Toys Display of Mel’s pre-war collection of mainly Hornby Trains. Collecting Railwayana by Jack Tempest any people collect bygone items of one sort or another. The females have their own feminine interests and the males, naturally Menough, generally prefer to seek out the more masculine materials. For instance, from childhood days, grown men tend to have a leaning toward anything that runs upon railway tracks and steam power. I know many men who can talk about railways from dawn to dusk and who collect virtually anything associated with the railway business going back to Queen Victoria’s times. I have met members of the ‘gentle sex’ who share such enthusiasm for railways and had enjoyed Hornby Trains in their youth - but not many! Collectors often follow their hobby because discovering rarities is great fun and, when their interest comes to an end they may, hopefully, be sold off at a price that allows them a very useful profit. Real enthusiasts do not really think that way and probably inwardly wildly believe that their collection will finally be taken with them to their Valhalla! What sort of railways do they collect - locomotive models, toy railway products made by Frank Hornby of Liverpool, England (he gave us the male-orientated Meccano sets and through them encouraged hundreds of boys to make their careers in the engineering businesses) and the German companies that successfully earned world-wide praise for their modelling. Frank Hornby became famous for his do-it-yourself boys’ construction outfits he introduced in 1901 which he originally named Mechanics Made Easy and later changed to Meccano, which was less of a mouthful and One of our leading authorities on helped to popularise world sales. Hornby had many dealings with some of the German toy manufacturers such British Railways, the Great Western as Gebrüder Bing and Märklin. From such companies he had bought many Meccano parts, including small Railway in particular, is Mel live-steam engines that were capable of powering mechanical items created by their youthful clients. There is Sherwood. His model layout is now a story that the very first Hornby train was not made in Liverpool, England, but in Germany. This was a simple on permanent exhibition at the 0-gauge four-wheeled engine that pulled a train made up of a tender and two coaches. It was packed into a Babbacombe miniature Garden carton with a set of tracks that formed a circle when clipped together. Village, Devon. There seems to be some concern that the very first Hornby train was not known as such. It was marked on the side as George the Fifth and the coaches were more Germanic in outline than British coaches. Few ‘model railway experts’ like to talk about Frank Hornby’s German connection but it is possible that once Meccano was fully established that the company decided to add model railway production to their business. This first railway set was made by Bing but the company connection quickly came to a halt when the 1914-18 War began. I understood that the box sets were shipped to Liverpool docks. M Ld. L was featured on the engine, the winding key, and the box lid - an abbreviation of Meccano Limited, Liverpool. No mention of Hornby. Also ‘Made in England’ was featured on the toy and box lid. Some say the trains were withdrawn and stored in a cellar at the factory until the end of the war then reintroduced after the war and pictured in the first Hornby Big wheel engines were popular in Book of Trains never to reappear! The original engine was fitted with a reversing clockwork motor - the post- the nineteenth century. Yet another war versions could not reverse! fine1930s model by Edward Exley. Railway fever is for all classes - the very wealthy get the opportunity to buy real engines and have money left to service them, run them, and store them. The famous 1930s British steam locomotive the Flying Scotsman has bankrupted many owners and is now kept in the National Railway Museum at York. I knew the last private owner and he was a steam fanatic who ran an annual steam fair on the Derbyshire Moors. His enthusiasm led him to have the famous engine on show there on two occasions. He had to have a section of track laid to stop the weighty vehicle sinking in the peaty soil and it, and its giant tender, was brought up on two gigantic low- loaders at great expense. Anything to do with railways of the past is now very collectable - bygone railway posters, passenger tickets, signalling horns, old station signs, early passenger and goods wagons, semaphore signals, lamps, official books, brass nameplates - and any memorabilia whatsoever