From clocks to cogs, it's all at Collectors Corner

But it all began very differently, with a few bright sparks, the black market - and some pilfered lamps.

The oil-based lamps in question were used by station staff to signal to engine drivers at night. They were replaced by battery-powered lamps in the 1960s and that should have been that.

But then a British Rail employee stumbled upon a shop selling the obsolete oil lamps. Two things were clear from his discovery.

Firstly, entrepreneurial railwaymen were flogging off BR property to supplement their wages. Secondly, people were buying it.

Soon BR was selling the oil lamps direct to the public. The demand was high enough to convince bosses that there was money in rail nostalgia, and Collectors Corner was born.

The shop began life in a converted stable block near Euston in 1969. It sold anything and everything to do with the railways, from gear cogs to hat pins. Tucked down a cul de sac, it was invisible to most of London, but train buffs knew exactly where to find it.

Then, like so many offshoots of British Rail, the shop's future was thrown into doubt by rail privatisation. It looked certain to close before National Railway Supplies (NRS) stepped in.

NRS, which has its York works on Leeman Road, makes everything a modern railway needs, from level crossing barriers to computerised signals. Formed as a result of a management buy-out, it now has a £70 million turnover.

It might seem odd that such a high-tech firm should buy a shop devoted to a previous railway era. But the directors clearly saw a future for the marketing of the past. Geoff Hawkins, NRS York works site director, said that one of the company's major backers, Unipart, has a Formula 1 memorabilia business. And he can only see the interest in bygone transport growing.

Once Collectors Corner was saved, the new owners had to find it a new location as the Euston lease was up. "They started looking around London but finding somewhere suitable and available proved impossible," said shop manager Robert Warburton. "The only option was to move elsewhere.

"I had already come to the conclusion that if we moved anywhere it would be York, because of its connections with the National Railway Museum and the fact it's still a big railway centre with GNER, Northern Spirit and the Railtrack North East headquarters."

He was right. And its new position, in George Hudson Street, close to the station, the NRM and the rail HQs, could hardly be better.

It certainly suits Mr Warburton. "A lot of people in the industry are interested in railway memorabilia. I am sure there will be a whole line of them coming down Tanner Row come lunchtime when they realise we're here."

These customers might well be surprised by the modern style of the shop's interior. It is decorated in bold blue and orange colours, and the airy layout has a very contemporary feel. Against that backdrop is all manner of railway memorabilia. And every item tells a story.

A display on the left as you enter the shop gives an idea of the eclectic nature of the stock. Arranged artistically on pallets are rusting engineer's spanners, wagon plates, parts of long discarded track, gear wheels from the first Deltic locomotives, ticket date stamps, signals, signal balancing weights and signal wire tensioners (in fact every part of the signalling system), lamps, short circuiting bars from the early days of electrification, station signs, and even yellowing office chits on a spike.

"The idea of Collectors Corner is to preserve parts of the railway," Mr Warburton said. "Things change, things become old fashioned.

Obsolete items are first offered to the railway museum: anything the museum doesn't want is taken by Collectors Corner and sold to the public."

Some of the objects on sale will evoke an instant pang of nostalgia in long-time train travellers. There's an original wooden GNER ticket rack. A few hundred pounds will buy you one of the beautiful railway clocks from the 1940s and 1950s. Alternatively, spend a few quid and you can become an 'Assistant Ticket Examiner' or 'Leading Railwoman' courtesy of an enamel lapel badge.

While rare railway books can be pricey (Bradshaw's 1909 Railway Guide would set you back £105) a complete set of the rail industry's technical timetables are more affordable. But who would buy them?

"There's a chap who lives in Colchester," Mr Warburton began, by way of explanation. "He always used to buy a complete set of passenger timetables for the whole country.

"Once he let slip that his hobby was working through the books and working out the frequency and speed of the slowest and fastest services on any particular line.

"He did this for the entire country! He was a retired person, I presume."

Although Collectors Corner customers vary, "you can categorise them a bit," Mr Warburton said.

"There are what you call hard core, serious collectors. In more recent years we have tended to see less of them. The sort of things they want to buy are no longer available from the railway because it's all gone.

"Then there are those who collect a specific type of equipment, like stuff from a signal box, or collect items from a certain area, such as the Great Western."

Unsurprisingly, a lot of his customers are former railway workers. They can buy back bits of their working life, from the copper pay disk that secured their wages to BR teapots.

The vast majority of the clientele are men, with keyboards wizard Jools Holland and record producer Pete Waterman among them.

But Mr Warburton is hoping to lure more women into the shop by selling railway prints, Royal Doulton plates and, for the children, Thomas the Tank Engine lunch boxes.

It is a labour of love for Mr Warburton, 53, who dresses in an authentic 1980s InterCity uniform while on duty. He worked in railway administration before entering the rail memorabilia business nearly 20 years ago. Although not a collector himself, he is fascinated by railway history.

It is not an interest shared by his wife Sarah - instead they have a mutual passion for Scottish country dancing - or his three-year-old daughter Bethany. But he is sure many people in York are railways mad. And he is looking forward to helping them indulge their hobby, while "preserving the nation's heritage".

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.