Pre-Grouping takes centre stage while identity crisis totem waits in the wings

A PRE-Grouping express locomotive is to take centre stage in Great Central's third monthly 200-lot live online sale on April 3, when nameplate Herefordshire, from LNWR No. 1455, goes under the hammer.

The 4-6-0, a member of the 105-strong Experiment class, emerged from Crewe Works in November 1909 and, after Grouping in 1923, was renumbered 5537 by the LMS and withdrawn in December 1933, at which point the number was allocated to newly-built Patriot Private E. Sykes V.C.

A totem sign from a station that has suffered a regular identity crisis since opening more than 160 years ago will also feature. It is Sidmouth Junction, which was opened by the LSWR in July 1860 as Feniton, but the following year became Ottery Road. In 1868 it was renamed Ottery St Mary, which was five miles away, but that lasted just two months before it reverted to Ottery Road.

In 1874 it was renamed Sidmouth Junction on the opening of the branch to the seaside town, but closure to passengers came in 1967. However, the station was reopened in May 1971 and named Feniton, which the LSWR had opted for more than a century before. Is four different names, and the use of two of them twice, a record for a British station?

Tyndrum Upper is another totem in the sale from a station that has suffered a similar, but slightly less severe, fate. On being opened by the West Highland Railway between Crianlarich and Bridge of Orchy in August 1894, it was simply Tyndrum, but BR renamed it Tyndrum Upper in 1956 and then – wait for it – Upper Tyndrum in 1988, apparently to avoid it being confused with Tyndrum Lower, which had opened in 1873. Both Upper and Lower are still open today.

An early artefact estimated to be at least 150 years old and may even pre-date the Victorian era is a seal from the Newcastle & Carlisle Railway, which began operating mineral traffic in 1834 and passenger trains in March the following year, and was absorbed by the North Eastern Railway in 1862.

Also in the sale is a Southern Railway lamp tablet from Launceston that, despite being made of glass and mounted outside on the lamppost, has survived from pre-Nationalisation days and so defied the odds, including the demolition of the entire site, for at least seven decades. The broad gauge station was opened by the Launceston & South Devon Railway in June 1865 and closed to passengers in October 1966. In addition to being live online, bids in the auction, which starts at 10am, can be made by email, telephone or commission.

Two weeks before the auction, on March 20, Great Central is holding a 'Bloxham-style'sale of general railwayana which will also be live online. Among the 500 lots will be a 14½in high porcelain bust of George Stephenson made by Wedgwood in 1858, 10 years after the death of the man who became known as the ‘father of railways'.

Another lot will be a complete initialled and upholstered 6ft long North Staffordshire Railway waiting room bench, while locomotive items include a cabside numberplate from GWR 0-6-2T No. 5630, built at Swindon in August 1925 and withdrawn from Abercynon (88E) in December 1962.

The auction starts at 10am, and bidding will be available live online and by commission. There will be no telephone bidding, and few reserves.