Collecting railwayana – the formative years
As the interest in collecting nameplates and other railwayana grew, The Railway Magazine became a primary source of advertising for collectors, thereby stimulating the hobby. Paul Tilley explains.
BACK in March 2020, and in the midst of the first coronavirus lockdown, I decided to read through my back copies of The Railway Magazine (RM) covering the years 1961 to 1983. I was looking for references about railway artefacts; now known as ‘railwayana’. The magazine sometimes had photos of signs in situ as well as an occasional article; I noted a couple featuring platform lamps and mileposts. This was the time I started to take an interest in the wider aspects of the railway infrastructure and not just its motive power.
The advertising section caught my attention. In those days The RM was a conveniently sized magazine that would fit in a blazer pocket. Filled with the latest information and informative articles, there was little space for adverts. You would find an occasional request for tickets and ephemera in the section headed Miscellaneous Advertisements. It wasn’t until the end of 1963 when the page size of the magazine was enlarged that advertising rapidly expanded (see pic 1).
As well as having more display adverts, the classified section was now grouped in categories under headings; For Sale and Wanted being the prominent ones. Steam was being replaced by diesel and electric traction, and this undoubtedly stimulated the urge to collect railwayana from locos and the rapidly changing rail network. The content of these two sections now became a ‘must read first’ as more and more tasty morsels were featured. Time was of the essence if you wanted to stand any chance of making a purchase.
The rising interest in railwayana was reflected in a small advert placed by BR Eastern region in 1962 which read… ‘Will all interested parties please note that no further applications can be accepted for Eastern Region locomotive nameplates as the waiting lists have been closed’. However, it soon became clear that the various stores controllers and general managers within the BR regions were prepared to cash in their redundant assets. Display adverts promoting auctions at Derby, Stoke, Retford and Scunthorpe appeared along with lineage adverts from Swindon, offering cabside numberplates, and Paddington, offering tickets. A friend decided to respond to the Swindon advert and spent his pocket money on a Pannier cabside. Delivered to Stamford Town station, it was found to have been broken in half! He wrote back to the stores controller who generously sent him another one free of charge. That one did arrive in one piece.
In 1970 adverts appeared promoting BR’s official outlet at Collectors’ Corner (see picture 2). What a source of treasures that turned out to be! They even encouraged ‘swops’ and sold items on commission. Outstations at Steamtown Carnforth and Rail Curios at York station were also being promoted.
Some BR Works stepped up their marketing. In 1964 Swindon wrote to everyone who had put their names down for specific nameplates, informing them that the prices were being raised 100%... nameplates leapt from £7-10s (£7.50) to £15 overnight, and cabside plates were now £7-10s. It would be noted in the RM Letters column that in 1930 a nameplate from Swindon could be bought for 17s-6d and by 1960 it had risen to £1-10s! Many letters were seen berating BR for exploiting genuine collectors. Eastleigh works went one better, writing to those on their lists saying that some plates were now reserved for ‘special cases’ and that offers in excess of £50 were now solicited. One correspondent was amazed to see the item he had bid for appear in the For Sale section of the next edition of RM.
As the cost of railwayana continued its meteoric rise, two new aspects of collecting emerged. Display adverts placed by engineering companies along with many preservation
societies were now offering affordable reproduction plates. For example Severn-Lamb, the model engineer, offered to make you any GWR nameplate, as seen pictured right; one collector in London purchased 35! Just think of the cost back in 1974; £35 for the backing plate and £2.50 per letter… and then what it would have been to have bought the originals.
Sadly, the second aspect was theft. Nothing became sacred. Industrial and preserved locomotives still carrying original plates were now being targeted as well as lineside notices and equipment from the working railway. A collector even had a double chimney from a GWR ‘King’ class locomotive removed from his front garden.
However, one story stood out. It concerned two brothers, one masquerading as Prince Frederick of Oldenberg, the other as his chauffeur. They travelled throughout England and Scotland persuading railway employees to give them ‘souvenirs’. Seen leaving a civic reception in Berwick-upon-Tweed in a battered old Ford Anglia finally raised suspicions and they were soon apprehended. Appearing in a Cheshire Court they were found guilty on a specimen charge, having admitted removing 150 railway lamps, signs and equipment along with 4000 used tickets.
