A London Underground train from the 1950s is expected to fetch �7,000 when it is auctioned later this month.

The 1959 Northern Line train, comprising five motor cars and two trailer cars, will go under the hammer at Lloyds in London on 31 July.

A spokesman for the auctioneers said: "The Tube train is an icon and the estimate price represents good value for a slice of history. I think it could go for a song."

Your carriage awaits

Anglophiles, train enthusiasts, entrepreneurs or existing railway companies are expected to queue up for the chance to own a whole tube train - or part of it.

Lloyds have already had calls from interested bidders, from members of the public to a railway company on the Isle of Wight.

But the carriages could even end up as Hollywood film props.

London Underground, which is replacing all its 100 old Northern Line trains by the end of the year, decided to auction the train for fun.

End of an era

A spokesman said LU wanted to see if the train could fetch more than its scrap metal value of about �5,000.

The sale represents the end of an era as it is the last type of tube train which needed a guard to operate it.

Some 30 trains of the same type have already been sold as scrap metal, but there are 30 more in depots and 40 others still in operation, he said.