Victory for SR’s Eastleigh drawing office in colossal GCRA auction

A MAMMOTH Great Central fiveweek online ephemera auction of 1750 lots that had taken many months of planning ended with victory for a Southern Railway drawing office publication ahead of a 111-year-old Isle of Wight timetable.

The winning SR lot was a gilttitled volume of calculations compiled in copperplate script writing by Eastleigh Locomotive Works, containing diagrams, drawings and details of a variety of steam locomotive classes including King Arthur and Merchant Navy. It comprised 96 pages and went for £1050.

The IoW publication, which sold for £920, dated from 1911 and featured the timetables of three of the island’s railways: the Central, the Freshwater Yarmouth & Newport, and the Newport Godshill & St Lawrence.

At £600 was a circa 1860 Macaulay’s map of London’s Metropolitan Railway, and just behind at £550 came a selection of 300 album-mounted GWR parcel stamps. A Railway Clearing House Airey’s railway diagram map of London and its suburbs went for £540. Prices exclude buyer’s premium of 15% (+ VAT).

Great Central director and auctioneer Mike Soden said: “It was one of our largest ever auctions and took a considerable amount of planning. We were delighted how it went, but it is not yet decided whether there will be another one of such magnitude.”