Totem beats expectations and smokeboxes find new homes after 49 years

THE North Wales tourist hotspot of Betws-y-Coed was the star of the Transport Auctions of London October 30 sale, when a BR(M) totem from the town's former LNWR station sold for £4500 – three times its top estimate.

The station, on the Llandudno Junction to Blaenau Festiniog line, opened in 1868 and is still open today. Other totems that went under the hammer included BR(W) pair Bedwyn (£1000) and Denham (£900), while a London Bridge SR target sign went for £850.

BR(S) station enamel signs ‘Ticket office' and ‘Please show tickets' fetched £1100 and £550 respectively, and a GWR and LNWR joint lines cast iron sign warning of electrified rails, believed to have been from the electrified four-rail section of the West London Railway, went for £700.

Onto the main line, GWR nameplate Jackdaw from Bulldog No. 3447 failed to sell, but the smokebox numberplate from SR Class U 2-6-0 No. 31808 sold for £800 and LMS ‘Black 5' smokebox No. 44937 for £600, both having been in the same collection for 49 years. Two posters also made their mark at £800 each, a circa 1936 GWR/LMS ‘Cheltenham for health and pleasure' example and a 1947 SR issue promoting Jersey. The former was the work of Claude Buckle (1905-73), and the latter Adrian Allinson (1890-1959).

London Underground realisations included £900 for a circa 1932 wall enamel map of the system, £750 for a ‘No exit' enamel sign also from the 1930s, and a platform bullseye sign from Strand station (£700), which was renamed Charing Cross in 1979. Prices exclude buyer's premium of 15% (+ VAT).

TAL's Michael Wickham said: “While we didn't break any records, it was one of our best auctions to date. Realisations for enamel signs were very strong, but some cast iron ones less so, perhaps reflecting that there is a lot of them on the market at the moment.” He said the U class and ‘Black 5' smokeboxes that each sold were acquired by the vendor at a general auction in Leyton, east London, in 1972.