Train GraphicClick on the map to explore geographics
 
I need help
FAQ
Emergency
About .
Travel & transport from BBC stories as at 14:35 28 Mar 2024
- Man held over stabbing in front of train passengers
- How do I renew my UK passport and what is the 10-year rule?
- Jet2 launches first flight from Liverpool airport
* Easter travel warning as millions set to hit roads
Read about the forum [here].
Register [here] - it's free.
What do I gain from registering? [here]
 02/06/24 - Summer Timetable starts
17/08/24 - Bus to Imber
27/09/25 - 200 years of passenger trains

On this day
28th Mar (1988)
Formal end to carrying coffins by BR (link)

Train RunningCancelled
13:00 Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington
13:26 Weston-Super-Mare to London Paddington
13:28 Weymouth to Gloucester
13:30 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads
14:13 Par to Newquay
14:19 Westbury to Swindon
15:10 Newquay to Par
15:14 Swindon to Westbury
15:16 London Paddington to Cardiff Central
17:54 Cardiff Central to London Paddington
Short Run
11:23 Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central
11:29 Weymouth to Gloucester
11:30 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour
11:48 London Paddington to Carmarthen
12:03 London Paddington to Penzance
12:30 London Paddington to Weston-Super-Mare
13:03 London Paddington to Plymouth
13:07 Salisbury to Bristol Temple Meads
13:10 Gloucester to Weymouth
14:05 Salisbury to Bristol Temple Meads
15:10 Gloucester to Weymouth
15:23 Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central
15:30 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour
16:19 Carmarthen to London Paddington
Delayed
10:04 London Paddington to Penzance
10:23 Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central
12:30 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour
14:30 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour
PollsOpen and recent polls
Closed 2024-03-25 Easter Escape - to where?
Abbreviation pageAcronymns and abbreviations
Stn ComparatorStation Comparator
Rail newsNews Now - live rail news feed
Site Style 1 2 3 4
Next departures • Bristol Temple MeadsBath SpaChippenhamSwindonDidcot ParkwayReadingLondon PaddingtonMelksham
Exeter St DavidsTauntonWestburyTrowbridgeBristol ParkwayCardiff CentralOxfordCheltenham SpaBirmingham New Street
March 28, 2024, 14:36:30 *
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Forgotten your username or password? - get a reminder
Most recently liked subjects
[142] West Wiltshire Bus Changes April 2024
[80] would you like your own LIVE train station departure board?
[56] Return of the BRUTE?
[46] If not HS2 to Manchester, how will traffic be carried?
[43] Infrastructure problems in Thames Valley causing disruption el...
[34] Reversing Beeching - bring heritage and freight lines into the...
 
News: A forum for passengers ... with input from rail professionals welcomed too
 
   Home   Help Search Calendar Login Register  
Poll
Question: Do you own any old British Railways station totems  (Voting closed: April 03, 2022, 08:48:55)
No - no interest - 8 (36.4%)
No - but I would like to - 7 (31.8%)
One - 1 (4.5%)
Two or three - 3 (13.6%)
Four or more - 1 (4.5%)
What is a "totem"? - 2 (9.1%)
Total Voters: 22

Pages: [1]
  Print  
Author Topic: OTD - 20th March 2021 - most expensive totem  (Read 2301 times)
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40690



View Profile WWW Email
« on: March 20, 2022, 07:48:55 »

£12,100 for a British Railways totem, around 20th March 2021 - https://www.gwra.co.uk/auctions/86548/2021mar-lot-573.html
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
RichardB
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 958


View Profile
« Reply #1 on: March 20, 2022, 08:04:13 »

Thanks Graham.   I think the record was previously held by Southend on Sea Victoria which sold for 11k-ish a few years back.  Couldn't find mention in a Google search just now.

I remember when £600 for a totem seemed liked crazy money.......
Logged
johnneyw
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 2257


From station to station, back to Bristol city....


View Profile
« Reply #2 on: March 21, 2022, 11:55:15 »

Not a totem but saw this for sale in a Bath garden reclamation shop on Friday.  I don't think any heritage line runs far enough to use it though.
Logged
Ralph Ayres
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 336


View Profile
« Reply #3 on: March 21, 2022, 17:01:49 »

I'd only really be interested in one for a station that had a special significance for me, but presumably other factors affect the price. Hard to see why Southend Vic or Brecon would command such a high price, even if in perfect nick and rare, but perhaps you need to have a lot of disposable income to understand such things!

