Last Man Sitting

I went to Talisman Railwayana Auctions at the Newark Showground. I’ve been there many times over the years. It’s like stepping into a time warp. Nothing seems to change, within. It’s the same team in the same pavilion. All the side-stalls are booked and up and running, with largely recognisable faces in attendance. What has changed least through all of this is the railway paraphernalia and that’s the whole point. Nobody here wants it to change. It stands for a moment in time for all of us. It characterises our long-lost youth. It brings those memories flooding back.

Since Covid, all the other rival dedicated railwayana auction houses have gone online and stayed there. Talisman is the only one to buck the trend and carry on with live auctions. They are truly the last man standing in this field - or more precisely for auctioneers - last man sitting. So, hats off to Roger and Sandra Phipps for keeping the theatre alive. They were well rewarded again on Saturday with a solid turn out of punters.

Lot 262 was a “Great Central cast iron signal post finial. Unrestored and lacking its wooden top”. The Chair was a little perplexed about how to big up this rather underwhelming item and wondered out loud what use it might find about the house. “You could put your toilet rolls on it”, she concluded, which seemed like an eminently sensible suggestion to me. Corporal Pike might have had other ideas.

I had my traditional wander round and enjoyed a chat with the editor of the one-year-old Railwayana Collectors Guide, Stephen Anderson, who is maintaining a service to collectors that has gone on in one form or another for forty years, now, at Railwayana Collectors Guide – The bi-monthly journal for the railwayana collecting community. I had previously contributed to a number of editions of the “yellow one”, up to the retirement of the then editor, Tim Petchey. I sat and watched the action for a bit, but this was the first time I hadn’t bothered getting a bidding card. No doubt that’s another sign of the times, if only a personal one. I’d had my fix and I was off. I know I’ll be back, though.