Pre-Grouping takes on Big Four at GNRA sale

TWO nameplates will represent the pre-Grouping era and a third the days of the Big Four in Great Northern’s October 1 saleroom auction.

The sale, as reported in Heritage Railway issue 295, will bring the curtain down on Ian Wright’s 35 years on the railwayana rostrum.

As featured in this issue’s news pages, the pack is being led by 156-year-old nameplate Murdock from LNWR Newton class No. 1488, a veteran 2-4-0 built at Crewe in 1866 and withdrawn in November 1888. The second preGrouping survivor is Peacock, from a GWR Bulldog 4-4-0 that emerged from Swindon in December 1909 numbered 3740, became No. 3450 in 1912, and was withdrawn by BR from Wrexham’s Croes Newydd shed (84J) in December 1949.

The Big Four contender is

Manton Grange,

from No. 6822, a January 1937 Swindon product that ended its career of nearly 28 years in September 1964 when a resident of Bristol Barrow Road (82E).

One of the 4-6-0’s cabside numberplates will also be going under Ian’s hammer, and in the same category there is Southern Railway 2038 from another pre-Grouping locomotive,

Portland Bill,

one of five in the LBSCR

H1 Atlantic class designed by D Earle Marsh. This 4-4-2 was built by Kitson & Co in December 1909 and withdrawn as No. 32038 from Bricklayers Arms (73B) in July 1951.

There are steam memories too, with an early Ian Allan ABC and a headboard from ‘The Royal Highlander’ overnight sleeper express. The former, which lists the immediate pre-Nationalisation LMS stock of November 1947, features on its cover an A N Wolstenholme drawing of Princess Coronation No. 6233 Duchess of Sutherland in black lined livery and devoid of smoke deflectors, which were fitted to the Pacific in August 1946.

‘The Royal Highlander’ was launched by the LMS in 1927 and ran from London Euston to Aberdeen and Inverness. It was the longestdistance through train in the UK, had the longest travel time of nearly 14 hours, and was often hauled by a Princess Coronation locomotive. It last ran in 1988.

The auction is being held at Poynton Leisure Centre from 10am.

ROLE MODEL: A Fulgurex limited edition O gauge model of one of the last passenger steam locomotives built for the French national railway SNCF was the top seller in a Vectis model train sale on July 22 with a hammer price of £1200 (exc buyer’s premium of 25% inc VAT). The model (above) was 4-8-2 No. 25, from the 241P class built by Schneider & Co of Le Creusot between 1948 and 1952. By 1973 all 35 members of the class, which had a tractive effort of 45,560lbft, had been withdrawn, but four survived into preservation.