Railwayana
Geoff Courtney’s regular column.
LASTmonthitwas platformandwaiting roomseats, wheelbarrows, oillamps, totemsigns (£ 2.10 foragroupof 10), and clocks from£ 1.75upwards, as readersof thiscolumnmayrecall. Thismonth the mid- 1960s’railwayanaauction catalogues unearthedbyStefanGronkowski arecentredaroundnameplatesand smokeboxnumberplates.
Life- long railwayenthusiast Stefan, who lives in theCornish villageofNanpean, near StAustell, recentlyunearthedin his loftthreerailwayanaauction catalogues dating from1964/ 65.
Theywere forsalesrunbyauctioneers Charles Butters& Sonsonbehalf of British Railways’LondonMidlandRegion, and the first catalogue, forasale at Stoke- onTrentonJune6,1964, wasfeaturedin last month’scolumn.
Discoveries
Thismonth it’s the turn of theother twocatalogues, for sales atDerbyon November7,1964andMay22,1965.
What isimmediatelyeye- catching aboutthe former is the list of11 nameplatesfromninenewlywithdrawn Jubilee 4- 6- 0s, ranging fromNew Brunswick ( No. 45557) toSandwich
( No. 45641), andincludingbothplates fromNo. 45557andalsoNo. 45561 Saskatchewan, whichwas incorrectly spelt Saskatchawen in the catalogue.
Another plate in theauctionwas SirHerbertWalkerK. C. B. fromLMSPatriot No. 45535, whichhadbeenwithdrawna year before. This 4- 6- 0wasbuilt atDerby inMay1933but remainedunnameduntil 1937, whenthenamewastransferred fromclass stablemateNo. ( 4) 5529.
Smokeboxnumberplatesfilledmore thantwopages inthecatalogue, mainly fromLMSClass4F0- 6- 0s, butanumber were fromnamedlocomotives, including JubileesandRoyalScots.
Amongthe formerwastheplate from No. 45641, thus givingcollectors the opportunitytobuyanameplateand smokeboxplate fromthesameengine.
TheRoyal Scot selectioncomprised Nos. 46122( RoyalUlsterRifleman), 46125 ( 3rdCarabinier), 46156( TheSouthWales Borderer), and46165TheRanger ( 12th LondonRegt.). Nos. 46122/ 25/ 56had beenwithdrawnduring themonth prior to the sale– No. 46122only threeweeks before– thusgivingcollectorsareal
‘ hot- off- the- press’opportunitytobuya smokeboxplate, whileNo. 46165wasstill twoweeksaway frombeing takenout of servicewhenthesalewasheld.
AfifthRoyalScotsmokebox numberplate, 46163( CivilService Rifleman), was also in theauction, but listedasbeing broken.
Extensive range