The award-winning East Lancashire Railway (ELR) is appealing for donations to help its work restoring its Crab steam locomotive 13065 back to working order.

ELR describes the Crab as the “flagship” locomotive for its twelve-mile heritage railway, which runs from Heywood to Rawtenstall.

Enthusiasts nicknamed the locomotives ‘Crab’ because of the appearance of the running board, which has a raised front portion which allows space for the cylinder block to be set at a steep angle.

This design gives the front end a distinctive ‘crab’ look, but also makes the loco’s maintenance easier.

The Crabs were a powerful dual-purpose locomotive for mixed traffic use, and ran for forty years before being gradually withdrawn from service between 1961 and 1967 as part of British Rail Modernisation.

Only three of the 245 Crab locomotives survived:

• 2700/13000, which was based for much of its life at Bury Motive Power Depot, and is now part of the national collection at the Railway Museum in York.
• 2765/13065, based at the ELR, originally returned to working order in 1993, ran for ten years until being withdrawn in 2003 for overhaul, and returned to use in 2010.
• 2859/13159, based at the ELR, which has never been assembled or run in preservation.

Project info

The frames will go to CTL Seal in Sheffield for repairs to the rear frame stretchers, attention to axle box horn guides, and overhauling the driving wheel axle boxes.

ELR engineering staff will re-assemble the brake equipment, refurbish the locomotive valve gear and prepare the chassis for the boiler.

New valve heads and valve liners will be installed.

The boiler needs a new back head, steel side sheets and new throat plate.

The internal copper firebox needs extensive sections replacing, with a new copper firebox costing around £160k not including fitting.

The tender is in fairly good condition and needs only minor attention and fitment of low-level water filling points.

If you would like to donate towards the overhaul, you can do so by clicking here to visit their Just Giving page