Ex-National Collection headboard finds a new home

AN express headboard, joint railway handlamp, and industrial locomotive nameplate, were the winners in Talisman Railwayana's internet, telephone and postal auction that ran from April 29-May 14.

The headboard was from ‘The Robin Hood,' a London St Pancras to Nottingham express that was launched in February 1959, ran until September 1962, and was hauled initially by Royal Scots and later‘Peak'diesels. The board, originally part of the National Collection and subsequently sold through Collectors' Corner, went for £2100.

The handlamp, which realised £1450, was plated‘P.P. & W No. 151' and was from the Portpatrick & Wigtownshire Joint Railway in south-west Scotland, which ran its first trains in March 1861 and was a joint venture between the LNWR, Midland Railway, Caledonian, and Glasgow & South Western.

Nameplates were represented at £1400 by Beryl, carried by an 0-4-0ST built by Andrew Barclay of Kilmarnock in 1902 for the iron and steel manufacturer Bell Bros of Port Clarence, Co Durham. In 1937 it became an ironstone quarry engine in Burley, Rutland, and was cut up in October 1962.

Another four-figure realisation was £1250 for BR(M) station totem sign Uttoxeter, and at £960 came the smokebox numberplate from LNER V2 class No. 60846, a 2-6-2 built at Darlington in February 1939 and withdrawn from Edinburgh St Margarets (64A) in October 1965.

A North British Railway 13in dial longcased clock believed to have originated from the West Highland Railway achieved £820, a price matched by a 1962 Beyer Peacock (Hymek) worksplate from Class 35 diesel-hydraulic D7064 which had a service life of fewer than nine years before withdrawal in October 1971, while an LNER seatback nameplate from Arthington station on the Leeds-Harrogate line fetched £780. Prices exclude buyer's premium of 15% (+ VAT ).