[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_content.php on line 1014: Undefined array key 3 The Fstest Piece of Scrap Iron in the World - The LNER Encyclopedia
The LNER Encyclopedia
Discussion and reference site for the London North Eastern Railway
In a week which saw people with more money than sense bidding thousands of poundson eBay for shaped pieces of cardboard, I couldn't help but notice this little gem... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/121009637301? ... 1436.l2648
Now I am a collector of railway relics, but I don't think even I would be daft enough to pay 125 quid of my hard-earned cash for a scrap piece of piping. Ok, yes, I hear you say, it's off Mallard, and it has provenance!
Any takers? Or am I just getting far too cynical in my old age...?
Let's see... in 30 years mainline service prior to preservation, reckoning on a major overhaul every five years, the boiler and frames will have been replaced six times (not allowing for emergency work or 'improvements'). I think the auction is a bit misleading, that most readers might look over the fact that the flue piece is from the 1984 overhaul and think that this is a piece of the original boiler, in which case £125 is not enough and would be tempted to bid for it.
I can see this item fetching possibly four figures before the bidding finishes, depending on the present market for 'tat'.
Brian
Anything weird or unusual will catch my interest, be it an express or locomotive
I'm also drawn to the commemorative, let's hope Bachmann will produce 6165 Valour.
Some interesting comments there, guy's! Reminds me of the axe I've had for over 50 years which has only had five new handles and one new head.
I wonder sometimes also about these little pieces of paper which give an item "provenance". Now how do we know if that piece of paper has "provenance"?...
Enough of that, I'm slowly but surely convincing myself that I'm the world's most enthusiastic cynic! I'm off to start the auction for that piece of grease I scraped off Mallard's front axlebox the last time I was at the NRM. Which has provenance of course - my mate signed a piece of paper!
An interesting point of note though is that the boiler and therefore perhaps the flue had been in 60009 before 60022. Thinking like that, also with the fact that flue may have been in use during elizabethan services and thus Mallard in BR condition, it is something that would be brilliant for a collection.
Talking of 'scraped off' grease, on my last visit to the NRM I was using the Stanier (runs to bunker) tank to explain to my granddad how the cylinders worked. One swipe of my hand on the piston rod guide.... things (the name slips for me ) and my hand was covered in nice gloopy black grease!
I've often thought that the Railwayana industry has 'clutched at straws' to make the proverbial 'fast buck' and this does nothing to change my mind. However, the other way to look at it is that everything has value if someone is prepared to give money for it!!!
Strange world.
PP
The light at the end of the tunnel is probably a train coming towards you!!
I think that I will accept the statement that it does have a Genuine Provenance.
I have just reached up to the shelf above this keyboard and looked at my own piece of scrap tubing bought from the NRM back in the 80s by someone looking for a suitable present.
Still in its plastic bag and complete with bit of paper rolled up inside and never opened.
I suppose everybody has their own standards of value, but in my own case I own items like LNER brochures advertising the Silver Jubilee and Coronation trains, silverware from the Coronation, various LNER and pre-grouping ashtrays, plus artefacts from the APT and Blue Pullman trains etc. I count them as being presentable and recognisable as historic items, as well as being useful in their own way.
But this is a lump of b******* ' scrap metal! It's not instantly associated with being anything more than a bit of rusty pipe. Good luck to the seller and whoever values it enough to buy it, but...
There barely remain three hours before this particular auction ends and there have been no bidders. I reckon they're being put off by the £6.00 P & P fee. Oh dear, there I go being cynical again...
) and my hand was covered in nice gloopy black grease!
