How many nameplates survive?

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1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

I have a shedplate - and it was given to me by one of the workers  in the iron foundry as i passed through on the Wednesday afternoon visit.  He saw my interest in the moulding process and asked if I would like one - so I duly said that I would (it was cold and not freshly cast!).

 

 I often wonder how much visitors might have lifted out of C Shop at Swindon.  I remember seeing on a Sunday visit a couple of lads trying to get cabside numberplates into duffle bags.  And that was in the days when you buy a cast iron  one for almost nothing and even brass ones only cost a few £s.  C Shop was an incredible gold mine of all sorts of unexpected things as all kinds of stuff went there for scrapping and sorting ready to go into the works to be melted so there weren't just engines being dismantled but things like signal levers and cast iron signs.

 

My Taff vVle backlit station name came from demolition contractors who were demolishing a Taff Vale building on my then patch.  Y';d asked them to keep one for me if they got one out in one piece - they did.  I also had a totem from them which is also treasured as all the references and list of totems record none surviving from that station and none have ever come up at auction.

I did the Swindon Ambassador Railtour from Manchester a few times in the 1980’s.

 

I recall one year, what amounted to organised mass theft of class 40 bits from the scrapyard… about a dozen lads spent the day moving bits to the BSK from the yard, even using a platform trolley to move it.

 

It must have been noticed as the following year the tour arrived at and departed from the station instead of the works.

Edited October 17, 2023 by adb968008