VINTAGE enamel signs from the golden days of the railways - including ones for North Tawton and Okehampton - are going under the hammer in a sale of railway memorabilia collected during one man’s working life on the railways.

The distinctive bottle green signs recall the days when regular trains ran from Okehampton to Exeter and on up to London - days that campaigners in the town would like to see return.

There are also signs from Bere Alston and Callington stations in the collection being auctioned by Richard Edmonds of Chippenham Auction Rooms in Chippenham, Wiltshire on November 10.

Other signs from stations across the country include Dilton Marsh Halt in Wiltshire, the threatened closure of which in 1969 was immortalised in verse by the poet John Betjeman. In fact, that station survived, although its name was changed.

Many of the station signs come from stations that do not exist any more, having fallen victim to the Beeching cuts of the 1960s and later station closures.

North Tawton is among the stations that no longer exist, although Okehampton lives on in its use by Dartmoor Heritage Railway and mainline operator Great Western Railway’s special summer Sunday services to Exeter.

Mr Edmonds said: ‘It is a single private collection from a deceased estate. The chap had been collecting “railwayana” for 40 to 50 years, and his wife did not realise that he had all these signs in the garage until she started clearing it all out after his death.

‘It is an incredible collection. The earliest ones are from the 1930s and there are a lot from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, a bit of everything. He worked on the railways so he’d have seen the signs as they were being thrown away, and taken the opportunity to buy them.

‘The North Tawton one is an early one, late 1930s, while the Okehampton one is 1950s,’ he added. ‘The Okehampton one is big, although big does not always mean valuable. It could be worth between £300 and £400 and the North Tawton one could be worth £500 and £800.’

He said he was expecting a lot of interest in the collection, which includes other railway memorabilia too. ‘People who worked on the railways years ago collect them,’ he said. ‘People do love the railways, it is the nostalgia isn’t it?’

Mainline services ran from Okehampton through North Tawton to Exeter until 1972. While North Tawton station is now a private home, Okehampton Station is still open to passengers as part of the Dartmoor Heritage Railway.

Campaigners are lobbying for a regular commuter service to run on the line once again. Earlier this year, the Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling said that a trial commuter service linking Okehampton and Exeter was being put together.

The railway memorabila auction is Chippenham Auction Rooms at 10am on Friday, November 10.

See www.chippenhamauctionrooms.co.uk for more details.