(first posted 12/5/2014) CC has already heard the story of Mallard, the world’s fastest steam locomotive and pride of the London and North Eastern Railway. But by 1960, Mallard and her sisters were around 25 years old, and ‘old tech’ – expensive to run, fuel and maintain, with a high demand for hard, unpleasant and dirty labour. Steam was increasingly out of date in the new jet age.
Their successor was just as distinctive. When new, it was the most powerful single unit diesel locomotive in the world, and it is still one of the most distinctive and charismatic ones ever. Thanking loyal CC follower Big Paws for the detail research and picture selection, let’s take a look at the Deltic.
By the late 1950s, Britain was a more confident and fast changing country. Wartime damage had largely been repaired, and post war austerity was a fading memory (wartime food rationing finally ended in 1954) as economic growth and consumerism took hold. The National Health Service and improved state education were, with things like television, affordable motoring and foreign holidays, improving the living standards of many ordinary people.
Improved main trunk roads and bypasses were beginning to join up to create a new modern network, and the first motorway opened in 1959. With more disposable income came more cars (the number of cars in the UK doubled from 1948 to 1958) including such milestones as the Morris Minor, the Mini, the Jaguar E-Type and, later, the Ford Cortina and Morris 1100 (BMC ADO16).
National engineering ambition and confidence was evident not just in the Mini but also the de Havilland Comet, the world’s first jet airliner; the English Electric Lightning, Britain’s first supersonic jet fighter; and the Avro Vulcan, the great delta winged nuclear bomber, and in nuclear power. And, by 1960, Concorde and the Queen Elizabeth 2 ocean liner were on the drawing board. Britain was also preparing for a largely peaceful and democratic transition from Empire to Commonwealth.
But it was a different story for the railway system, British Railways (BR). Rail had been nationalised in 1947 as part of the great post war transformation of Britain under the hugely influential Labour government of Prime Minister Clement Attlee, with four regional companies with strong and very different traditions and identities being forced together.
But nationalisation had not been accompanied by investment, and it showed, with steam power still dominant outside the London commuter network. In 1955, an ambitious Rail Modernisation Plan was launched, with promises of new investment in diesel locomotives and electrification of key routes, but delivery was slow and the results disappointing.
A range of prototype locomotives was built by the locomotive industry in the hope of fleet orders. Most turned out to be underpowered or unreliable, or both, and crucially there was a lack of central direction and standardisation that looks, in hindsight, nothing short of shocking. Despite nationalisation, BR was still largely operating as four semi-autonomous Regions, based geographically on the predecessor companies. Rivalry between the Regions was as intense as anything between, say, Austin and Morris within BMC.
The Western Region (the old Great Western Railway) chose diesel hydraulics derived from German practice. The London Midland Region, linking London, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow, opted to electrify like the French. The Southern Region, working across southern England, expanded its pre-war third rail electric system. And the Eastern Region – the old London and North Eastern of Flying Scotsman and Mallard, on the 400 mile key East Coast Main Line (ECML) linking London with Yorkshire, north east England and onto Edinburgh – chose an English solution to the challenge of replacing the most famous and beautiful steam engines in the world.
The Eastern Region was lucky enough to be led by Gerard Francis Gisborne Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes (known as Gerry Fiennes), who saw the weaknesses of the early diesels and the threat of the car and the new motorways more clearly than others. Fiennes was determined that his expresses would move into the diesel age with a step change in performance to match the new competition and rejected the Modernisation Scheme prototypes as just not fast or powerful enough, and looked elsewhere. His chosen solution came from a perhaps unlikely source.
English Electric was an engineering conglomerate better known for power station equipment and jet aircraft (the Canberra and the Lightning) than railway locomotives, but they had an ace up their sleeve. One subsidiary was D. Napier and Son, who had a similar history to Rolls-Royce of expensive cars, and specialist marine and aero-engines.
Napier had a licence to build the German Junkers Jumo 204 engine. This was an opposed piston two stroke diesel engine, originally intended for aircraft use. Being of opposed piston configuration, a separate crankshaft was needed for each piston bank, with some pretty complex gearing to bring it all together. Effectively, the two opposed pistons created a combustion chamber between them, the combustion in which then powered both pistons.
However, it was compact and flat (or tall and narrow), and had no heavy cylinder head and being a two stroke, no valves either. Seen here, it is installed in the Junkers F24.
