A NAMEPLATE from a 1930s Great Western Railway steam locomotive is set to fetch up to £18,000 at auction.

Torquay Manor was built at the Swindon Works in about 1937 and started operating in January 1938.

It was the first of GWR’s 4-6-0 Manor Class and one of only 30 Manor Class locomotives, which were all built in Swindon.

The locomotive ended up in Shrewsbury, where it was withdrawn from service in August 1964 and then scrapped.

Fortunately, the right side green, red and black name plate was rescued before the engine was broken up and came into the family of the person who is now selling it.

It will be auctioned at Halls in Shrewsbury today.

A spokesman for the auctioneers said: “Torquay Manor was the first of the Manor Class 4-6-0 steam locomotives, No.7800 and first entered service in January 1938.

“By 1939 20 were in service. By 1959,21 Manors were in service in mid and south Wales. Their most prestigious working was the Cambrian Coast Express.”

The demise of Torquay Manor in 1964coincided with the infamous Beeching axe in 1963, when British Railways chief Dr Richard Beeching announced that 6,000 miles of track – a third of Britain’s 18,000 miles of railway – would be axed and these were mostly rural branch and cross country lines.