The Geoff Clark Collection Lot 971to Lot 1059
My father, Geoff Clark, had a lifelong interest in trains as his father was a railway clerk and his uncle was a stoker. He became particularly interested in European trains when he did his national service in Germany and travelled on the Berlin to Paris overnight express in 1952. As a keen cyclist he’d regularly take his bicycle on the train to visit his sister in Belgium and to go exploring around Europe.
Having learnt sheet metal work during his national service with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers it was the obvious career for him to take on his return. After a few years of employment, he struck out on his own. He started this business in the shed in the garden, causing much confusion to the lorry drivers trundling up and down a residential road looking for a factory to deliver the sheet metal. He quickly got premises and, in the Seventies, when we all relocated from Essex to the New Forest, he started another factory in Ringwood called New Forest Precision. Whilst he was involved in some exciting project such as building the frame of an early hovercraft, the bulk of the factory work was metal boxes of all shapes and sizes with variety of different punch holes and slots. When you pass traffic lights look out for the box with all the electronics in it – that was his staple business.
When my father met John Waggott (J&M Models) in 1978 he realised he could combine his professional expertise with his passion. They worked together over many decades and John told me that there is a bit of my father’s work in everything he produced. I am sure this gave my father immense satisfaction. John has kindly written a few words about my father and their work together, further below.
In 1984 Geoff purchased his first Bockholt loco - the Swiss Crocodile - from Christian Lennartz. The next time he went to Hamburg he met Herr Egon Bockholt in his factory where there was a demonstration of the E94 pulling 10 flat trucks with 1kg of weight in each. He also met Jens and Wolfgang when he purchased the BR23. These were the first of many trips as my father loved meeting people as well as choosing his next purchase. Whenever my father returned, we’d all ask to see the new loco or coach. He’d gently get it out of the car and open it up for us all to look at. Then it would be put away, hidden and never seen again until recently.
He did have grand plans of creating a train track around the garden. He had all the track, the station and the turning table but couldn’t quite get permission from my mother. My cousins volunteered their summer holidays to help him build it, but she could not be persuaded.
In the last few months of his life my father wanted me to look after his train collection and get it ready for sale. I had no idea how big the collection had grown over the years, although I had also never seen it all in one place before. He spent ages trying to educate me on the different locos and coaches but sadly there was not enough time for me to get to grips with his lifelong passion. My father died in December 2020 and is much missed.
Jo Waltham (youngest daughter of Geoff & Shirley Clark)
John Waggott, founder of J&M Models:
“I will really miss Geoff, he was one of my best friends for over 30 years. I first met him at my annual get together, at my garden railway in June 1978, and our discussions led to a long friendship based on our similar interests, and it soon became obvious that this could be mutually beneficial.
“I had just got a contract with Fulgurex SA based in Lausanne Switzerland, for the production of Gauge one models of the Orient Express Coaches. This was initially for 200 models, but they were so popular that we made over 1500 for Fulgurex, and more types of famous coaches ie. Rheingold, English Pullman Cars, American Pullman Cars, Swiss Gotthard Bahn coaches, and many more. Over the following 30 years, we produced more than 30,000 items of rolling stock, nearly all of these models had something from Geoff’s business in them sometimes small sub-assemblies and other times sheet metal cut to size for a new model.
“Geoff used to visit the fairs at which we exhibited, he hardly ever missed one, we had a show stand at the Nurenburg Toy Fair every year for 17 consecutive years he was always there. He also went to Nurnberg with me before we had exhibited there, to see if it would be worth the cost of going there to show our products. We had a great time for 3 days.
“Eventually he and I joined forces and set up a company to import models from Korea, we brought in 300 electric locomotives made exclusively for us to my instructions, some of which (the E18 and E19) are still in this collection.”
The Keith King Collection
Keith King grew up in the Birmingham area where his father worked for the Birmingham Canal Navigations. When he left school he became an apprentice reprographic artist, latterly working for Bemrose printers in Derby. He moved to a house with an empty roof space and was able combine two passions by building an LMS EM Gauge layout in it, later moving on to 7mm fine scale. He used his printing skills to advise Slater’s on setting up plant to produce etchings for kits and further assisted with his abilities as a calligrapher. He also sold a number of his designs to Chowbent kits, and his skills as an artist live on in the products of both companies and in the front cover artwork that he did for ‘Portrait of the LMS’.
Courtesy of David White, abridged from LMS News, August 2017
Order of Auction
DAY 1 | Tuesday 14th December at 10am
Lot 1 to Lot 32 N and TT Gauge
Lot 33 to Lot 39 Tri-ang, Tri-ang Hornby and early Hornby 00 Gauge
Lot 40 to Lot 182 Hornby 00 Gauge
Lot 183 to Lot 254 Bachmann 00 Gauge
Lot 255 to Lot 282 Hornby-Dublo 00 Gauge
Lot 283 to Lot 300 Wrenn 00 Gauge
Lot 301 to Lot 306 Trix 00 Gauge
Lot 307 to Lot 391 0ther 00 Gauge
Lot 392 to Lot 478 Kitbuilt 00 Gauge
Lot 479 to Lot 533 European HO Gauge
Lot 534 to Lot 549 American HO Gauge
Lot 550 to Lot 556 Lone Star 000 and Tri-ang TT and 00 Gauge Catalogues
DAY 2 | Wednesday 15t December at 10am
Lot 557 to Lot 589 Railway Collectables
Lot 590 to Lot 604 Railway Book, Prints, Paintings and Photographs
Lot 605 to Lot 607 Toy and Floor Trains
Lot 608 to Lot 630 Mainly Post-War popular Toy Makers 0 Gauge Train Sets
Lot 631 to Lot 676 Hornby 0 Gauge
Lot 677 to Lot 723 Bassett-Lowke and Exley 0 Gauge
Lot 724 to Lot771 Fine 0 Gauge
Lot 772 to Lot 788 Modern 0 Gauge
Lot 789 to Lot 857 Other 0 Gauge
Lot 858 to Lot 867 Mike Dean Milbro O Gauge Collection
Lot 868 to Lot 871 Other 0 Gauge
Lot 872 to Lot 913 American 0 Gauge
Lot 914 to Lot 944 Vintage Gauge 1
Lot 945 to Lot 955 General Gauge 1
Lot 956 to Lot 970 Modern Gauge 1
The Geoff Clark Collection Lot 971to Lot 1059
Lot 971to Lot 982 Bockholt Gauge 1
Lot 983to Lot 993 Aster Gauge 1
Lot 994to Lot 1026 J&M Gauge 1 Coaches
Lot 1027 to Lot 1038 Markscheffel & Lennertz Gauge 1
Lot 1039 to Lot 1059 Other Gauge 1
Lot 1160 to Lot 1130 Wide Gauges, Live Steam, Garden Railways and Engineering
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