Updated June 2017

London Transport Underground

This area of Collecting is regarded as part of General Railwayana Collecting and a large number of items from the LT Underground system pass through Railwayana Auctions.

These have increased in popularity with collectors over the past few years and now appear in many collections. The most often seen items are enamel signs from underground stations that have been taken down during refurbishment, many being sold off in auction in the early 1990’s.

The most popular are the earlier type small targets with the station name on a single enamel plate with a brass surround.  These also included a very small version that was located on the ticket office wall.

The later types were in 3 pieces, again with a one-piece surround, but with two centre bars. This was a more convenient pattern, as the half moon plates were standard with only the centre panel being for any particular station. There are three main sizes all being housed in a brass frame. Many stations still carry these type of signs so we can look forward to them turning up in the auctions of the future! Similar much larger signs were also on the station platforms and these continue to be gradually replaced. Many of these signs lost their brass rims as they were sold off as scrap.

Small 3 piece Target - 24" x 20"	Medium 3 piece Target - 44" x 36"

Large 3 piece Targets are usually of the same pattern as above & measure - 60" x 42". As with most Railwayana the larger the item becomes the lower the price will tend to be.

  Enamel frieze panels with the station name & with bands on the edges to denote the lines colours were used on all Underground stations and they now turn up on a regular basis, as also do the short end plates with the lines name. A collection of these signs are shown below.

There are many other enamel signs available and if these had an arrow they can be dated by the number of feathers to the arrow – the earliest having four.

LT stock had enamel target shaped plates with the Carriage number on and these small items are fairly readily available as are the destination enamels that were carried on the front of this stock.

As with LT buses there is a whole Collecting field of Uniform Badges and some examples are pictured below.

Posters were produced from the start of London's Underground Railways and many of the early ones are very desirable to collectors. As with railway posters they are not as important an advertising medium now and so are a lot less interesting. A few post war posters are shown below. 

Many other items turn up at Railwayana auctions and these can be made into a very attractive display.

This is an area of collecting that can only increase in popularity and, being at the moment relatively inexpensive, may be one worth exploring.