Co-incidentally the GWSR have recently made themselves a rather similar milepost to that 91 1/4 one, and could actually have modified the one on sale to get the same result.  I assume they were originally made up from bits of old rail and a wooden head so their one is just as authentic.  See https://draingang.blogspot.com/2022/03/first-too-dry-then-too-wet.html


Logged
RichardB
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 958


View Profile
« Reply #4 on: March 21, 2022, 22:38:36 »

Re Southend Vic and Brecon, all you need are two determined people with very deep pockets and hey, presto!  It strikes me that many collectors are now of an age where they have paid off their mortgage, have few commitments and hence money to spare.   Whatever floats your boat and it's a free country.

The other aspect is that things may not reappear for a very long time, if they ever do.  My small example of this is a Leatherhead target (Southern Railway).  My working career started in Leatherhead booking office so, as you can understand, I'd quite like one of these. 

As far as I'm aware, only one has ever come up in auction and that was in Kidlington in 1998 (Kidlington was the precursor to Stoneleigh, Warks, run by the same people).  I was there and it was me and the other bidder - I dropped out at £640 and that was that.  Targets were often going for £150-£200 back then but it only takes two and the price can be much more. No complaints, that's how it works.  If one came up now, it might go for £2k or more and I have, frankly, better things to do with that sort of cash which, in any case, would take hitting the credit card big time to achieve. 

Logged
JayMac
Data Manager
Hero Member
******
Posts: 18894



View Profile
« Reply #5 on: March 21, 2022, 23:07:36 »

Do my various totem shaped fridge magnets count?
Logged

"Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for the rest of the day. Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life."

- Sir Terry Pratchett.
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40690



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #6 on: March 21, 2022, 23:42:50 »

Do my various totem shaped fridge magnets count?

No. And these virtual one don't either:







Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
onthecushions
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 977


View Profile
« Reply #7 on: March 22, 2022, 00:11:26 »

My surname is also a place name with a station.

Back in 1974, a colleague who passed through each day told me that the Totems had been replaced. I went to Collectors' Corner then at Cardington Street, Euston and bought all three survivors for £18.00, telling my wife gradually and much later.

They are now too valuable to hang outside, of course.

More junk for my executors.

OTC
« Last Edit: March 23, 2022, 16:54:33 by onthecushions » Logged
PhilWakely
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 2007



View Profile
« Reply #8 on: March 22, 2022, 08:01:22 »

The signage at Exeter Central did not get updated until the early 1970s. At the time, not a lot of care was taken when disposing of the old signage. I recall a visit there one Saturday when I spied a pile of old signs just left in plain sight under the main footbridge. Nobody batted an eyelid when I helped myself to an old SR(resolve) totem from the pile.

If I knew then what I know now, I would not have sold it to a collector back in 1990!
Logged
Do you have something you would like to add to this thread, or would you like to raise a new question at the Coffee Shop? Please [register] (it is free) if you have not done so before, or login (at the top of this page) if you already have an account - we would love to read what you have to say!

You can find out more about how this forum works [here] - that will link you to a copy of the forum agreement that you can read before you join, and tell you very much more about how we operate. We are an independent forum, provided and run by customers of Great Western Railway, for customers of Great Western Railway and we welcome railway professionals as members too, in either a personal or official capacity. Views expressed in posts are not necessarily the views of the operators of the forum.

As well as posting messages onto existing threads, and starting new subjects, members can communicate with each other through personal messages if they wish. And once members have made a certain number of posts, they will automatically be admitted to the "frequent posters club", where subjects not-for-public-domain are discussed; anything from the occasional rant to meetups we may be having ...

 
Pages: [1]
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP Powered by SMF 1.1.2 | SMF © 2006-2007, Simple Machines LLC Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!
This forum is provided by customers of Great Western Railway (formerly First Great Western), and the views expressed are those of the individual posters concerned. Visit www.gwr.com for the official Great Western Railway website. Please contact the administrators of this site if you feel that the content provided by one of our posters contravenes our posting rules (email link to report). Forum hosted by Well House Consultants

Jump to top of pageJump to Forum Home Page