Crewe and Swindon threesome in the spotlight at Poynton

NAMEPLATES from a trio of 4-6-0s built at two of the most productive railway works in the UK during the 1930s and all withdrawn within a little over a year of each other, will be under the spotlight at Great Northern’s sale on March 28.

They are Albert Hall from the oldest of the group, GWR No. 4983, and Keppel and Renown from LMS Jubilees Nos. 45673 and 45713, the last-named making its auction debut.

The Hall was built at Swindon in January 1931 and withdrawn from St Philip’s Marsh, Bristol (82B) in December 1963; No. 45673 emerged from Crewe in December 1935 and taken out of service from Glasgow’s Corkerhill shed (67A) in December 1962; and No. 45713 was another Crewe product, entering service in June 1936 and ending its days at Bank Hall, Liverpool (27A) in October 1962.

There is also a cabside numberplate from GWR No. 6973 Bricklehamptonhall, named after an 1848-built Grade II listed Regency style building near Pershore in Worcestershire, and carriageboards from‘thewelshman’london Eustonholyhead express and‘the Manxman’ from the Euston-liverpool train.

I recorded the Down‘welshman’ at Rhyl on three occasions during a holiday in north Wales in early August 1959, variously hauled by Nos. 45532 Illustrious, 46100 Royal Scot, and 46162 Queen’s Westminster Rifleman, and again at Lichfield Trent Valley on August 6 the following year, behind No. 46170 British Legion on the Down train and later in the day, No. 46125 3rd Carabinier on the London-bound working.

‘The Manxman’also entered my logbook at Lichfield on that August Saturday in 1960, but with diesel power, Class 44‘Peak’d9 Snowdon on the Up train and Class 40 D222 on the Down, the latter being unnamed at the time but named Laconia in October 1962.

A dash of colour will be added to the auction by a single collection of 15 pregrouping railway company original coatof-arms transfers, as used on locomotive splashers, tenders, and carriages. The auction is being held at Poynton Leisure Centre and starts at 10.30am.