Rugby Locomotive Testing Plant, 1960

Introduction

The photograph on this page of Rugby Locomotive Testing Plant, 1960 by Alan Murray-Rust as part of the Geograph project.

The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.

There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk

Rugby Locomotive Testing Plant, 1960

Image: © Alan Murray-Rust Taken: Unknown

This had in fact closed the previous year. It was a project initiated by the LNER and LMS jointly, but did not come into service until after the war, under British Railways ownership. It contained a special rolling road on which steam locomotives could be run at full output, enabling detailed analysis to be made of power output relative to fuel and water consumption, and even different firing techniques with different grades of coal. With the advent of the 1958 modernisation plan with the emphasis on diesel and electric haulage, the need for testing of steam locomotives disappeared.

Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0