appears to be highly collectable. There is a great Framed completed GWR jig-saw worldwide interest in the railways and model railways - earlier the better - play a big part in this universally puzzle, many such puzzles were happy hobby. Collectors collect railway items because of their sheer interest in the subject and large sums of popular in the 1930s. They are very money change hands at special auction sales of railwayana - and old railway associated toys. collectable today, providing they have no missing pieces! ANTIQUES INFO - September/October 09 Toys Selection of Locomotives from www.antiques-info.co.uk 1 8 Four inch gauge live steam LMS Fine quality Bing Gauge ‘1’ Live black livery locomotive, 2-6-4, No Steam 4-4-0 locomotive and tender. 2425, forward and reverse, pressure Amongst Mel’s railwayana collections is this large Meccano advertising Tennants, Leyburn. Jun 09. HP: gauge, sprung buffers, other tradi- model made for shop publicity purposes by Frank Hornby’s company in the £8,000. ABP: £9,410. tional fittings, 92cm long. 1920-30s. 2 Charterhouse, Sherborne. Dec 08. HP: £1,200. ABP: £1,411. 9 Great Northern Railway-type live steam locomotive, 7.5 inch gauge, large enough to carry a seated person. Thos Mawer & Son, Lincoln. Oct 06. HP: £3,000. ABP: £3,528. Bing Live Steam 2.5 inch 4-4-0 locomotive, in Great Western Railway (GWR) livery, missing funnel and other items, 36.5cm. Sworders, Stansted Mountfitchet. Feb 07. HP: £1,150. ABP: £1,352. Is this the very first Hornby Train? Officially it was produced for Frank 3 10 Hornby in 1914 under the pre-Hornby title of Meccano Limited, Liverpool. It was made in Germany by Gebrüder Bing who had also helped in the GNR Atlantic, locomotive and tender, production of Meccano parts. Although named ‘King George the Fifth’ the gauge #1, live steam, Chippenham train set of engine, tender, and coaches were in Teutonic style. Auction Rooms, Chippenham. Feb 09. HP: £2,000. ABP: £2,352. 3.5 inch Gauge coal-fired G.E.R. live steam locomotive and tender, 0-8-0, 4 traditional fittings, overall length of locomotive and tender 107cm. Charterhouse, Sherborne. Dec 08. HP: £1,120. ABP: £1,317. Bing live steam 0 gauge model rail- 11 way: a 4-4-0 locomotive and tender in GNR livery, 4 carriages, 3 goods vehicles and 20 track sections. Sworders, Stansted Mountfitchet. Sep Stanier Class 2-6-0 locomotive and 07. HP: £1,650. ABP: £1,940. tender in 3.5 gauge constructed by a 5 professional engineer and operated in 1970s & 1980s, steam operated brakes, original boiler integrity Hornby 0-gauge Princess Elizabeth certificate available. Halls Fine Art, 4-6-2 tender locomotive, electric Shrewsbury. Jul 06. HP: £1,100. powered loco, RN 6201, 7P 6201 to ABP: £1,293. This fine model of an early Great Northern Railway engine of the 1920s(?) cab side sheets, lights on top of the 12 made by ? smoke-box and two above buffer beam. Wallis & Wallis, Lewes. Jul 07. HP: £1,350. ABP: £1,587. 6 Gauge-1 live steam locomotive, ex- LSWR Drummond D15 4-4-0 tender 3.5 inch gauge coal fired live steam locomotive, RN E470, made by late LMS locomotive and tender, 4-4-0, Jim Dunford, inscription ‘Southern 80cm long, cased, display cabinet, Railway E470’, 8-wheel bogie water- with track. Charterhouse, Sherborne. cart tender. Wallis & Wallis, Lewes. Dec 08. HP: £1,250. ABP: £1,470. Nov 08. HP: £1,000. ABP: £1,176. 13 7 Hornby Dublo three-rail 0-6-2 3.5 inch gauge coal fired live steam locomotive (EDL7) fine example of locomotive and tender, green/black an engine with ‘Southern’ on the tank livery, 4-4-0, traditional fittings, sides and RN2594 on the bunker, cased, with display track. olive green. Wallis & Wallis, Lewes. GWR posters advertising their services to Leamington Spa and St Ives, Charterhouse, Sherborne. Dec 08. Feb 07. HP: £820. ABP: £964. Cornwall in the 1930s. HP: £1,200. ABP: £1,411. ANTIQUES INFO - September/October 09 47 Toys 25 31 19 14 Dublo EDG7 ‘Tank Goods Train Hornby 0 gauge electric train set, Set’: 0-6-2 tank locomotive in GWR Hornby 0 gauge No. 2 Special Tender No. 3 E: 4-4-2 Royal Scot locomotive satin green livery, RN 6699, three 4-4-0 locomotive, clockwork, RN and tender in LMS livery, two No 2 correct wagons, track and power A759, in Southern lined green livery. Pullman coaches, a 3rd class coach, controller, box complete with inserts, 3.5in gauge 0-4-0 live steam tank Wallis & Wallis, Lewes. Apr 09. HP: various boxed rails, a crossing point paperwork and loco packing cover. locomotive, ‘Hercules’, green/ black £740. ABP: £870. and railway accessories Nos 1 and 2. Wallis & Wallis, Lewes. Feb 06. HP: livery, 16in x 9in high.