Hengistbury Head Noddy Trains fetch nearly £7,000 at auction

Sold by Southern Counties Auctioneers at the Wessex Machinery sale in Shaftesbury, the beloved Noddy trains were purchased by two local people for a “marvellous price”.

Three lots went under the hammer, each with an engine and approximately six or seven carriages for sale. One lot sold for just over £1,000, another for £1,200 and the final for £4,250 - totals described by an auction spokesperson as a “marvellous price considering they were pretty worn”.

The train attraction was a popular sight for decades along the beauty spot since it first started running in 1968. The council had decided to ban private cars from the head but needed an alternative form of transport, especially for people carrying luggage a mile or so to the beach huts on the sandspit.

Hengistbury Head Noddy train

Joyce Faris operated the service until her retirement in 2015, at which point the council took up the duty.

In 2019, the Daily Echo reported the trains would be sold off after an investigation concluded they were not safe.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation into an incident in which a cyclist was hurt when two carriages broke loose, concluded with the HSE informing the council that the traditional trains would require extensive works to run them again, including fitting engine-controlled brakes to each carriage alongside several other safety improvements.

• Read more: Hengistbury Head Land Train to return in April

A BCP Council spokesperson said: "BCP Parks team have operated the land train service over the past few years, more recently using a more modern land train vehicle. For Easter this year our seafront operations team will be managing the Land Train service, operating from April 9 until the end of October every day."