Hi all, I hope someone will have some knowledge but does anyone know how the layout of the station name appears on the totems sited on platforms at all?
I've looked on Google and it's a 50/50 split on how the station name is presented, did it depend on the region on how the totems were done?
I'm interested in the LNER region so for stations such as Hertford North, Peterborough North, Edinburgh Waverley to name just three how would they be displayed on the station totems?
I've attached some pics I found from Google to show what I mean below:
Maybe, I know that BR had signage guidelines but there's seems to be very little on pre British Rail, just there must be something to limited the sizes?
Imagine the totem for Welwyn Garden City how big that totem must be?
There's a book on Totems by Dave Brennand which is the bible if you are looking for information. For some reason it is priced at a staggering 90 quid so I suggest looking for it in a library or the NRM Search Engine if possible.
Way back in the very early 1970s I was given a B.R.(ER) KINGS CROSSdark blue enamel totem sign that I was told had come from platform no.16 'the hotel curve' platform which I in turn gave away to a another railway enthusiast some time later. The back of the totem sign I recall had been re-painted in black gloss paint by the person who had given me the totem sign but the front of the sign wasn't touched at all other than having been given a wipe over with a damp cloth.
Original start date of 2010 on the LNER forum and previously posted 4500+ posts.
Ha ha ha... Yeah I know harvester giving away a KINGS CROSS enamel totem sign from no.16 platform of all the platforms at the cross!. Well at that time I was a teenager when I acquired it and at that time I already had a number of railway items in my possession. Thinking about it again that KINGS CROSS totem sign was either given away at some stage in the 1970s or I sold it along with a M.R. block instrument and a block bell around 1989/90 all for £10 but I can't recall which?. I would guess the KINGS CROSS totem sign is probably still around somewhere in someone's private collection?.
Original start date of 2010 on the LNER forum and previously posted 4500+ posts.
Goodness me. £245 for a totem? There must have been quite a lot for Kings Cross, given the number of platforms so I can't imagine they would be that rare.
There is a company which produces replica ones these days, so buyer beware.
strang steel wrote: ↑Wed Jul 22, 2020 5:08 pm
Goodness me. £245 for a totem? There must have been quite a lot for Kings Cross, given the number of platforms so I can't imagine they would be that rare.
There is a company which produces replica ones these days, so buyer beware.
Even relatively common totems sell for the high hundreds now and rare or desirable ones are in the thousands. There are some BR(NE) orange totems such as Blackhall Rocks which are so rare or simply unseen that they have a mythical status. Spennymoor station had maybe two totems and one turned up on Ebay a few years ago. I think it sold for about £5000. Kings Cross York Road would be in that area price wise.
strang steel wrote: ↑Thu Jul 23, 2020 10:30 am
...Goodness me, where do people get all that money from?
All too often by repeatedly borrowing against the inflating notional value of their home. I can see a fairly major crunch approaching where people suddenly find themselves retired, or worse yet without work, and mortgage borrowing to fund on a loan capital that cannot be cleared by what the property can be sold for. Cue wailing about irresponsible lenders...
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strang steel wrote: ↑Thu Jul 23, 2020 10:30 am
Thanks for that info Pinza. £5000? Goodness me, where do people get all that money from?
I used to have a huge collection of railwayana and if you put the time and effort in it was possible to buy things cheaply for instance at car boot sales and sell them for a big profit at auctions. In about 1989 the prices of totems was doubling every year ! I knew one collector who (allegedly) ran a business as an electrician and when he was paid in cash would buy an engine nameplate for say £3000 then sit on it for a couple of years, sell it at auction for twice what it cost less 10% commission and bank the money.
One of my best finds was when I went into an antique centre in Pickering (of all places) and saw what I thought was a brass grease gun but when I turned it over was an NER brass lamp lighter marked "NER Darlington A1". I asked how much it was and nearly fainted when I was told "£26". I sold it a year later in auction for £510.
Mickey wrote: ↑Sun Jul 19, 2020 9:56 pm
Currently on ebay a KINGS CROSS blue enamel totem sign is going for £245.00p. Maybe it was the sign I had at one time??.
Definitely not, Mickey, because it was me you sold it to along with some other stuff you wanted to clear from your shed (if I remember rightly) many years ago. It is safe and not going anywhere.
£245 is actually a very low price - a friend who knows about auctions and values reckons London terminii all command good prices. He once showed me an auction catalogue with a KC totem listed in four figures as "only one known". Over time, others have come up and there are at least four kicking around now, so one assumes that value has dropped a little.
But as I say, it is going nowhere as it is pretty personal to me having worked there. On the other hand Mrs Signalman said that if we ever get hard up it might mysteriously disappear . . .
