13065/42765 'Crab'

Discussed at length several months ago on here IIRC.

 

Found the thread, thanks! Just checking my lottery numbers...

 

the variations 42765 had were small. Someone quite high up at the ELR told me it was minor details such as buffers being polished instead of black, or something small like that.

I also think they look ugly, but all midland railway designed or inspired locos look ugly. The crab, the jinty, the 7f, but they all have a certain charm. The crab i feel is a bit like the S160. Not pretty in the intended sense but their brute characters and power and rigid lines make up for that. And for that reason they're good looking

 

What's happened to it?

 

35011 moved to the WSR and donated a wheelset to Braunton. It moved to Sellindge shortly after this. I think this happened in 2009 but I could be wrong on the date.


Keith

 

You need to read Nat Pres, Neil. You'll get to know all these things, then! :rolleyes1:

 

If things had succeeded then the Crab may have ended up at Steamport Southport.
I was part of the group that attempted to buy it from Barry.
However it was bought for Bury instead.
Went down to Barry a couple of times taking photos and working on recovering other engines as well.
76079 and Jinty 47298

 

Quite, I had forgotten that it had moved.

 

Any update on when this will be in traffic again? Crab appeal pages on ELR website still say back in 2011.

 

I have seen some pictures to show the ELR engineering team have been busy painting things whilst IR's team have done the actual engineering work. Maybe Flying Scotsman has held things up a bit?

 

Loco will be re-wheeled this week (for the second time)

 

13065 once again became a rolling vehicle today.

Flickr: irwellsteam photography's Photostream

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbp-tsbRB8s

Well done to everyone who turned up

 

It's a year since the last forum update on this loco. Thought I read somewhere that it was hoped to start the Crab back into ELR traffic this summer. What's the latest, please.

 

Pedant mode but the "Crabs" were a Horwich product [designed by Hughes of the L&YR] with Fowler effectively "tuning" the design to meet the Midland Railway's more restricted kinetic envelope; I don't think the Midland Railway - with its small engine policy - had the nounce to design a "big" engine.

 

Fowler's contributions to the George Hughes original design were mostly to do with the fitting of the Midland vacuum-over-steam brake instead of the L&Y vacuum brake; and of course the 'Standard' 3,500 gallon Midland-derived tender instead of the Horwich one designed for the engine and based on that of the later L&Y 'Dreadnough' type, which at least would have been the same width as the cab side sheets. The project was too advanced to allow him to fit the Midland Compound boiler as he intended, even though it had been pointed out to him that this boiler would not meet the big cylinders' demands for steam.

The Crabs turned out to be excellent and hard working egines in spite of, rather than because of, Fowler's intervention.

Oh, and as for big Midland engines, don't forget the 2-8-0s designed foe use on the S&D, not to mention 'Big Bertha' on the Lickey!

 

the CRAB was almost wholly designed by E.S. (Stuart) Cox

Horwich through and through when various infighting was going on between the old pre grouping drawing offices on the LMS.

cheers,
julian

 

Would have been interesting if the Midland had turned their hand to designing a 4-6-0 variant of the s&d 7f.

 

They would need to improve their cylinder/valve design capabilities. And invest in a new axle box design. Taking some advise from the GW with regard to making the exhaust system function in an adequate manner would also be useful. That is not to be seen as being too critical of the 7F, the design carried out the task it was designed for well enough but were always modest steamers. Not all crews are equal though and some can extract a surprisingly good performance from any engine.
In the years when 1/53809 had a mainline ticket it would have been appropriate to let it run on the S&C, the Midland's greatest achievement, but that never happened. An outstanding crew may have been able to achieve a run and not a crawl but it was probably for the best that it was not attempted. A 4-6-0 version as a mixed traffic engine would soon be found wanting unless some very basic improvements were made.