Local History
The Tavistock North Railway Station Sign
A
N interesting artefact in the Tavistock Museum is a sign from
the former Tavistock North railway station which closed in May 1968. It is a reminder of a time, forty-five years ago, when Tavistock lost its Southern Region rail link to Plymouth, Okehampton, Exeter and London.
The sign known as a totem sign was one of four, possibly six, at the station. These were fixed to lamp posts on both the up- side and down-side platforms to inform passengers where the train had stopped. There was a free-for-all to acquire railway memorabilia from ‘axed’ lines but fortunately, a local resident was on hand to ‘save’ our Tavistock North sign, and for many years it was stored in a cupboard at a local school. In July 2000 it came to the Tavistock Museum; we mounted it on a wooden plaque and since August 2003 it has been on display with other railway memorabilia.
The totem shape was the ‘corporate image’ adopted by the new British Railway shortly after nationalisation in 1948. It was intended to be displayed on everything British Railway including the signs at many hundreds of railway stations. Each sign was 36 inches (915 mm) long and 10 inches (250 mm) deep, and made from sheet metal coated with enamel. Signs not only displayed the name of the station but had the regional background colour appropriate for that station. Background colours were: maroon (Midland Region), light blue (Scottish Region), dark blue (Eastern Region), light green and dark green (Southern Region), tangerine (North Eastern Region), brown (Western Region), black (Western Region- experimental). As Tavistock North was a Southern Region station the background colour of its sign was dark green.
stations had totem signs, and I can find no record of any for Tavistock South, a former Western Region station.
Not all
Station totem signs are among the cheaper railway memorabilia but nevertheless can command prices from £1,000 to £10,000. However, high quality replica signs for any station can be purchased cheaply on the internet. Not
38 The DIARY, JULY-AUG, 2013
Tavistock North Railway Station in 1920
long ago a Dawlish station sign sold for £5,800, and in 2012 a Tavistock North station sign, similar to the one in the museum, sold for £2,970. Personally, I would be cautious about buying a station sign at these prices because I think it would be quite difficult to detect a reproduction which has been deliberately made to look old. The best safeguard, and
perhaps only safeguard, is the provenance of a totem sign as for many stations only a small number were made, and generally authentic signs tend to change hands infrequently among railway collectors and reputable dealers.
The Tavistock Museum is open daily from 11.00 a.m. to 3.00 p.m. until the 31st October 2013.
Entrance to former station.
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