

Classic Traction. Good "Western" sets are in demand, "Western Trooper" and cabside making £10,200. Warship "Valorous" made a record for the class, by a big margin, at £10,200. Nameplate "Conidae" made £3,500, probably a record for one of these rather esoteric Shell names. The Fowler plate from departmental ED2 increased the record for Fowler plates over five times, to £1,500.  Class 20 nameplate "Henry Pease" made a hefty £3,650. 

 

 

 

20 June 2010