Macabre I know, but when steam was being eliminated from Britains railways did any locos travel to the scrap yards under their own steam and why because I always understood that they were moved in convoy and cold.
Welcome to the forum, except to say that if you are a fan in some way of the former Southern Railway locomotive engineer, you might make the effort to spell the good man's name correctly.
In answer to your question, the answer is, as others have indicated, steam locos were often dragged* to scrap yards in ones, twos and threes. I don't think I ever saw more than three in one train.
* Of course, it is perfectly possible that a single locomotive destined for the torch would also chug along under its own steam - spotters would just see a light engine movement then, and unless you had access to the official apendix or happened to see it entering the scrap yard, you wouldn't know its destination. No internet or 'real time trains' in those far-off days!
I suspect what happened was:
The shedmaster was told to prepare X, Y and possibly Z locomotives for disposal to Woodhams or Drapers or wherever, and he would also be asked - is any of the locos in suitable condition for steaming and dragging the others?
Obviously, if a loco was suitable, it would save the cost of steaming and running a locomotive to the yard, and then running it back light engine. I have seen reports of Bulleid (nb) pacifics hauling 2-3 other condemned locos to Barry after the end of SR steam in July 67 doing exactly that.
EDIT - sorry, I realise the above can be taken both ways - I mean the Bulleid pacific - which itself was heading for the scrapyard of course - was steamed and dragged others (thereby saving a diesel after July 7).
However, many times the locos would have been in store, in the open for weeks, often months - and in the case of at least some locos on the SR, over a year. This would of course mean a higher risk of failure in some way - could easily be a hot box, or maybe boiler problems, injector problems etc. So in this case, of course, it would be seen as more sensible and cost-effective to attach a working steam locomotive to tow the scrappers away. I have a suspicion this became the more usual method after some failures with condemned locomotives when attempting to haul locos for scrap - but I have no proof of that. Another problem was that many of the locos would be foreigners - eg SR locomotives went to Kings in Norwich, and GWR locos went to Cransley (near Kettering) - and worries about poor condition AND somewhat strange controls for the footplate crews may have meant management decided to opt for a "known" loco in regular working condition to do the drag.
As Flying Phil reports above, locos that were dragged normally had their motion removed: this reduced the load and risk of bearing or seizure problems. I didn't know about problems with ensuring the motion was placed in the tender - but it makes sense - the connecting rods in particular were heavy, and probably a high-quality steel. If you bought 82 tons of locomtive and only got 80 tons in your yard, you would have a right to be complaining.
