Vintage railway posters and memorabilia sold at auction

Auctioneers took bids from as far afield as America and South Africa, with one buyer handing over £6,200 for a railway poster advertising Southport Lido as a holiday destination.

The collection was put together by Malcolm Guest, who saved the items from the dustbin when he worked in Great Western Railway’s publicity department at Paddington Station in the 1960s.

It was meticulously stored at his home in Knaresborough and was made public following his death last summer, sparking interest from across the globe.

Elizabeth Pepper-Darling, owner of auctioneer Morphets, which is handling the sale at the Pavilions of Harrogate on the Great Yorkshire Showground, said yesterday: “The first day has been fabulous.

“We have had a fantastic response. The telephones have been red hot, the internet has been fast and furious and we’ve had some cracking results.

“The biggest sale so far has been £6,200 for a poster of the Southport Lido.

“I’ve been on the phone all day to somebody in America on the ninth floor of a building in New York and we’ve also had bids from South Africa and the continent.”

The auction started yesterday, with the sale of 2,500 railway and transport posters and original artwork, and continues today when the lots will include railway books, archives and other items, including station master’s caps and platform signs.

Ms Pepper-Darling said: “It really is a one-off for this amount of vintage posters to come on to the market – there has never been a sale as big as this.

“They date from the early 20th century and their condition is exceptionally good.

“They were all meticulously stored in his house, which was virtually taken over by the collection.”

A spokeswoman for the National Railway Museum in York said they had made some commission bids for some of the items in the collection, but would not find out until Monday if they had been successful.