Train GraphicClick on the map to explore geographics
 
I need help
FAQ
Emergency
About .
Travel & transport from BBC stories as at 04:55 15 Jun 2025
 
- UK sending more RAF jets to Middle East
Read about the forum [here].
Register [here] - it's free.
What do I gain from registering? [here]
 18/06/25 - Rail Live 2025
24/06/25 - GWR Community Rail Conf
26/06/25 - TWNW conference
05/07/25 - Railfuture AGM

On this day
15th Jun (2018)
GWR Community Rail conference at Swindon (link)

Train RunningCancelled
15/06/25 08:01 Weymouth to Bristol Parkway
15/06/25 09:31 Liskeard to Looe
15/06/25 10:03 Looe to Liskeard
15/06/25 10:34 Liskeard to Looe
15/06/25 10:36 London Paddington to Paignton
15/06/25 10:50 Penzance to Exeter St Davids
15/06/25 11:00 Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington
15/06/25 11:06 Looe to Liskeard
15/06/25 11:10 Westbury to Frome
15/06/25 12:11 Liskeard to Looe
15/06/25 12:43 Looe to Liskeard
15/06/25 12:55 Bristol Parkway to London Paddington
15/06/25 13:12 Worcester Foregate Street to London Paddington
15/06/25 13:20 Plymouth to Gunnislake
15/06/25 13:32 Swindon to Weymouth
15/06/25 13:51 Liskeard to Looe
13:55 Bristol Parkway to London Paddington
15/06/25 14:11 Gunnislake to Plymouth
14:30 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads
15/06/25 14:33 Looe to Liskeard
15/06/25 14:54 Paignton to London Paddington
15:29 Swindon to Cheltenham Spa
15:30 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads
15:45 London Paddington to Bristol Parkway
15:53 Bristol Temple Meads to Exeter St Davids
16:00 Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington
15/06/25 16:27 Exeter St Davids to Penzance
Short Run
15/06/25 07:36 London Paddington to Great Malvern
15/06/25 08:10 Penzance to London Paddington
15/06/25 11:12 Weymouth to Swindon
15/06/25 11:25 Frome to Bristol Temple Meads
15/06/25 11:32 Swindon to Weymouth
12:18 Penzance to London Paddington
15:00 Cheltenham Spa to London Paddington
15:41 Bristol Temple Meads to Salisbury
16:03 London Paddington to Penzance
16:05 Weymouth to Bristol Temple Meads
16:43 Frome to Swindon
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
June 15, 2025, 04:57:03 *
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
[112] Go-Op Cooperative - proposals for additional rail services
[88] Falmouth Branch Line - stations, facilities, services and impr...
[79] Tech arms race erupts in bid to beat fare-dodgers
[58] Bus Service 205
[55] Best-loved railway art unveiled after global vote - June 2025
[53] Storing petrol
 
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 5054 times)
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 44226



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, Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, TravelWatch SouthWest Board Member
RichardB
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 1035


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: 2559


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: 427


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: 1035


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: 19330



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

Do my various totem shaped fridge magnets count?
Logged

"Good news for regular users of Euston Station in London! One day they will die. Then they won't have to go to Euston Station ever again." - David Mitchell
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 44226



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, Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, TravelWatch SouthWest Board Member
onthecushions
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 979


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: 2179



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 (Southern Railway / Southern Region / Scot Rail / Scottish Region (rather confusing - it depends on the context)) 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 via admin@railcustomer.info. Full legal statement (here).

Jump to top of pageJump to Forum Home Page