LMS Route: Rugby to Wolverhampton
LMS Route: Nuneaton to Leamington

Coventry Station - BR Locomotives: lnwrcov232

Ex-LMS 2-6-0 5MT 'Hughes Crab' No 42774 is seen running tender first towards Coventry station with three unidentified ex-LMS 2-8-0 8Fs in tow but all in steam. Built as LMS No 2774 at Crewe works in 1927 this Hughes design was nicknamed 'Crab' because the size of its cylinders required their being raised much higher than the norm and the connecting and coupling rods when moving were likened to the action of a crab scuttling across the sand. It remained in service until October 1963 when it was withdrawn from Manningham shed in Bradford to be scrapped during February 1964 at Crewe works. The most probable reason for seeing four locomotives coupled together is that they have been used to test the load carrying ability of a new or remodelled bridge. The bridge would have had a temporary lightweight and free standing frame placed under its main beams a several instruments would have been placed to measure the deflection when the load (the four locomotives) was applied. The other possibility is that the four locomotives needed to be repositioned and there was no working available for them to be allocated to undertake. Coupling several locomotives together had the advantage that only one path (the booking of a train to run on a line) was required compared to four paths to move each locomotive. However this practice was more frequently associated with attaching one locomotive to an existing train thereby making use of existing paths. When required to move spare locomotives to balance locomotives to the work-load this was normally limited to two locomotives at the most because 'Control' would try to be better organised than to have four workings in one direction and none in the return direction.

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