Treasures history up
NORTH EAST TRAIN RELICS TO GO UNDER THE HAMMER DOWN SOUTH
Reporter RAILWAY relics from a Tyneside-based company’s pubs are to be sold at auction.
The items were on show in the Head of Steam chain’s bars, which were run by Tony Brookes.
One of the prize pieces is the locomotive nameplate City of Newcastle upon Tyne, which is rated at £2,000£3,000.
It belonged to the first Inter City 125 power car to be named.
The naming ceremony took place at Newcastle Central Station in 1983.
Also for sale is a double-sided LNER clock in an oak case, which told passengers the time in the booking hall of Sunderland station from the late 19th Century until the 1960s. It carries an estimate of £500-£800.
The auction by specialist Grand Central Railwayana, takes place on Saturday at Stoneleigh Park in Warwickshire.
Tony sold his business – and in turn pubs – to Cameron’s Brewery and has now retired and lives in Hexham in Northumberland.
The North East pubs included the Head of Steam opposite Newcastle Central Station, Tilley’s bar and the Cluny 1 and 2 in the city, the Central bar in Gateshead as well as a pub in Durham.
More railway items from Tony’s collection include the locomotive nameplates John Peel, at £1,000-£1,500, and Yorkshire Cricket Academy at £900-£1,200. A model locomotive with two coaches is valued at £3,000-£4,500. In January, Tony sold more than 40 vintage enamel advertising signs from the Head of Steam pubs with Newcastle auctioneers Anderson and Garland. A Firestone Tyres sign featuring maps of Britain fetched £420 and a Cadbury’s chocolates enamel advert went for £400. A London and North Eastern Railway poster advertising excursions to the 1929 North East Coast Exhibition in Newcastle, which was on display in the Central Bar in Gateshead, sold for £850. Tony, who founded the Legendary Yorkshire Heroes real ale off licence business in the North East in 1980 before moving into pubs, said: “The signs, posters and railway artefacts were part of making the pubs really interesting to a wide range of people.” North East railway items from other vendors in Saturday’s sale include posters encouraging travellers to visit the Cheviots, and Hexham Abbey “and the lovely Tyne Valley” in Northumberland. Tony Brookes