A train buff who painstakingly amassed the "best ever" private collection of forgotten railway posters and memorabilia has earned his family nearly 700,000 pounds from beyond the grave.

Malcolm Guest worked in the publicity department at London's Paddington Station and was horrified when artwork from the heyday of steam were being prepared to be burnt during nationalisation.

So he pleaded with his bosses to be allowed to save the items from incineration before they were replaced by more functional advertisements.

When he died last July, aged 66, his hoard was discovered at his home in Knaresborough, North Yorks., and collectors scrambled for the artwork over three auctions.

The memorabilia, which dates from the early 1900s to the 1960s, has sold for nearly 700,000 pounds over the course of the auctions.

A spokeswoman for auctioneers Morphets said: "This is a quite unbelievable collection in its size, depth and condition. It has been a privilege to deal with the sale of such an amazing archive of British social history in the form of graphic design."