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Did you buy anything from Collectors Corner?
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simon.exd
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The 40 is 40016, I am ashamed to say I will have to have a look at the 46.. i am pretty sure its 46019.
lyndhurst25
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I bought one of those white-painted paraffin tail lamps. It was new, unused condition and presumably came from stores after BR changed to battery powered lamps.
Branch line
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Still got a carrier bag from Collectors Corner
A wonderful cavern of curiosities. I recall a wall of nameplates at one time, no doubt prices were beyond my pocket money but an absolute bargain given the values these days. I also remember a box of numbers off the old AC electrics. At the time I went they had E, 3 and 0 only so I always have a smile these days when I see E3033 or some such combination supposedly available ex loco, I wonder what happened to all the other numbers, I guess people just picked what they wanted and of course the most common numbers were what was left at the end of the day.
Journeyman
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There's plenty of places that sell railwayana privately, but Collector's Corner was effectively a BR surplus shop, and as such, no, there's nothing like it.
I don't know how current companies dispose of surplus items, but there's actually far less stuff about now, as many of the working documents BR produced are now only circulated electronically, and many working practices have changed to the point that there's much less stuff around that would generate interest.
Very true. The joy of it was that even as a spotty teenager with a couple of quid in your pocket you could still leave with something interesting tucked into your bag.
I only wish that I’d been able to go in there with a bit of adult wages in my pocket and purchase something more substantial than old droplight destination papers or depot stickers etc...
There was some amazing stuff in there.
Thanks. I know GWR sell stuff (occasionally surplus stuff, posters, window labels) so I'll just keep my eye on that stuff.
-Peter
Journeyman
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Likewise, I was only a poor teenager back in the day and only managed to go there once or twice, but wow, what a treat! It was particularly interesting because back then I very rarely managed to travel out of the London area, and seeing stuff from all four corners of the BR operation was unusual and exotic.
Just a note, the modern BR Collectors Corner, GWR Souvenirs, is selling the following window labels, just on today I think:
https://www.gwrsouvenirs.co.uk/index.php/shop/carriage-window-labels-newquay-pride-2018.html
https://www.gwrsouvenirs.co.uk/index.php/shop/carriage-window-labels-pembroke-dock.html
https://www.gwrsouvenirs.co.uk/index.php/shop/carriage-window-labels-newquay.html
-Peter
https://www.gwrsouvenirs.co.uk/index.php/shop/carriage-window-labels-newquay-pride-2018.html
https://www.gwrsouvenirs.co.uk/index.php/shop/carriage-window-labels-pembroke-dock.html
https://www.gwrsouvenirs.co.uk/index.php/shop/carriage-window-labels-newquay.html
-Peter
xotGD
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E-bay has plenty of railwayana. Far too easy to get carried away!
Yes it does - I have bought quite a bit from eBay. The thing is, as you have said, it is far too easy to start buying things you don't want/need!
-Peter
urpert
Member
I still have an INTERCITY (swallow) burgundy leather card holder I bought in Collector’s Corner in the mid-90s. I remember buying a ‘Press and pull down to open’ window sticker which I attached to my bedroom window too...
Interesting - sounds very cool! I wish that TOCs today sold things like BR did at Collector's Corner. How cool would it be to have a part of a GWR HST, even if it is only a sticker?
-Peter
Highlandspring
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The New York Subway has an online version of Collector’s Corner selling surplus signage etc..
In the mid-1980s (1986, I think) I saw workmen removing the British Railways Eastern Region blue fascia sign from my local station, Hitchin, dating from the 1950s I believe. It was replaced by a smaller white plastic sign.
The workmen said it would go to Collectors Corner, so I wrote to ask them to let me know when it had arrived, as I was interested in buying it. About 2 months later they wrote saying it had arrived, and they’d sell it to me for £40 - not a bad price for a 14’ long sign (albeit in 3 sections).
Got a few strange looks walking down Euston Road with it on a trolley (I’d found a Kings Cross trolley at Euston, so was helping to return it), and then put it in the guards van of a 312 back to Hitchin. Quite a few surprised people to see it back at the station, albeit briefly before transported home.
The workmen said it would go to Collectors Corner, so I wrote to ask them to let me know when it had arrived, as I was interested in buying it. About 2 months later they wrote saying it had arrived, and they’d sell it to me for £40 - not a bad price for a 14’ long sign (albeit in 3 sections).
Got a few strange looks walking down Euston Road with it on a trolley (I’d found a Kings Cross trolley at Euston, so was helping to return it), and then put it in the guards van of a 312 back to Hitchin. Quite a few surprised people to see it back at the station, albeit briefly before transported home.
20Man
Member
I bought a cab door from 55007 Pinza from there, along with a con rod from a deltic engine.
