Express & Star

Former Alton Towers railway sign up for auction

Signs from the disused Alton Towers railway station are set to go under the hammer as part of a huge auction collection next month.

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Principal auctioneer with Chippenham Auction Rooms, Richard Edmonds, with the sign

The signs, taken from the station which closed in 1965, are part of a huge collection of historic railway memorabilia discovered in a Wiltshire garage after the death of its owner.

The sale includes over 250 signs and many other items from railways, London Underground and London Transport dating from the early years of the 20th century up to the 1970s.

A large proportion of the items come from railway stations that were closed during the ‘Beeching cuts’ of the 1960s, when a report by Dr Richard Beeching prompted a major reduction in Britain’s rail network.

The station buildings at Alton Towers, which are grade II listed, were acquired by the Landmark Trust in 1972, with the stationmaster's house converted into holiday accommodation.

In 2008 the trust converted the on site waiting-room to provide additional accommodation space and today the buildings are occasionally open to the public as part of open days.

The sign is amongst 14 lost railway stations whose signs are to be sold, including East Brixton in London, St Ann’s Park in Bristol, Blaenrhondda in South Wales and North Tawton in Devon.

The sale also includes items of railway staff uniforms, badges, clocks, lamps, platform furniture, advertisements and other equipment.

he collection has come onto the market following the death of its owner, an elderly former railway worker from Wiltshire.

He is believed to have amassed the collection over six decades, storing most of the signs in the garage of his semi-detached house.

Principal auctioneer with Chippenham Auction Rooms, Richard Edmonds said: “This collection is mind-blowing.

"It’s the biggest of its kind I’ve ever seen.

"To put it into perspective, the most classic railway totem signs I’ve sold before at a single auction was two.

"Now I’ve got over 50 of them!

“What’s even more surprising is that the late collectors’ wife had no idea what he was doing.

"She called us in to review the small part of the collection he kept in their house.

"It wasn’t until we looked in their garage that we realised what she’d seen before was just the tip of a railway iceberg.

“We’ve already had lots of interest – and it’s still over a month to the auction.

"We’re expecting some individual signs to go for well into four figures.”

The railway heritage items will be auction at 10am on November 10 at Chippenham Auction Rooms, Chippenham, Wiltshire.