History of the Hughes – Fowler ‘Crab’

These locomotives got their ‘crab’ nickname due to the appearance of the running board, which has its front portion raised to allow space for the cylinder block to be set at steep angle, this gave the front end of the locomotive a distinctive ‘crab’ look but the design also eased maintenance on the locomotive.

There were built by the London Midland & Scottish Railway between 1926 and 1931, the class was designed by George Hughes and where later built under the direction of Sir Henry Fowler, who had replaced Hughes upon his retirement. A total of 245 ‘crab’ locomotives were built and the locomotives construction was shared between Horwich and Crewe works. Originally built as 13000 – 13244, they were subsequently renumbered 2700 -2944, and following nationalisation of the railways in 1948, they were again renumbered to 42700 – 42944. The design provided a powerful dual purpose locomotive for mixed traffic use, after a career spanning 40 years the class was gradually withdrawn from service between 1961 – 1967 as part of the British Rail Modernisation plan.

The locomotives have a 2-6-0 wheel arrangement, with driving wheels of 5ft, 6 ins and front pony wheel of 3ft, 61/2 in, with a total length of 59 ft and a total unladen weight of 108 tons. Two cylinders are 21in x 26in with boiler pressure of 180 pounds per square inch, the locomotives were left hand drive and have a tractive effort rating of 26,580 ibs. The six wheel tender holds 3500 gallons of water, and five tons of coal, which was designed to be narrower than the locomotive to give better vision to the footplate crew when traveling backwards.

Out of the 245 ‘crab’ locomotives only three survived the cutting torch, these being 2700/13000 which was based for a good part of its life at Bury Motive Power Depot, now part of the national collection at the Railway Museum in York , our own locomotive 2765/13065 and 2859/13159 which are both based at the ELR, 2859 has never been assembled or run in preservation, our locomotive 13065 originally returned to working order in 1993, running for 10 years till withdrawal in 2003 for overhaul, the locomotive returned to use in 2010.

A huge blow to the ELR

In 2014 our Crab steam locomotive – 13065 (42765) was withdrawn from service following failure of one of locomotives boiler flue tubes after only 4 years of service following its previous overhaul.

The boiler was removed and sent to a contractor for repair, to renew the flue tubes, small tubes and minor remedial work to return the boiler to us with a new 10 yearly certificate, however during the course of the required inspections and nondestructive testing required, the situation rapidly changed to reveal that boiler was in far worse state than anticipated and would require extensive renewal of many of areas of boiler with cost anticipated to be around the £400,000 at the time to repair. Work did commence on renewal of the boiler barrel sections and the new front tube plate before we were forced to suspend the work due to lack of funds.

The locomotive frames also required some extensive work to the rear frame stretchers, axle boxes, cylinder and valve liners also required replacement.

To date the restoration efforts have stalled due to lack of funds, as the ELR suffered significantly during the COVID pandemic when we were forced to close throughout the lock down periods of 2020/2021. The pandemic, ongoing world affairs have significantly increased our overall operating costs which has impacted our finances available to support this project, this why we are appealing for your help through donations.

This appeal for £150,000 is to focus on work on the boiler and necessary work on frames, further details are given below on the scope of works.

Our fundraising efforts were kick started by effort of Geoff Spencer one of our volunteers who undertook a climb of Great Gable to raise funds for the locomotive. We have also generously been supported by the East Lancashire Railway Preservation Society with £50,000 grant.

Details of the project are as follows.

Frames.

Its is currently proposed that the Locomotive Frames will be moved to CTL Seal in Sheffield for repairs to the rear frame stretchers, attention to axle box horn guides, and overhauling the 6 driving wheel axle boxes with a view to the locomotive being returned to the ELR has a rolling chassis.

Our internal team of driven and skilled engineering staff will then gradually re-assemble the brake equipment, re-furbish the locomotive valve gear and work towards getting chassis completed ready for the boiler.

New valve heads and valve liners are required to ensure longevity for future years.

Boiler

The boiler is going to be the most expensive item to complete during this overhaul, with the boiler needing, a new back head, steel side sheets and new throat plate.

The internal copper firebox also needs extensive sections replacing, a new copper firebox is valued at around £160k alone this does not include fitting.

We are still pursuing options for boiler overhaul to gain best value and longevity from this overhaul. As previously mentioned some substantial work has already been completed on sections of the boiler.

Tender

Fortunately the tender is fairly good condition and will not require any extensive repair work, other than minor attention and fitment of low level water filling points.

There is is much to do and we can only move this forward with your help, any donation large or small will help us to get our beloved loco back into service.