Trains are 200 years old. And still going strong.
Two centuries ago this Saturday on September 27, 1825, the first locos steamed down the tracks on the Stockton & Darlington Railway. Hundreds of passengers hitched a ride along with the coal the railway was built to transport.
Grand Central Terminus in New York in Hal Morey's famous 1929 photograph.
How can collectors celebrate the world changing world of the train and its hugely significant history?
Here are 10 standout railway collectibles to inspire.
1 - Railway personalities
It might be derided as somewhat nerdy today, but in its time, railway technology was the cutting edge of a transport revolution. Pioneers like George and Robert Stephenson (whose locos ran on the Stockton-Darlington line) and Isambard Kingdom Brunel of the Great Western Railway were major public personalities. Brunel was voted second in the BBC's 2002 poll of the Greatest Britons.
In 2017 plans for the Thames Tunnel drawn up by Marc Brunel (Isambard’s father) were sold for £200,000. Signed letters by Brunel can go for thousands of pounds.
Stephenson letters have also sold for hundreds of pounds.
2 - Railways and trains on stamps
The Royal Mail are doing what they always do for a big anniversary in the UK and putting out some very nice commemorative stamps.
Philatelists have many ways to collect around railways, which developed alongside universal mail services in the 19th century as the infrastructure of the modern industrial state - you could easily follow the arrival of each around the world in a stamp collection.
Trains are a great symbol of modernity and national progress throughout the 20th century. Tap this image to discover these Chinese stamps.
These stamps are a great example. From the Jiangsu-Anhui Border Area, they were issued as the People’s Republic of China was founded and in a territory newly "liberated" from the nationalist opponents of the Communist Party of China. Mao’s men wanted to look modern and forward looking and railways (many of which were ripped up during years of conflict) were the perfect way to show that.
3 - Model railways
Model railways have a long and distinguished collecting history.
We know there have been toy model trains since as far back as the 1830s, when American maker Matthias Baldwin added models to his company’s production of full-sized railway machinery.
Lionel Trains are the most collectible American model railways. Image courtesy of Zachary578 at Wikimedia Commons.
The so-called “Birmingham Dribblers” of the 1840s tell us vividly one problem of trying to play with actual miniature steam boilers.
The world of model railways is now almost as developed and sophisticated as their full-sized inspirations and the rarest pieces go for huge sums.
In 2006 a 1934 Lionel Standard Gauge set of a 400E locomotive with passenger cars realised $250,000. The value of this American gem was very much down to its pristine condition.
4 - Railway relics or railawayana
Railways and trains are rammed with potentially collectible bits and pieces with a horde of collectors interested in securing them.
Signs are particularly sought after. They’re attractive, durable, and interesting display pieces with masses of nostalgic appeal.
Westcliff-on-Sea station near Southend. A renamed station that produced rare signage.
The name plates from the legendary, record-breaking Flying Scotsman sold for £64,500 in 2018. A sign for Westcliffe on Sea station from the British Railways era sold for £10,400 in the same year.
The station is particularly desirable as the signage was changed in the 1950s before the station was renamed in the late 60s. In such bureaucratic decisions are railway rarities to be found.
Other stations with particular cachet include Widnes, the railway station on which Paul Simon was sitting when he wrote Homeward Bound, and holiday destinations.
The shapes and colours of BR "totems" are very popular with modern collectors.
British Railway station “totems”, with their distinctive design, are much loved by collectors and can go for up to £30,000 for rare, good condition signs.
5 - Railway art
To shop at the top of this market you need a lot of money.
Turner’s Rain, Steam and Speed, an iconic 19th-century railway image would surely go for tens of millions of it could be prized from the National Gallery’s collections.
Many artists have used railways as subjects or backdrops in their work.
LS Lowry's view of a northern station is typical of his work, and shows how democratic trains were. This picture sold for £1.6 million.
L S Lowry’s very typical picture of the platform at Pendlebury Station (his local stop) sold for £1.6 million in 2015.
Hal Morey’s Sun Beams into Grand Central from 1929 (shown at the top of this blog) is a masterpiece of photography, with good quality prints from the time going for over £1,000.
6 - Railway movies (and other derivatives)
And, let’s add books and music here.
