LMS Hughes Crab 42859

I'm afraid that's what happens when an owner, so wrapped up in his own fantasy, would rather let his 'treasure' rot away and eventually be scrapped rather than sell it on to an organization or individual who has to wherewithal to do something with it. Fortunately this may be the first time that it has happened to an ex B.R. loco (others have come close) but it has happened to several industrials and innumerable pieces of rolling stock. I don't always agree with PH but it does seem, as discussed in his "linear scrapyard" thread, that locos that are ripped apart in an initial burst of enthusiasm are most at risk. Just my 2p worth.
Ray.

 

As far as I was aware the loco frames, cylinders, driving wheels, bogie/bogie wheels, some motion parts, some parts from the boiler/firebox along with the tender wheels/frames and the tender tank all survive. Is this not the case, or have more parts been scrapped?


Keith

 

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The word was survive. Good luck to anyone trying to sort out ownership!!

 

It just needs a rich person to wade in with a good offer for the lot, that will sort things out. PW?, JH?

 

Pw!!! Your having a laugh there!

 

Sorry to be clueless, but what parts of this unfortunate locomotive actually survive?

 

Please! Don't let's start this up all over again!

 

Seriously? I don't wish to be mean especially at this time of goodwill to all men, but...read my post (a mere 5 posts above yours)


Keith

 

Sadly this loco would have been far better off kept intact in a much derided 'linear scrapyard'; we could have admired it for what it was and one day it would have been restored.

 

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Yeah, looks like it's had it then.

Fortunately it wasn't a unique survivor of its class.

 

Yes it is a peculiar human instinct, not confined to railways. Quite recently a collection of around sixty, mostly "high end", motor cars was found in France. Half a century or more in a corrugated iron shed had done absolutely nothing for vehicles, some of which were nearly new when squirrelled away. At least one had all the instruments removed for no apparent reason.

It preserves the existence of objects but in no way conserves them although quite often I feel items were not really worth keeping in the first place
Paul H

 

Not sure if this has been said previous but this loco is the steam version of 25244 and 45015.
Sensible thing says they are all beyond hope, we Brits though seem to like an underdog and this spurs people on to prove them wrong.
Bet some of the early preservationists were told the same thing by others, we must be thankful that they ignored them.

 

There's no doubt that it would be physically possible to "rebuild" her. The question is whether that would be worthwhile. Do we want to spend a lot of money building an almost-new "Crab", when we already have two preserved? Or would we rather spend that money on restoring one of the many other Barry wrecks which are in much more complete condition? Or even building something brand new?

In the end, people will vote with their wallets.

 

Will just have to make do, with this then !

 

I was thinking more in terms of which appeals people will choose to donate to - though of course, there are a few happy souls like Jeremy Hosking who can think about taking on a whole locomotive on their own!

 

Not really. I know that diesel fans have fits of hysterical apoplexy if a big diesel (a peak or a class 50) is scrapped; even if it's been stripped and robred for spares so there's hardly owt left to save.

But there is an important difference, and it's not just that a crab isn't a boring box on wheels.

There are more than enough diesels around, most sit in sidings doing nowt most of the time. But there are not enough operational steam locos to fit the public's demand for steam train rides. A class 5 mogul is a good fit for a preserved line, as the East Lancs Crab shows, and would have had a good career if properly restored have been suitable for working again.

If I owned a scrapyard condition engine the biggest thing I would want would be to develop a working relationship with a preserved line, to give secure storage, access to volunteers, and somewhere to wok when finished.

 

Operational being the key word. While it pains me that a loco appears to have gone to scrap, its survival would not have made any difference to the problem you identify. There are plenty of complete, operationally useful steam engines sitting out of traffic up and down the country, all of which could be bought into use far more cheaply and easily than 42859 could have been. The fact that they nonetheless are not in traffic suggests that the problem is one of lack of capacity to do overhauls, not lack of suitable engines. The survival or otherwise of 42859 makes no difference to that equation.

Tom