An eBay bargain from US restaurant chain’s railwayana collection
“WHERE did the US restaurant chain's UK railwayana end up?” asked Mike Swift in Platform, issue 279. Well, I have a locomotive nameplate from this closed US restaurant chain.
I have worked in the USA, firstly from 1999 to 2002 and then 2008 to 2017, both times in Washington DC. During the first period, there I was surfing eBay looking for a locomotive nameplate from a Warship class diesel.
The eBay search took me to all things 'warship', like models of ships – but not locomotives.
As I cast my eye down the list, I spotted from the accompanying photograph what was clearly a Warship diesel nameplate. A very, very low starting bid was shown, so I bid.
Within a few minutes, the American seller contacted me to ask if I knew the origins of the nameplate, which
I declined to answer. I waited for the duration of the eBay auction and no other bids were made, so I won it.
Shipping costs for the cast plate were more than I paid for the nameplate itself, but I was happy.
I received the nameplate with a note saying it had come from a failed restaurant chain that had been promoted on a railroad theme.
The nameplate was from Class 41
Warship Cossack (it entered traffic January 1959, was withdrawn in December 1967, and scrapped in September 1968 – one of a class of five, none preserved).
Although this is only one item, I am assuming all the various railway items were just dispersed when the restaurant chain closed.
Grant Lovett,