In a train, story tellers have a nice, enclosed, claustrophobic but fast-moving capsule. It’s great for mysteries like Murder on the Orient Express, and Hitchcock loved railways, using them extensively in Strangers on a Train, The Lady Vanishes, and the 39 Steps among other titles.
The Lady Vanishes made a train a central device - its passengers in danger at every turn.
They’re full of potential high-speed peril too, whether they’re running away with escaped POWs (Von Ryan’s Express), looted Nazi booty (The Train) or providing the backdrop for some of the most impressive physical stunts ever seen in the Mission Impossible series.
Batman Begins, The French Connection, the Taking of Pelham 123… movies are full of classic scenes and sequences taking drama from trains, tracks, bridges and tunnels.
Michael Caine's journey north in Get Carter isn't going to end well.
Music collectors could focus on Steve Reich’s moving Holocaust memorial piece Different Trains. The laid-back, jazzy Roy Budd soundtrack to Get Carter’s super-cool opening train sequence is still sizzling. And Kraftwerk’s Trans Europe Express is one of a number of works designed to sound like trains - I like The Train from Kansas City by The Shangri-Las (heartbreak at the station!).
7 - Railway politics, railway conflict
We’re in the age of the campaigning Battle Bus, but there was a time when the train took the strain of delivering politicians (usually with media-circus in second class) to their public.
The Bolshevik Revolution toured the huge Soviet territories in Agit-Trains carrying gramophones, printing presses and even movie projectors and makeshift cinemas. You can collect the striking art, prints and posters of the time.
Red flag flying, Tom Courtenay as Strelnikov isn't selling revolution like the Bolshevik Agit-Trains so much as wiping out those who opposed it.
Their military potential and importance is vividly illustrated in Doctor Zhivago, as Strelnikov, the idealistic young man turned ruthless commissar, steams across icy expanses in an armoured red train.
World War I was blamed on rigid railway-timetable mobilisation by historian AJP Taylor - once it started it couldn't be stopped.
Trains were vital to both World Wars and highly symbolic. Germany signed the armistice that ended World War I in a railway carriage. Hitler dragged it back to the same spot to make the French sign their surrender to the Nazis there in 1940.
Teddy Roosevelt speaking from a train. He was one of many US politicians to take their message to the people from a carriage. US Presidential campaigns produce loads of collectible memorabilia.
US presidential campaigns also trundled over the vast plains, prairies, and deserts of the US on trains, which gives us the phrase “whistle stop tour”.
Presidents even had their own train carriage, the Ferdinand Magellan, which began its life as a comfortable way to get around, before it was given a full, high-security makeover in World War II to become United States Railcar No. 1. It was used as recently as the presidency of Ronald Regan and is now in a railroad museum.
8 - Railway ephemera
Timetables, dining car menus, tickets… they’re all going digital, but attractive, hard-copy examples have a collectible value - though it’s rarely very much.
These documents are nicely produced, often in company liveries, and have local and nostalgic resonance for some buyers.
For example, a 1913 Devon railway timetable with maps has sold for £160.
9 - Railway posters
F Gregory Brown's design for this Wye Valley tourist poster is just one of many striking railway ads.
Reprints of railway advertising are now a staple of British holiday destinations.
Some railway slogans and pictures have passed into everyday parlance - “Skegness is so bracing”.
There is some lovely art to be found in these mass-produced pieces, and you can find equivalents around the world online.
Good condition, original British posters commonly fetch several hundred pounds apiece, many, no doubt sold to restaurants, hotels, and pubs in the towns they advertised so effectively.
10 - Railway characters
The world’s most famous railway platform isn’t real.
I’ve been on a Eurostar from St Pancras to Paris and it was stuffed with French kids clutching Platform 9 ¾ pictures and souvenirs.
Harry Potter created one fantasy railway journey.
Concept art for the $22,000 Lady Train model from Thomas the Tank Engines and Friends. Image courtesy of Julien's Auctions.
For someone of my age, the recent sale of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends sets and props brought memories flooding back.
There was a big demand for the TV version of the Rev W Audrey children’s books. The most valuable item at the LA auction went for over $22,000 for a lady train model.
Collecting today
Great Britain 2004 47p Classic Locomotives error, SG2421a
