SR and LMS head cast list in Great Central’s second monthly sale

SOUTHERN Railway and LMS nameplates have been selected by Great Central to head the cast list in the second of its series of monthly 200-lot auctions on March 6.

They are Sir Urre of the Mount – what delightfully idiosyncratic names some of those King Arthurs carried – from No. 30788, Seahorse from Jubilee No. 45705, and Honourable Artillery Company with badge from Royal Scot No. 46144 making its auction debut.

No. 30788 was built by North British of Glasgow in September 1925 and withdrawn from Eastleigh (71A) in February 1962, while the Jubilee, given a name used by the Royal Navy on 11 vessels between 1626 and 1932 and by the US Navy on three, was built at Crewe in May 1936 and taken out of service from Manchester’s Newton Heath shed (9D) in November 1965.

The Royal Scot was also built by North British in November 1927, and entered traffic with the name Ostrich, replaced by Honourable Artillery Company in January 1933, and withdrawn from Crewe North (5A) in January 1964. According to records, the replacement plates were removed from the 4-6-0 well before the start of the Second World War and reinstated at Crewe in October 1947, although the reasons for this are unclear.

Cabside numberplates include 1007 from County of Brecknock, a county also known as Brecknockshire, Breconshire and County of Brecon, so the GWR had plenty of choices to ponder over. There’s also 4974 from Talgarth Hall, and among the worksplates is 1908 Great Northern Railway Doncaster Works No. 1205 from Class J21 No. 5. This 0-6-0 was renumbered 3005 and subsequently 5004 by the LNER and 65004 by BR, before withdrawal from Colwick (38A) in November 1952.

A 1910 LBSCR No. 81 Brighton Works‘pie dish’combined works and numberplate will also be going under the hammer. It is from an I3 class 4-4-2T that was renumbered 2081 by the Southern Railway, and was withdrawn by BR from Three Bridges (75E) as No. 32081 in September 1951.

Allocation

A pre-Grouping enamel shedplate 34, from Patricroft, near Manchester, in the style of the plates used by the LNWR from the 1870s, will also be going under the hammer, and from a more modern era there is 60D, the code for Wick. This shed had a maximum allocation of only five locos over the years, but among them in the early 1950s was Highland Railway C class No. 54398 Ben Alder.

Although a loco of no particular note, this 4-4-0 became something of a celebrity after its withdrawal in March 1953, at which time it was believed to be a candidate for preservation as part of the National Collection. However, after storage in various Scottish sheds, it was mysteriously and controversially cut up 13 years later, in May 1966.

Three early-Victorian artefacts in the auction are a fully-titled button from the Grand Junction Railway, which operated from 1837 until becoming part of the LNWR in 1846, a South Devon Railways crown-mounted policeman’s tipstaff from Newton Abbot dated 1848, and a seal of the Birmingham Lichfield & Manchester Railway, which was incorporated in 1846 and wound-up the following year.

Another is a director’s pass issued by the London Deptford & Dover Railway, which was incorporated in 1836 and operated under the umbrella of the South Eastern Railway. The pass, which is inscribed ‘London & Dover Railway’, carries the name of Monsieur Saint Paul, a director of the Boulogne & Amiens Railway.

An LNER West Riding Limited poster by Charles‘Shep’Shepherd depicting an A4 Pacific will also feature, as will a BR(S) running-in board from Latchley. This east Cornwall halt, on the Bere Alston-Callington branch line, had no totem or target signs, and the board is believed to be the first item from this location to ever appear at auction.

Signalling

Within the signalling category is a Lynton & Barnstaple Railway Tilton Bridge to Chelfham single-line tablet and a second tablet from the other end of the country, Killin Junction to Luib, near Crianlarich, Perthshire, on the Callander-Oban line. From the Great Central Railway comes a complete window bearing the company’s full coat of arms. The auction, the 300th to be held by GCRA, starts at 10am and will be live online, with further bidding available by email, telephone or commission.