No train strike held at SAS

Real world travellers might have been suffering on the railways recently but that wasn’t the case at SAS. The highlight of the year so far for Special Auction Services was its twoday Glorious Trains sale, with a hammer price total (including buyer’s premium) reaching £348,000.

Day One was mainly confined to the smaller gauges, including N Gauge, Bemo and good quality 00 and HO gauge, including pre-war Hornby Dublo, Tri-ang Hornby Battlespace, a superb collection of kit-built Southern EMUs as well as modern 00 by Hornby, Bachmann, Heljan, Dapol and others. The last section of the day was railwayana, which featured a pair of re-upholstered Pullman Armchairs that sold for £420.

Day Two started with the Rivarossi Archive Part Two including N Gauge, HO Gauge and 0 gauge sets, locomotives and rolling stock, which was being sold on behalf of Rails of Sheffield. The Italian Railway outline locomotives and stock did particularly well.

The larger gauges included a Bassett-Lowke 0 gauge BR blue ‘Duchess of Montrose’ which sold for £1,400. The Tim Ayers collection of fine scale kit-built 0 gauge sold very well, with a Sans Pareil Lord Nelson SR olive green ‘Robert Blake’ selling for £1,900. A superb British Gauge 1 collection included an Aster Class A4 4468 Mallard (£2,500) and Class A4 ‘Silver Link’ for £3,000. Part Two of the remarkable collection of continental-outline Gauge 1 locomotives and rolling stock formed by Geoff Clark totaled £65,000; he was involved in specialised metal fabrication for John Waggott of J&M, and their fine CIWL coaches sold at over £300 each. The Bockholt section included a DB Class 65 2-8-4T which closed on £5,500.

Towards the end of the second day, an unusually well finished collection of Stuart Turner and other makers kit-built stationary steam engines sold very strongly, with a Turner Major Beam Engine knocked down for £1,600. The final lots were a rake of 5 inch gauge wagons which all sold very well, despite being modern, in particular a Saxa Salt van which realised £460. ■

Is this one to salt away for the future? This lovely 5 inch gem finished close on £500, despite being of recent manufacture.

The sale price of this DB class 2-8-4T model reflected the quality of workmanship involved.