Gresley K3 vs Hughes Crab

[1165Valour]

While comparing the Thompson B1 and the Black Five is reasonable, and one can do the same to some extent with the B17 and the Jubilee ("three-cylinder 4-6-0" does apply to both), I feel I'm making a greater stretch with this current thread, as the similarities between these two classes seem to end at their wheel arrangement.

 

The K3 was a three-cylinder design intended for express goods, but they seem to have done a bit of everything, and were spread throughout the LNER's network. Other than a tendency toward rough riding, they were very successful machines.

 

The Crabs were also very reliable performers, doing all kinds of work across the LMS system, though they were concentrated in areas like the former L&Y network and Scotland.

[johnofwessex]

I have no specific knowledge of these loco's but it seems to me that the UK's 2-6-0's never got the recognition they deserved.

[Mike 84C]

One of my old BR drivers had fired and driven at Oxford. He used to say a K3 on a full digger up Swanbourne bank just shovel  a load of coal on and it would blow off all the way up! I think he liked them! He never mentioned Crabs. I only fired a few being at Banbury and never thought much of them b; rough and worn out. One of our shift foremen Bert Mallard had been a driver and fireman at Saltley and thought they were marvellous. I used to tell him he had never experienced anything better.