Order of Auction
Day One – 30th June 2020
The Roy Chambers Collection
Lot 1 to 101 - Bassett-Lowke and Exley 0 Gauge
Lot 102 to 180 - Leeds, Milbro and Bond’s 0 Gauge
Lot 181 to 198 – Locomotives from the ‘Celebrity Fleets’ of G P Keen, Captain Kelly and Others
Lot 199 to 415 - 0 Gauge and Finescale
Lot 416 to 434 – Gauge 1 and Larger
Various Owners
Lot 435 to 489 – 0 Gauge
Day Two – 1st July 2020
Lot 490 to 610 – 0 Gauge and Finescale
Lot 611 to 637 – Railway Memorabilia, Artworks and Literature
Lot 638 to 647 – Gauge 1
Lot 648 to 719 – Garden Railway
Lot 720 to 730 – Larger Gauges
Lot 731 to 737 – Ship Models
The Hornby Centenary Sale - 0 Gauge
The Roy Chambers Collection
Lot 738 to 848
Various Owners
Lot 849 to 850
The Property of a Collector
Lot 851 to 948
The Roy Chambers Collection
Tuesday 30 June Lot 1 to Lot 434 Various Makers, Wednesday 1 July Lot 738 to Lot 848 Hornby 0 Gauge
Well-known 0 Gauge train collector and enthusiast Roy Chambers died on the 12th of July 2018 aged 90. Roy was born in Leicester in 1928 and grew up in a house in the city suburbs. He developed an interest in trains at an early age partly due to the Great Central mainline running opposite the house and he and his school friends spent a lot of time train spotting in and around Leicester. His parents bought him his first train set, a second-hand Hornby 0 Gauge electric set (new was too expensive) and a passion for model railways was born. Roy kept and looked after his Hornby set until he was called up for National Service; his mother then gave it away to a cousin who promptly wrecked it! Roy never got over this and was determined to one day have a train set again so as soon as I was born, I was bought a Tri-ang Princess Elizabeth set and the collecting began, firstly in 00 Gauge but this was soon sold off to make way for 0 Gauge. During the late 1960s-1970s a large layout was built around the study with running lines crossing the bay window and the door, which meant ducking to enter the room.
Dad and I began visiting toy fairs looking for items to buy and in the late 1970s we took our first table at a fair and he then went on to exhibit at fairs on a regular basis and soon became a familiar face at fairs and auctions all over the country. He was getting things ready for a fair right up to a few days before he died.
After National Service Roy studied graphic design at Leicester College of Art and after qualifying got a job teaching at art colleges in East Kent, so moved to Dover. As well as teaching he did a lot of freelance work including illustrations for a number of transport publications and also a large number of posters and leaflets for local preserved railways and museums. With his extensive knowledge on 0 Gauge he was often called upon to provide information for books and price guides on model trains by authors such as Pat Hammond and Michael Foster.
Although Roy started out with Hornby he found the unrealistic nature of many of their locomotives annoying and soon developed a keen interest in the more prototypical models produced by companies such as Bassett-Lowke, Leeds and Milbro but alongside this he also liked the cruder more toy-like products of companies like Wells-Brimtoy and Mettoy; I think it was the brightly coloured graphics he found attractive.
This collection is the result of one man's passion for model trains which started in Leicester before the war and was continually being added to right up until 2018 and I hope that this dispersal will provide enjoyment for new owners all over the world. Julian Chambers
Roy Chambers was well-known for his collection of Leeds, Milbro, Bond's and other 'non-mainstream' items, and so we have created a special category for these where they have been reasonably positively identified. However, some items are not so easily attributed, so others may be found elsewhere, particularly in the 'Other 0 Gauge' Category. In addition, many of Roy's items were scratch-built or subsequently modified, and in the belief that many of these may appeal more to those who like to run their trains, I have included as much detail as reasonably possible regarding wheel and pick-up types, not all of which are compatible. I especially hope this will be helpful to online bidders. Certain models, particularly Post-War Leeds, are prone to metal 'fatigue' ('zinkpest') and where this is evident from inspection I have indicated this, although we do not dismantle goods for a look inside, so cannot guarantee that there may not be hidden issues elsewhere. Graham Bilbé, Train Specialist and Cataloguer