Train GraphicClick on the map to explore geographics
 
I need help
FAQ
Emergency
About .
Travel & transport from BBC stories as at 18:15 23 Apr 2024
* Light aircraft crashes near Prestwick Airport
* Wales' 20mph overhaul to start in September
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

No 'On This Day' events reported for 23rd Apr

Train RunningCancelled
16:23 Swansea to London Paddington
17:48 Reading to Gatwick Airport
18:00 Oxford to London Paddington
18:26 Newbury to Bedwyn
18:37 Westbury to Swindon
18:55 Bedwyn to Newbury
19:23 London Paddington to Oxford
19:29 Gatwick Airport to Reading
20:13 Swindon to Westbury
20:58 Frome to Westbury
21:02 Oxford to London Paddington
Short Run
14:03 London Paddington to Penzance
15:10 Gloucester to Weymouth
16:03 London Paddington to Penzance
16:32 London Paddington to Cheltenham Spa
17:30 Warminster to Bristol Temple Meads
17:57 London Paddington to Evesham
19:47 Bristol Temple Meads to Frome
20:24 Evesham to London Paddington
Delayed
15:03 London Paddington to Penzance
16:10 Gloucester to Weymouth
PollsThere are no open or recent polls
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
April 23, 2024, 18:17:48 *
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
[270] Lack of rolling stock due to attacks on shipping in the Red Se...
[87] "Mayflower"
[77] You see all sorts on the bus.
[49] Penalty fares on Severn Beach Line
[41] Somerset and Dorset Devonshire Tunnel flood
[38] Where have I been?
 
News: the Great Western Coffee Shop ... keeping you up to date with travel around the South West
 
   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 2392 times)
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40811



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: 959


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: 2274


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: 337


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: 959


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: 18920



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: 40811



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: 2018



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