Toy trains can thrill collectors and investors alike as prices fetched at a recent auction confirm.
Mr Hugo Marsh, head of the toy department at Christie's in London, says that a sale of toy trains made a total of £320,000 sterling (€506,000). Within that auction, a Trix Twin collection belonging to an individual collector made £42,000, far exceeding its estimate of £30,000. A rare American Pacific locomotive sold for £2,185 sterling.
Most of the remainder of the auction was made up of trains made by German company Marklin, founded in 1859 and still in business today. The Marklin trains in the auction dated from 1957 through sturdy 1960s models to 1980s special editions.
Mr Marsh says that the most extraordinary point in the sale was the £13,000 paid for one Marklin wagon. "It was a carriage-heating wagon, like a novelty toy for the more sophisticated type of train in that it was a little wagon that went in a passenger train for keeping coaches warm."
Four of five matching LMS (London, Midland and Scottish) bogie coaches in their original boxes sold for £345 each, with £322 for the fifth. When purchased in 1938, they cost three-and-nine-pence, about 18-and-a-half pence in today's money. Two locomotives accompanying these coaches which were made specifically by the German company for the British market just months before the outbreak of the second World War fetched £1,035 and £1,150 sterling.
A damaged LNER (London North-Eastern Railway) "Cock o' the North" locomotive fetched almost £7,500, while a similar model in better condition fetched £17,000 sterling at a previous auction.
A deep red streamlined German Borsig model fetched £4,830, while a French Mountain Etat fetched £4,370, both of which were estimated at £3,000£4,000.
Meanwhile u5,750 was paid for a Gauge 1 bogie 'Talbot' hopper wagon, far exceeding its estimate of u2,000u3,000.
Mr Terry McNally, a Dublin-based train collector says those with rare or valuable trains tend not to try to sell them in the Republic. "Anybody who has that sort of stuff here takes it to the UK to sell it. You would never get your price. As a general rule, people here in model railways don't spend more than about £40, maybe £50, on a locomotive." But he admits some will pay more than this.
"I've been doing it all my life. I retired early and I've a model railway in the garage."
Mr McNally is a member of the Model Railway Society of Ireland, which meets from about 7.30 p.m. tonight, and every Friday and Wednesday, on the second floor of the old fire station in Dorset Street, Dublin. That's a large red building on the right 100 yards after the Wax Museum in the direction of Bolton Street. Members range in age from 14 to 90. Anybody can turn up and pay a nominal charge or take out a year's membership for £20.
The Auction Channel will be transmitting a train auction live via the Internet from Christie's in London on December 20th at 1 p.m. which can be accessed from Christie's website. The auction includes locomotives by Marklin, Bing, Hornby and Bassett-Lowke with estimates ranging from £200 to £15,000 sterling. If you want to bid, you need to register online.
Christie's website: www.christies.com The Auction Channel website: www.theauctionchannel.com
jmarms@irish-times.ie
