A REPLICA of the Darlington FC nameplate from a steam locomotive is going under the hammer next week.

It will be auctioned at Thomas Watson’s in the town on Tuesday with a guide price of £2,000.

The replica, made in 2004 to replace the original which was sold when the club was in dire financial trouble, once adorned the grand entrance of the Neasham Road stadium, but has been without a permanent home since the Quakers were forced out in 2012.

“It is very difficult to put an estimate on it,” said senior auctioneer Peter Robinson, whose father, Harry, was chairman of the Quakers in the 1960s. “If it was the original, it would be worth £20,000. It has got provenance in terms of it being commissioned by the club directors so it does have some history.”

There is talk in the town of a crowdfunding campaign by football fans to ensure the nameplate stays with the football club.

Two original nameplates were made in 1936 when the London & Northern Eastern Railway was building the B17 class of locomotives at the North Road Works, where Morrison’s supermarket is today. The engines were named after First Division football clubs – Arsenal, Sunderland, Middlesbrough and Newcastle United – but the North Road enginemen are said to have taken the Manchester City loco hostage until their bosses agreed to name an engine after Third Division North side Darlington.

And so in April 1936, engine No 2852 proudly steamed out of the works bearing the Quakers’ name and colours around a golden football.

When the loco was scrapped in 1959, having covered 933,545 miles, one of the nameplates disappeared into a private collection, and the other was presented to the club. It hung at the Feethams ground until 2003 when the then chairman George Reynolds moved it to the new stadium.

However, as debts crowded in, it was sold for £41,000 to an American collector.

Dismayed directors Gordon Hodgson and Peter Ellis commissioned the replica to be made by the same Nottingham forge to exactly the same specification as the original.

However, as readers of Mike Amos’ Backtrack column know, since the Quakers left the stadium, the nameplate has been with Mr Ellis.

“It’s just sitting there and really needs to be prominently displayed somewhere,” he said a couple of weeks ago. “I’d rather it was used for the purpose it was originally intended, or at least was in the hands of a true Darlington supporter.”

So on Tuesday, it is in the sale in Northumberland Street which starts at 10am. As it is Lot 150, it will go under the hammer at about 11am.

“I think it will be a football market, although there may also be a railway connection for older supporters,” said Mr Robinson.