As I progressed through the magazine’s For Sale and Wanted sections, more and more familiar names began to appear on a regular basis. Collectors’ events listed in the Display section – often run by preservation societies needing to raise vital funds – provided opportunities to complete deals and add to one’s collection. Dealers and collectors opened their car boots to reveal great treasures and it was extremely unlikely you would return home empty handed.
Professional auction houses had also entered the fray. In the 1960s the London-based auction houses of Knight, Frank and Rutley; Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Bonhams all had occasional railwayana and collectors’ sales. In 1982 Christie’s achieved notoriety for offering, on behalf of British Rail, several ‘Deltic’ nameplates as well as an entire Class 55 locomotive (pic 4). Needless to say the ‘Deltic’ items sold well but Tulyar itself failed to sell on the day.
Retail outlets specialising in railwayana, books and models started to advertise. There was Transport Scene in Wakefield and later Steam Scene near Carnforth; Railwayana of Sheffield; Puffers in Kenton and The Roundhouse in Harrow-on-the-Hill (pictured opposite).
The collecting movement was now well established and within its ranks emerged a number of specialist newsletters – Railway Collectors Newsletter Trackdown, Railway Relics, and Railway Relics Review.
Each month more and more display adverts appeared imploring the public to attend preservation centres with their own railwayana emporiums; proceeds being directed to the ever growing number of locomotives, rolling stock and fixtures and fittings that required restoration.
The Erlestoke Manor coach on the Severn Valley Railway and two shops at the GWS Didcot were always popular.
By the time the page size of RM was increased again in 1982, the volume of classified adverts had declined. This was undoubtedly due to the rising cost of advertising and the availability of alternatives mediums. Interestingly, the Wanted column contained a lineage advert offering a minimum of £45 for BR(NE) tangerine station namesigns known as totems. A sign of things to come as with only 150 stations, their rarity results in high prices.
So what did I find in the For Sale columns over this 23-year period? I noted nameplates, headboards, cabside and smokebox numberplates made up the bulk of what was offered. Many plates appeared more than once over the period; some were sold on for profit while others struggled to find a good home.
The nameplates…..
Over the years, 245 different names from the GWR were offered via The RM including 64 of pre-grouping origin. Names that caught my eye were Trevithick with its cabside, and Duke of Cornwall.
The SR totalled 94 with seven set of plates from ‘West Country’ Pacifics and eight sets from the ‘Battle of Britain’ class. Seven ‘Schools’ class plates featured.
LMS numbered 123, the bulk being 64 ‘Jubilees’ and 18 ‘Royal Scots’. The LNWR plates from City of Edinburgh and Sir Henry Bessemer would definitely grace anyone’s collection.
My own favourite, the LNER, produced 180 plates of which 86 came from the Pacifics and a surprising number of B17s; 17 in total. If only I could have afforded the A4s Golden Eagle or Quicksilver…
A total of 35 British Railways plates from steam locomotives matched exactly the number of headboards offered. While only two nameplates originated from a loco, there were often multiple examples of titled train headboards, hence the large number of survivors. ‘The Aberdonian’, ‘The Manxman’, ‘The Norseman’ and ‘The Tynesider’ would all feature in my collection at some point. A nameplate from the unique Duke of Gloucester also appeared.
British Railways diesel and electric locomotives’ plates also appeared with Class 52 ‘Western’ (26) and Class 42 and 43 ‘Warships’ (20) predominating. Fortunately around half the class of ‘Warships’ sold to the Victoria Station chain of restaurants in the USA via Collectors’ Corner were eventually repatriated.
Cabside and smokebox numberplates….
There were 233 different GWR cabside numberplates offered which included 60 ‘Castles’ and seven ‘Kings’.
I noted two of the Bulleid Pacific numberplates 21C1 and 21C2 along with a circular ‘1945’ plate which was mounted on the smokebox door. Great rarities indeed.
Much more affordable and highly desirable were smokebox number plates.
An ex-loco plate from 43081 (above) covered in grime with the numerals deepened with many layers of paint became a collector’s delight. Considering there were over 30,000 locomotives at nationalisation, most of which later carried smokebox numberplates, it is surprising that relatively few were offered in the period under review.
So many were to be found on society stalls and in relic shops that only a small fraction found their way into adverts. Many hundreds of plates appeared for sale in these columns
So there we have it. A trip down Memory Lane that I hope has given the reader just a flavour of how the collecting of railwayana evolved, as seen through the pages of The Railway Magazine.