Jump to content
 

The non-railway and non-modelling social zone. Please ensure forum rules are adhered to in this area too!

LNER clock - Fake but how fake?


Steve O.

Recommended Posts

I think it looks nice. Clearly the Restoration Hardware advertising copy is bollox.

 

Not 19th century, and unless I'm mistaken, not "Kensington Station".

 

i wonder if it comes with a key? ;)

 

I have a small AA battery clock with the GWR shirtbutton roundel on it. It looks nice - not quite as 'distressed' as this one. It looks like this one, only it's smaller and cheaper.

 

From our friends at lner,info, here's an LNER station clock. From an auction site, here's a ex-GNR clock.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

Some people are really into railway clocks.

 

There's lots of really interesting information about originals here:

 

http://www.railwayclocks.net/

 

At those prices it's no wonder they used to get nicked from signal boxes when there were still original ones about. Years ago one disappeared from Aynho Junction which was 24/7 except for Christmas Day. By Boxing day morning it had gone, nothing else in the box was touched.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

At those prices it's no wonder they used to get nicked from signal boxes when there were still original ones about. Years ago one disappeared from Aynho Junction which was 24/7 except for Christmas Day. By Boxing day morning it had gone, nothing else in the box was touched.

Some prices are amazing - I had my ex-signalbox clock valued a few years ago and nearly fell off my perch when I heard the numbers.  I paid £2/10/0d for it in 1963 and despite having quite a high GWR register number it is pretty old.

 

As for that peculiar thing in the OP it looks like a Franklin Mint job with far more imagination than style or authenticity I'm sorry to say.  There was, AFAIK, no 'Kensington' station anywhere on the Big Four network let alone the LNER - the nearest equivalent was Kensington (Olympia) in west London although it didn't receive that name until 1946 when it was altered from its long standing name of Addison Road.  Interestingly the only one of the Big Four companies - or their constituents - which never ran timetabled passenger trains to it was the LNER.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Hi,

One for the horologists out there...

 

My young lady found this and thought I might like it for Christmas. It's a reproduction but is it a decent copy or completely made up?

 

http://www.restorationhardware.com/catalog/product/product.jsp?productId=prod1578022

 

 

Cheers, Steve.

I thought it was expensive for an imitation, but then I saw it in the last photos that its huge.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

I bought a 2ft and a bit diameter Clock for £9.99, in one of the cheap stores B+M?, it has a steel frame glass front and a cheap battery mechanisum, It wouldn't take much work by almost anyone  on here to make a good representation of a railway clock from it. Mine sits on the little tower on the roof of my railway shed.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

I bought a 2ft and a bit diameter Clock for £9.99, in one of the cheap stores B+M?, it has a steel frame glass front and a cheap battery mechanisum, It wouldn't take much work by almost anyone  on here to make a good representation of a railway clock from it. Mine sits on the little tower on the roof of my railway shed.

Yeah, I've got something similar. Not a problem as its not being an sold as a genuine item, IMO. That's where the real deception starts.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Many years ago at an exhibition there was someone selling reproduction, well, they had letraset on them, one was for 'Malton - Great Northern Railway' I pointed this out and the next day it said 'Malton - North Eastern Railway'...  :no:

So did you then buy it?

Link to post
Share on other sites

Many thanks to all for the responses. Much appreciated.

Those real clocks (thanks for the above link) are beautiful but pricey!

Undecided right now whether to buy it or not. It is a 'big un' and would make a great impression / conversation piece.

I may have to invent a new fake story to go with it, maybe it was "from Newcastle Central Station and still carries soot from A3s, A4s and Deltics before it was removed in 1984."

 

:O)

Cheers, Steve.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

I am a clock enthusiast in an earlier life, and did considerable research into English Dial Clocks (the generic name for what get known as station clocks, school clocks, office clocks, etc).

 

Most signal box clocks were 12" dial with a key wound fusee movement which ran for eight days.  Booking office clocks were the same.  Some were smaller at 10" and there were some bigger ones sometimes in public areas.  There were also some drop dials with a case below the dial, which had a longer pendulum.  Most were timepieces, that is to say, they didn't have a chime.  Many railway clocks were made by Walkers and had a pretty standard movement, though some had a slightly superior movement made by Thwaites and Reed .  In the current secondary market, a good example with a railway provenance commands a premium, and can be expected to fetch upwards of £1000 depending on the age and other details and with drop dials fetching even more.  For non-railway clocks, the prices are a bit more reasonable, in the current market up to £500 for an early 20th Century example, with older examples depending on rarity going for up to £2k.  I'm quoting probable auction prices and not retail, and restoration costs and markup can push these up a fair bit.

 

What you've highlighted appears to be a replica of a clock which would have been located on a station concourse, rather than in an office or signal box, and the size supports this.  However, I can't actually say what prototype it is based on'

 

Hope this helps.

Stewart

edit - I typed this before I looked at the links mentioned, so some of the info from the other sites is repeated here.

 

Here's a picture of mine

post-103-0-91032000-1415974598_thumb.jpg

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

I bought a 2ft and a bit diameter Clock for £9.99, in one of the cheap stores B+M?, it has a steel frame glass front and a cheap battery mechanisum, It wouldn't take much work by almost anyone  on here to make a good representation of a railway clock from it. Mine sits on the little tower on the roof of my railway shed.

Places like TK Maxx sometimes have such things as "railway" and other similar themed clocks at not unreasonable prices

 

Keith

Link to post
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...