I bought stuff from there mainly old timetables and leaflets. Great place where you could browse without being pestered.
Sadly it closed down as a victim of the privatisation of British Rail as it was unique and did not fit into any new structure of the railways.
I do miss CC. Yes you can get stuff online but nothing beats seeing and feeling items in real life in your hands.
Glad British Rail set it up.
Sadly it closed down as a victim of the privatisation of British Rail as it was unique and did not fit into any new structure of the railways.
I do miss CC. Yes you can get stuff online but nothing beats seeing and feeling items in real life in your hands.
Glad British Rail set it up.
Andy R. A.
Member
Remember it first opening, even then Steam Smokebox number plates were already knocking at about £10 each, which was out of my range even then. But saving for a few months did allow me to buy one or two totem station signs about twice a year which were selling at between £1 and £3 depending on condition.
The pub next to York Station (on the right as you look from the road) used to be a York branch of Collectors Corner - before it became the "Railriders" HQ.
I spent many a happy hour in there - as others have said - no hassling - pick up a huge bundle of recently retired Window stickers (including the roll ones from early HSTs) - working timetables and memorably a ticket manual - which I then used as the basis of my Computer Science O-Level project (coding a ticket system - in Basic.....).
I remember posters, luggage tags, number plate cuts and all manner of things this spotty teenager didn't recognise. It was usually followed by an almost daily trip to York shed to look at what was in - or had been in (from the depot log) - now "the Works" incorporated into the NRM. How I found time to get to and from school I don't know.....(1982-5)
I spent many a happy hour in there - as others have said - no hassling - pick up a huge bundle of recently retired Window stickers (including the roll ones from early HSTs) - working timetables and memorably a ticket manual - which I then used as the basis of my Computer Science O-Level project (coding a ticket system - in Basic.....).
I remember posters, luggage tags, number plate cuts and all manner of things this spotty teenager didn't recognise. It was usually followed by an almost daily trip to York shed to look at what was in - or had been in (from the depot log) - now "the Works" incorporated into the NRM. How I found time to get to and from school I don't know.....(1982-5)
Always a great place to browse but even a few quid for a totem was beyond my 1970's pocket money. One thing I do remember was a box of electric loco alloy numbers. That box said "E's, 3's and zero's only" so I didn't bother. They were 10p each and I now regret not buying a few as I just saw E3303 sold for a staggering sum at auction not that I am in way suggesting that it didn't actually come from the loco suggested...……..Oh for hindsight and how much could I now be making if I had bought a few of them and then made up various locos...E3003, E3030 etc etc !!
Belperpete
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Wasn't there a branch of Collectors Corner in a shop in Rougier Street, York at one time? I am sure I bought a pair of old ticket clippers there. I think it opened after the main Euston office had closed, and the prices were considerably higher than in Euston. My main memory of the Euston Collectors Corner is of a huge, draughty old warehouse-type building, containing mountains of old working timetables and similar tatt, with a few interesting nuggets here and there. But I suppose one man's nugget is another's tatt, and vice-versa
I seem to remember a relics shop at York station, where the York Tap bar now is. I always assumed that was a branch of Collectors Corner.
I my wife and I bought a GNR/LNER clock there in 1985 for £100, more than we could afford at the time. What a fantastic investment, keeps perfect time with only one professional service in over 30 years. The soft tick tock sends me to sleep perfectly.
I my wife and I bought a GNR/LNER clock there in 1985 for £100, more than we could afford at the time. What a fantastic investment, keeps perfect time with only one professional service in over 30 years. The soft tick tock sends me to sleep perfectly.
Went a fair few times with my father. We amassed a large collection of enamel station signage including an SR Bullseye (Horsham) and Totem (Kingston). Also EE aluminium loco numerals and of course the 'E'. An aluminium Double-Arrow, VEP or something similar. Largest item purchased was a carriage roof destination board: Ocean Liner Express - Waterloo Southampton Docks. Was a hoot getting that back to Redhill on the train!
It was like a Railway Room of Requirement. The National Railway Museum York has something similar, except nothing is for sale. Which is actually good news. Took years for me to quit the collecting habit and I'm glad to say am largely clean now
Everything, except the Horsham Bullseye, went to auction in the 2000's. Good memories though.
It was like a Railway Room of Requirement. The National Railway Museum York has something similar, except nothing is for sale. Which is actually good news. Took years for me to quit the collecting habit and I'm glad to say am largely clean now
Everything, except the Horsham Bullseye, went to auction in the 2000's. Good memories though.
Purchased some of those and of course the individual numerals would not all have come from E 3303. '3' and '0' being numerous for very obvious reasons! Used some of ours for house numbers.
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