Owner’s shock after rare railwayana theft
TWO rare items of railwayana bought at auction for nearly £2000 were stolen in a daylight theft only hours after being collected by their new owner – but one was recovered a week later when it was spotted for sale at an antiques fair.
Long-time railwayana collector Chris Pratt, of Taunton, Somerset, successfully bid for the two cast iron signalling nameboards at a GW Railwayana live online auction on July 24, paying £1000 for a Westonsuper-Mare East Box board and £800 for a Junction Lock South ground frame board from the Bristol Harbour Railway's Canons Marsh branch line.
He loaded the two heavy items onto his trailer when collecting them from GW Railwayana's Simon Turner on August 4. Hours later the trailer, with its load, was stolen from a hotel car park in Dudley, West Midlands, when he was on his way to visit Kidderminster Railway Museum.
Simon alerted members of the railwayana movement about the theft in an internet posting with photographs should they be offered the signs. Among the many who read it was Roger Phipps, of Talisman Railwayana, who, to his surprise, saw the ground frame sign for sale at an antiques fair at Newark Showground on August 12.
“My wife Sandra and I spotted it at one of the stalls and recognised it immediately as being one of the boards Simon had posted about,” said Roger. “We contacted the local constabulary and they sent a policeman over, and he took the sign to Newark police station. We are delighted that we have been able to help Chris retrieve one of the boards.”
Amazing coincidence
That delight was shared by Simon, who said: “I am really pleased that one of the two stolen items was recovered so soon after its theft, thanks to Roger and Sandra having read my alert and being on alert themselves. It is an amazing coincidence that they should have attended the very fair that one of the signs was being sold at.”
Chris, 70, is chairman of the Heritage Railways' Signalling Inspectors Group and a former chief signalling inspector for the West Somerset Railway.
He said: “I was devastated and in shock when I saw the car still there but not the trailer. It was almost surreal, I couldn't believe it.”
The thieves had separated the trailer from his car by using bolt cutters.
Chris's interest in signalling goes back 55 years to when he was a 15-year-old schoolboy involved in the study and implementation of research into mainly GWR and BR Western Region signalling.
“During my schooldays in the 1960s I visited many signalboxes prior to their closure, including Westonsuper-Mare East, and had tried to acquire the plate from the then owner a number of times,” he said.
The nameboard dates from an original 1897 signalbox, and was transferred to a replacement 'box that opened in 1922.
It was named Weston-superMare East Box until September 1955, when the East in the title was dropped following the closure of the station's West signalbox. It closed in January 1972.
Chris, who has now been reunited with the ground frame sign, said he would welcome any information on the whereabouts of the signalbox nameboard via his email address, chris.r.p@btopenworld.com. The West Midlands Police crime reference number is 20/1342091/21.
The theft is the second in recent times that has seen stolen railwayana being offered for sale in Newark. As reported last issue, a running-in board stolen on May 23 from the closed but surviving Potton station in Bedfordshire, later resurfaced at an autojumble in the town.