No frills, but a record for Britannia model, at Great Central’s Bloxham sale

TOP price in Great Central’s 1000-lot sale at Bloxham on February 22, was £1600 for a 5in gauge live steam model of an unnumbered Britannia Pacific, a record for this particular‘no frills, no commission or telephone bids, and no reserves’sale of general railwayana.

It was followed by £800 for an untitled‘beware of the trains’cast iron sign believed to have dated from the 1840s; £600 for a South Eastern & Chatham Railway‘ashford Works 31’ numberplate; and £560 for a Great Central Railway inspection lamp. Prices exclude buyer’s premium of 15% (+VAT).

Mike Soden, who shared auctioneering duties with Martin Quartermain, said: “Not only was the price for the model a record for a single lot at Bloxham, but total realisations were also the highest ever achieved. Signalling in particular was very strong.”

He said that the‘beware of the trains’ sign created considerable interest and, being untitled, also theories about its origin, much of which led to the possibility that it came from one of the early minor Welsh railways.“it was the like of which no one had ever seen before,”he said.