Former council officer's model railway collection fetches £21,000 at auction

THE sale of a model railway collection, the size of which was only realised after the collector’s death, has fetched £21,000 at auction.
Valuer Graham Paddison with one of the Hornby Dublo box setsValuer Graham Paddison with one of the Hornby Dublo box sets
Valuer Graham Paddison with one of the Hornby Dublo box sets

Adrian Batty, who died in April, amassed a collection over 30 years, leaving a room so full it was difficult to get more than a few steps inside.

More than 130 locomotives, thousands of items of rolling stock and a range of rare trackside accessories, which spanned the entire 25-year Hornby Dublo period, was sold at Scarborough auctioneers David Duggleby.

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The highest price of £650 was achieved by a single Southern locomotive in a rare malachite colour.

The malachite green colour of the Southern tank engine quadrupled its value.The malachite green colour of the Southern tank engine quadrupled its value.
The malachite green colour of the Southern tank engine quadrupled its value.

Jane Batty, who watched the auction online, said her husband, a former Hull Council pest-control chief, would have been pleased she was going to get the kitchen they had both dreamt about, which they had begun looking for before his cancer diagnosis in 2019.

She said he would probably have preferred the lots to have gone to collectors. “There seemed a lot of dealers and he wouldn’t like that,” she added.

Specialist Graham Paddison, from David Duggleby, said the sale showed Mr Batty was “very shrewd in his investments, a very meticulous guy, who put together a very detailed inventory of everything he bought”.

The sale attracted bidders from the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia.

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