By 1945, Napier focussed on marine applications and used the Junkers Jumo as the basis of a marine engine for the British Admiralty. Napier developed a version for use in motor torpedo boats, with three opposed cylinders (and therefore six opposed pistons) in a triangular formation, driving three crankshafts. The concept was easily expanded, with nine and 18 cylinder versions being developed, with three or six engines lined up on the three crankshafts. Through the 1950s and beyond, the Royal Navy used Deltic engines in several classes of minesweeper and torpedo boats, with great success. The secret was the high speed of the engine – up to 1500 rpm, more than twice that of traditionally configured engines.
The compact size and light weight – less than half that of comparable conventional diesels – of the Deltic engine, coupled with its high power capacity, were big attractions for rail use. In 1955, English Electric linked two 18 cylinder Deltic engine, each rated at 1230kw, or 1650hp, with mechanically driven blowers (or supercharger) and charge coolers (intercoolers), powering an EE generator, to create a prototype 3300hp express diesel locomotive, known simply as Deltic. It looked like no other British diesel, in a striking pale blue livery with cream lining and broad chevrons on the nose.
Unlike American diesels, the layout was symmetrical, with driving cabs at both ends, a practice that is almost universal in Europe. The defining feature was the size – 70 feet long, and 13 feet high –the maximum that could be accommodated on Britain’s rails, riding on twin three axle bogies (trucks), with all axles powered by electric motors – a wheel arrangement known as Co-Co in Europe.
But despite the great size and massive power, weight was just 106 tons – compared to the 133 tons of EE’s other express offering, the 2000hp Class 40 which had no more power than a steam Pacific. And, against the 2000hp of the Class 40, Deltic offered 3,300hp from its two 18 cylinder engines – with a massive boost in acceleration and the ability to sustain high speed.
Of course, as you’d expect, the publicity people and modelmakers went into overdrive. Hornby Dublo (or Double-O gauge – get it?) model trains were the leading British model train brand of the 1950s and 1960s, and this is a pretty fair visualisation of many a train platform of the time. This was an engine schoolboys would gather on the platform to see.
In comparison, the EMD E series was rated at just 2400hp. Even today, with half a century’s advance in diesel engine technology and in electronics to control the power delivery, the standard mainline American diesel – such as the General Electric ES44 series – max out at 4400hp. At the time, and until the problematic EMD SD45 of 1966, the Deltic was the most powerful single unit diesel locomotive in the world. In 1955, Deltic was something spectacular, and just what Fiennes was searching for to power his modern expresses.
EE had big ambitions for the Deltic – the striking colour scheme and large headlight on the prototype were intended to demonstrate its suitability for export to North America and the British Commonwealth. These ambitions were never realised, and were probably not even remotely realistic in 1955, given the complexity of the design. But Gerry Fiennes and the Eastern Region liked it, and ordered a fleet of 22 to dieselise the ECML, which were the only production versions built. These replaced a total of 55 Pacific steam locos.
The production Deltics had toned down styling and a sober but attractive two tone green livery, but were mechanically little changed from the prototype. They were built at the EE-owned Vulcan Foundry in Newton le Willows, Lancashire, a producer of steam engines for the British Empire that EE had acquired in 1957 (and a plant that could trace its history back to Robert Stephenson, son of George), and entered main line service in 1961-1962.
In line with the British tradition for express locomotives, the Deltics were given names, carried on each side in bold aluminium nameplates (which are now very collectible and very valuable). Eight Deltics based in London were named after famous racehorses; the six based in Gateshead (across the River Tyne from Newcastle upon Tyne, the regional capital) and the eight based in Edinburgh were named after British Army regiments from Yorkshire and north east England and from Scotland respectively – units such as the Green Howards, Durham Light Infantry, Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, Royal Scots Grey, Black Watch and Argyll and Sutherland Highlander that are now all obsolete as regiments have merged and dissolved over half a century, but which many still remember.
From 1966, onwards, the smart green livery was replaced by the new BR standard ‘rail blue’, to match blue and grey coaches, and with the famous ‘double arrow’ symbol replacing the lion and wheel of the steam age. It had taken 20 years since nationalisation, but now, for the first time, all of Britain’s railways looked the same – and different, as blue was deliberately chosen as a colour with few historic railway associations. The famous InterCity brand was also introduced at the same time, with the Deltics as the flagship. The all-over blue served to emphasise further the sheer bulk of the Deltic, giving it even greater presence and sense of power.
