The collection was owned by the late Peter Punchard, a local railway worker and enthusiast who joined British Railways in 1954.
The sale’s content is almost exclusively from the Suffolk region and reflects Punchard’s working life in the East Anglian county.
His first years with BR were spent as a porter on Brampton station near Beccles, moving on to work as a signalman at stations including Saxmundham and Wickham Market. He was also employed at Ipswich, Diss and Stowmarket, before finishing with Anglia Railways in 1996.
Punchard continued to add to his collection until his death in 2016. Sourcing from local auctions and elsewhere, he acquired railwayana relating to the Great Eastern Railway, London and North Eastern Railway and BR.
Around 50 enamel signs for Suffolk railway stations, named station lamps, signalling equipment, signal box diagrams and much more will be among the lots.
This enamel platform sign for Halesworth (top), where Punchard worked as a signalman, is estimated at £1000-1500. The station is in the small market town in the north-eastern corner of Suffolk, where it also serves Southwold (once linked to Halesworth by a narrow gauge railway).
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