Talisman set for live saleroom auction Mk.2 with 50-year Lincs collection

TALISMAN Railwayana will be holding its second post-Covid live saleroom auction on July 2, when a single collection of Lincolnshire memorabilia amassed over 50 years will go under the hammer. Included in the 500 lots are BR(E) totem signs from three stations that underwent a name change during the years they were open, comprising Lincoln St Marks, Woodhall Junction, and Spalding Town.

The Lincoln representative was opened by the Midland Railway in August 1846 as Lincoln, had ‘St Marks’ added in September 1950, and was closed in May 1985. Woodhall Junction opened in October 1848 on the Great Northern Railway’s BostonLincoln route as Kirkstead, changed its name in July 1922, and was closed to passengers in October 1970. The station was the junction for the line to Horncastle that opened in August 1855 and was closed to passengers in

September 1954. The third of the trio, Spalding Town, started life also in October 1848 on the GNR’s Peterborough-Lincoln line as Spalding, had the ‘Town’ suffix added by BR exactly a century later, and is still open today, albeit once again named simply Spalding. Its station building is Grade II-listed.

Worksplates from two Doncaster Works-built locomotives with Lincolnshire connections are a Great Northern Railway 1909 example (works No. 1229) from D2 class 4-4-0 No. 44 and an LNER 1923 plate (works No. 1580) from O2 class 2-8-0 No. 3493. The D2 was numbered 3044 by the LNER, while the O2 was numbered 63938 by BR, and each was withdrawn from Grantham shed, the D2 in May 1947 and the O2 in September 1963.

Also in the auction are an LNER Skegness and BR Lea Road station direction signs, Firsby and Burgh-leMarsh station seatbacks, signalbox signs and signalling equipment, bridge numberplates, and handlamps. The auction is being held at The Venue, in Navenby, south of Lincoln, and starts at 10am.

On March 26, Talisman became the first mainstream railwayana auction house to reopen its saleroom doors after the lifting of Covid restrictions with an auction at Newark, so ending a two-year absence that led some collectors to fear that such sales would never be held again.