What is a Deltic?

Deltic is the most common nickname for the English Electric Type 5 (later class 55) diesel-electric locomotives supplied to British Railways in 1961-2. Despite replacing some of the all-time favourite steam locomotives on the East Coast Main Line from London to Edinburgh, including Flying Scotsman and Mallard, they were more than impressive enough themselves to develop a large and affectionate following.

Their most noticeable feature was the two stroke opposed piston Napier Deltic engines (they had two) which gave them a most distinctive sound, very high power and a power-to-weight ratio enormously better than their contemporaries. These engines were originally developed for use in fast motor torpedo boats, and that and their sound gave rise to other nicknames such as 'boat', 'gunboat' and 'Lancaster Bomber' (they were built in Lancashire, at Newton-leWillows, in the Vulcan Foundry plant there).

At 3,300hp they are the most powerful passenger diesels ever built to run on the British railway network, and the most powerful diesels of any type (barring an unsuccessful one-off prototype) for 20 years. At the time of their introduction they were lighter than some locos less than half their power. Because they are (relatively) so light they can run virtually anywhere on Network Rail, and on most preserved lines as well.

The production Deltics were developed from a prototype actually called 'Deltic' which was developed as a demonstrator by the manufacturers and is now the property of the Natonal Railway Museum. There are however a number of differences between the prototype and the production versions, not least in the way they are painted!

The 22 Deltics replaced directly 55 LNER Pacific locos, and hauled all the fastest passenger trains on the ECML for 15 years until the introduction of the 125mph HST fixed-formation trains in the late 70's. In the process accumulating over 50 million miles between them. As a specialised and complex fast passenger loco they were spared the indignity of being cascaded to secondary services elsewhere, and were all withdrawn from service by the end of 1981. They upheld the finest traditions of the ECML formed in the 1860's and maintained through the locomotives of Stirling, Ivatt, Gresley, and Peppercorn. They were fast and reliable, capable of running a train at 100mph for long distances, and enabled an hour or more to be chopped off the preceeding steam schedules (although only half an hour compared to the pre-war streamliners, but those very special trains operated under entirely different coditions of maintenance and utilisation).

Six of the production Deltics have survived to the present day. Five are in secure hands, but one is in danger of being lost despite 25 years of preservation. This is 'Deltic 16', originally numbered D9016 then 55016. It is named "Gordon Highlander" after the Scottish regiment, and the GHPG Group intends to try to save it and then ensure its long term future is secured so no such need for urgent rescue occurs again.

All above photos courtesy of Mark Shipman.