The nameplates from three retired InterCity engines which once plied the East Coast Mainline have sold for more than £12,000 at auction.

Rail operator LNER will be donating the proceeds to its partner charity the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM), which works to prevent suicide.

Of the three nameplates, that for Spirit of Sunderland proving most popular, fetching £4,600. Lincolnshire Echo sold for £4,000 and Bounds Green for £3,700.

The auction comes after seven HST nameplates and a crest celebrating the heritage of the East Coast route raised £41,000 for CALM in 2020.

The proceeds of the sale will be added to more than £300,000 LNER has already raised for CALM since October 2018.

LNER Managing Director David Horne said: “We know these pieces of railway history are sought-after and we’re delighted that they have raised so much money at auction.

“CALM’s helpline services have seen unprecedented levels of demand over the past 16 months and we are aware of just how important their work is. Money raised from this auction means CALM will be able to offer support to even more people who need it.”

CALM says it has seen an unprecedented demand for its helpline services since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020. Suicide is the single biggest killer in men under 45 in the UK, it says.

CALM chief executive Simon Gunning said: “We’ve been bowled over by LNER’s generosity, and the continued success of the nameplate auction. Money raised will go towards supporting CALM’s life-saving helpline that since lockdown has answered over 197,000 calls and chats. That is a call for help every 61 seconds. We’ll continue to be there for people who might be struggling, or at the point of crisis point - no matter what.”

In advance of the latest auction, LNER staff were pictured holding the three nameplates beside the famous record-breaking Class 43 power car’The Journey Shrinker’, which has been donated to the National Railway Museum for its Locomotion site at Shildon in County Durham by Porterbrook.