 The Rs were pressed into secondary passenger and goods service, roles for which a Hudson with large diameter driving wheels was sometimes a less than ideal choice.There was little opportunity to exploit their high speed capability.Furthermore, their relatively low factor of adhesion (4.08) and lack of fully compensated springing, coupled with the tendency of locomotives to transfer weight to the rearmost wheels under high drawbar pull conditions (which in the case of the R meant a weight transfer from the driving wheels to the unpowered trailing truck) caused them to slip when starting heavy goods trains.