Lot 79
Railways - Scotland
Large collection of original plans for railways and associated structures, mainly 19th century
Auction: 16 June 2026 from 10:00 BST
Description
approx. 25 in total, manuscript (pen and ink with watercolour), including:
Great North of Scotland Railway, Drawing of Carriage Shed for Inveramsay Station, 1864. 50 x 63cm;
Ibid. Waiting Shed to be erected at Newmachar Station, 1863. 33.5 x 50cm;
Ibid. Design for Bridge over the River Isla near Keith, 1864. 47 x 47cm, strip of tape-reinforcement on verso;
North British Railway, Plans and Sections of Sites of Present and Proposed Markets and of Proposed Alterations on Waverley Bridge Road and Market Street … Charles Jopp, Engineer, 1865. On glazed linen, 54.6 x 76cm, marked ‘copy', later annotation lower left referring to contractual proceedings dated 1870;
North British Railway, Proposed Lift Bridge over Union Canal at Fountainbridge, Edinburgh. On glazed linen, 68.5 x 85.5cm, marked ‘copy’;
Caledonian Railway, Granton Branch, Murrayfield Bridge Renewal, 1898. 3 large sheets of glazed linen, 64 x 101cm, attached along left margin by metal eyelets, annotated ‘Engineers Office, Glasgow, 25/7/98’, ink-stamps of the Roads Department, City of Edinburgh';
City of Glasgow Union Railway, ‘G. C. O railway terminus and hotel’, undated. 2 large sheets, 60.5 x 95cm, each with large pencil and watercolour view of a different elevation, repairs, each with central crease;
Caledonian Railway Bill, Borings. 2 numbered sheets, each 61.8 x 95cm, repairs;
and similar, including a very large plan of Waverley Station and environs (97 x 280cm, single sheet of glazed linen, possibly 20th century), a design for a wrought iron truss bridge for the Manchester, Bury and Rossendale railway, signed by engineer C. E. Cawley, 1845 (64 x 87cm), other plans relating to the Great North of Scotland Railway (GNSR) including structures at Keith, Dyce, etc.;
together with approx. 15 printed (mainly lithographic) plans, relating to the Edinburgh Leith and Granton railway tunnel, the Edinburgh and Northern Railway Burntisland to Dunfermline branch, proposed plan for City of Glasgow Union Railway Central Station at St Enoch's Square, 1866, etc. (approx. 40 items, in folder)
Provenance
From the collection of the late Professor Roland Paxton MBE FICE FRSE (1932-2025), 'Britain's foremost historian of civil engineering' (Telegraph, obituary, 12th November 2025). Professor Paxton was also a leading conservationist of Britain's engineering heritage, and led successful campaigns to restore two of the world's most important railway structures, the Laigh Milton Viaduct in Ayrshire, the world's oldest surviving railway bridge, and the Union Chain Bridge, the world's oldest suspension bridge still carrying road traffic.