£1 nameplate heads Talisman’s Newark line-up

A GWR nameplate bought for £1 nearly 70 years ago will be one of the star items at Talisman’s March 21 auction.

It is from 1913-built Saint class 4-6-0 No. 2951 Tawstock Court, and will be accompanied by original paperwork showing its cost after being bought from BR on the loco’s withdrawal from Gloucester Horton Road (85B) in June 1952.

A second nameplate is Sir Philip Mitchell from East African Railways’ Class 60‘Governor’4-8-2+2-8-4

No. 6019, built by Beyer Peacock at Gorton, Manchester, in 1954, and other locomotive items include a smokebox numberplate from LNER Class B1 4-6-0 No. 61189 Sir William Gray, a worksplate from D49 4-4-0 No. 62718 Kinrossshire, and a Great Northern Railway fully-engraved worksplate from N1 class 0-6-2T 69444.

There is also a cabside numberplate from 1503, one of a class of 10 designed by GWR chief mechanical engineer F W Hawksworth but built at Swindon by BR in 1949. These 0-6-0PTS were a familiar sight to Paddington trainspotters as, due to their tractive effort of 22,515lb ft, they made light work of their empty stock duties.

Headboard‘the Thames-clyde Express’ will also be making an appearance. I recorded this London St Pancrasglasgow train at Bedford Midland Road on March 7, 1960, headed by LMS Patriot No. 45536 Private W. Wood, V.C.

Wilfred Wood worked for the LNWR prior to service in the First World War, during which he received the Victoria Cross for bravery on the Italian front as a 21-year-old in 1918. He returned to the railways after the war, rose through the ranks as a fireman, driver and supervisor, retired in 1960, and died in 1982 aged 84.

A brace of LNER seatbacks from east Yorkshire stations comprises Hutton Cranswick, opened in 1846 and still open today on the Yorkshire Coast Line, albeit unstaffed with no ticket facilities, and Rye Hill & Burstwick, opened in 1854 and closed 110 years later, in October 1964.

Handlamps includes examples from the Barry, Rhymney, Taff Vale, and Maryport & Carlisle railways, there’s a Furness Railway goods pot lamp, an Isle of Wight Railway illuminated testimonial, and two boundary posts, from the North Wales & Liverpool Railway and LNWR & Furness Joint Railways.

The auction is at Newark Showground and starts at 10am.