Scotsman nameplate owner reveals thoughts on ‘iconic piece of history’

Sam Hewitt

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16th January 2019

EXCLUSIVE
By Geoff Courtney

THE railway nameplate collector who in November paid a world-record £64,500 for a plate from No. 60103 Flying Scotsman, has revealed that it may be donated to the National Railway Museum on his passing.

Gresley masterpiece: No. 60103 *Flying Scotsman* pauses at Peterborough with the Railway Touring Company’s ‘White Rose’ return leg from York to London on June 18, 2016. An original 1926 nameplate from the Pacific sold for £64,500 at auction in November, beating the previous world record of £60,000 that had been held for 14 years by another Nigel Gresley-designed locomotive, No. 60030 *Golden Fleece*. ROBIN JONES

While he expressed a wish to remain anonymous, the collector, who lives in California, outlined to Heritage Railway his thoughts on the future of the nameplate: “My motivation to buy it was that I am a collector of nameplates, and it is both a beautiful as well as iconic piece of history that I am fortunate enough to have the means to own.

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“Financially, I believe it is also an investment, but that is not the driver since I have no plans to ever sell it. I also don’t want it to leave the ‘railway enthusiast community,’ and my trust is to be directed to return it to the UK on my passing, and specifically to the National Railway Museum, which could choose to display it or reunite it with the locomotive.”

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