Railwayana – rescued, restored, railway relics – Really??

This railwayana lark leaves my wife a little bewildered. A close friend I go to auctions with faces the same issue. It wasn’t a problem when it was just framed posters and a few carriage prints. A portfolio file and archive quality pockets for ease of access and viewing also offered appropriate protection.

They are tucked away most of the time and don’t take up much house room. We both like the double royal posters and recognise them as an appropriate way of recording places that are important to us from our past as well as our present and they are consequently dotted around our home. I wake up to my wife on one side of me and Desmond Barnes’s incarnation of the girl at the end of the pier in New Brighton in the 1950s on the other.

My friend and I both have our respective sanctuaries in our own houses. I call mine an office and my wife calls it a tip but all parties agree that there are fewer restrictions here. There is not much available wall or shelf space left, as you might imagine. “Cluttered” is the most regularly used word to describe it, though I would prefer homely, nostalgic, reminiscent, comforting, reassuring, symbolic, informative, interesting and evocative.

When my friend and I return from auction we receive polite enquiries about what we have successfully bid for or bought from a side-stall. This is undertaken in the interest of protecting any remaining communal and/or office spaces from any further unnecessary “clutter.” Odd snippets of paperwork might just make it without attracting too much attention. Bulky bits of metal, on the other hand, could be a little less welcome.

I have concluded that for me it is partly an age thing. I have become increasingly appreciative of our history and heritage as time has passed. I find there is something reassuring in the sheer dogged permanence of railwayana and its reluctance to be discarded, even though initially, that is exactly why it ended up lying in front of us on those display benches.

Whilst the railway has changed and its designs have been updated, these things that we handle were important to us in times past because they were the accompaniment to our formative years. We have perhaps increasingly valued that period of time ever since. The subsequent care and attention that has eventually been lavished on these artefacts and paperwork indicates a recognition of their lasting value. Buyers often make a substantial personal commitment and dig deep into their resources for the privilege of cherishing them.

My small collection is very personal. It is now part of how I see myself. It reminds me of people, places, times and events. It brings my past back to life. I gain pleasure from such attachments. I love the feeling of belonging that it re-ignites. I want visitors to the house to recognise my close association with railways because I’m proud of my hobby.