Sam Hewitt

Princess Coronation 4-6-2 No. 6233 Duchess of Sutherland is back in steam – and also in its original LMS crimson lake livery to mark its 80th birthday. Following the completion of a major overhaul, a special ‘roll out day’ was held on Sunday, September 9 at the iconic 1938-built locomotive’s base – the West Shed…

Continue reading »

Golden memories as ‘Streak’ in the spotlight The smokebox numberplate from LNER A4 No. 60031 Golden Plover will head the line-up at a Thirsk Railwayana Auctions’ sale in North Yorkshire on September 22. The Gresley Pacific was built at Doncaster in October 1937 and withdrawn from Glasgow’s St Rollox shed (65B) in October 1965. Another…

Continue reading »

A collection of 800 mostly BR, but also pre-Nationalisation, platform tickets from all the regions topped the charts among the railway ticket realisations at Paddington Ticket Auctions’ sale in central London on July 21, with a hammer price of £780. An even larger collection, comprising 1500 rail tickets also both pre and post-Nationalisation and mostly…

Continue reading »

Three latecomers have swollen the number of main line steam nameplates at Great Central’s Stoneleigh auction on September 1 to 14. As reported in last month’s column, the sale was listed to offer 11 plates, headed by a GWR Star, a SR Battle of Britain, and an LMS Royal Scot. At a late stage, however,…

Continue reading »

As REPORTED in the news section of this issue, five live steam locomotive models with estimates of up to £50,000 will head a transport sale being held by Dreweatts on September 19. The quintet are GWR No. 7017 G.J. Churchward and a Manor class 4-6-0, LMS ‘Black 5’ No. 5041, BR Standard Class 2MT No.…

Continue reading »

Five nameplates from a single collection comprising four GWR examples and a Standard Britannia set the tills ringing at GW Railwayana’s sale at Pershore on July 14, with hammer prices ranging from £3700 to £11,900. The five-figure realisation was for St. Mawes Castle from No. 5018, which emerged from Swindon works in August 1932 and…

Continue reading »