Secret model railway collection in East Yorkshire makes £20k at auction

A model railway piece sold as part of a collection which fetched £20k at auction
An engine sold for more than £650 at auction as part of a collection which fetched £20k Credit: David Duggleby Auctioneers

No one was more surprised when former Hull City Council worker Adrian Batty's secret model railway collection was discovered weeks after his death than his own wife.

She found more than 130 Horby Duplo locomotives in their house near Brough after he died last year.

Adrian's family knew he had had a passion for model railway, and that he had the bought the odd item, but he'd never revealed the scale of his hobby.

And no one intruded on the room where he kept it all.

Auctioneer Graham Paddison with part of the collection Credit: David Duggleby Auctioneers

The vintage collection has now fetched £20k at auction, with bids from as far away as Australia.

One engine sold for £650, more than four times what it would normally make.

This Canadian Pacific Caboose fetched £160 Credit: David Duggleby Auctioneers

Graham Paddison, a model railways specialist with auctioneers David Duggleby said:

“The room was so jammed that there was no space for a layout. Mr. Batty studied it, hepreserved it, he maintained it and he created a wonderful inventory of his collection – but as far as is known he never ran a train around a loop of track.

This rare articulated carriage, which dates back to the 1930s, fetched £220 Credit: David Duggleby Auctioneers

“It is an extraordinary story and it is by a country mile, the most extraordinary privatecollection we’ve ever seen."