The ECML and the Deltics were an almost perfect match. The first 250 miles north from London are among the flattest, straightest and fastest mainlines in Britain, and the Deltics could exploit their ability to accelerate a heavy train to 100mph and cruise at that speed for many miles. With the Deltics in service, Fiennes could launch a massive acceleration; in 1962 the standard London– Edinburgh time came down from seven hours to under six – beating the pre-war Coronation streamliner, which was a one-off service, not a six times a day standard fare express.
But the effect was not a one-off; progressive improvements in the quality of the track, and major projects to improve the alignment through stations and curves, allowed for the timetable to be steadily tightened over the years. By 1975, without increasing the maximum speed, another half an hour had been cut from the London – Edinburgh time. Deltics routinely exceeded their stated 100 mph maximum – most observers agree that the occasional 115 mph may well have been achieved
So what makes the Deltic special? The looks and the colours of the prototype; the sheer bulk of the production versions. The impact of these huge engines pulling expresses at a steady 100mph for mile after mile. The rarity – only 22, compared to 200 Class 40s and over 500 Brush Class 47 diesels. But most of all, the noise. Ah, the noise. Compare the noise of any other British diesel to a Deltic and you’ll get it. It’s like comparing a bus to a racing car. The former is slow, steady and chugs along.
But the Deltic spins frantically, emitting huge clouds of black smoke as the engine starts up (a recurring problem caused by oil build up in the exhausts, and source of more than one fire) and settles in a fast, frantic idle; then, the second engine starts (this beast is twin engined, remember), and it all happens again. In the cavernous stations at King’s Cross, York, Newcastle Central and Edinburgh Waverley, an idling Deltic drowned any PA system, and a departing one would seemingly be audible for minutes.
Shutting down the engine was no less dramatic, as the complex gearing around six crankshafts rattled to a stop. Growing up just 100 yards from the ECML, two miles from Wakefield station on the London – Leeds line, we always knew when a train was Deltic hauled minutes before it passed between the houses across the road, and the noise had a direct line of sight to our house.
The Deltics needed specialist maintenance, because of the complexity of the unique engine design, with dedicated maintenance teams, pushing up their running costs. This was the weakness of Fiennes’ plan – reliance on a small, complex and expensive fleet for the key services. BR standardisation was truly in full flow by the mid-1970s, and the Deltics (and the Western Region diesel hydraulics) were identified as non-standard and expensive, and there was no talk of the any of the BR Regions going alone.
From 1976, the HST Inter City 125 (or High Speed Train – two diesel electric power cars sandwiching 8 or 9 new Mark 3 coaches) began to supplant the Deltics on the East Coast, with another big acceleration to exploit their 125mph capability on existing infrastructure – London- Edinburgh came down to 4 ½ hours. The HST was the fastest diesel train in the world. (Another CC is due, to mark it’s 40 years of frontline express service. And still the fastest diesel train in the world.) But, without Fiennes’ vision and determination, it is conceivable that BR would have limped through the 1960s with expresses struggling to improve on steam times, with no long distance express business for the HSTs to take over.
So the Deltics were relegated to second tier duties – semi-fast trains between London and York were a favourite – and to other routes. But a Deltic on a cross country train that ran on the slow lines and never got over 70mph was a sad sight – like a thoroughbred limping round a muddy field.
Six of the 22 production Deltics are now preserved (by far the highest percentage for a British locomotive class) plus the prototype, which went to the Science Museum in London as soon as Fiennes had ordered his fleet. Seven out of 23 rivals the eight out of 25 Union Pacific Big Boys. Four Deltics are active in the mainline charter and excursion market, and King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry has a key slot in Britain’s National Railway Museum.
But the Deltics’ real home was at the head of a fast express and, at their peak, in the mid-1970s, thundering across the Vale of York at 100mph on the Flying Scotsman, accelerating a heavy train through the tunnels outside London King’s Cross, crossing the great bridges over the Tyne at Newcastle or across the great viaducts of northern England, there was nothing to touch them for power and presence in passenger train service in the world.
There still isn’t.
Related reading: Union Pacific EMD E9: The Last of the Classic Diesel Streamliners
Very interesting and enjoyable article – perfect balance of photos and text. The Deltic opposed engine is a fascinating design.
Would just note the Alco 855 Century series from 1964 with 5500 hp was the most powerful diesel electric at the time, though only three were built and it was not considered commercially sucessful.
The Alco 855, like the 6600hp EMD DDA40X Centennial, was twin-engined, & thus not directly comparable to the Deltic. As usual, power-hungry Union Pacific operated them.
FWIW, the Deltic is twin engined too.
But the reality is that the operating conditions and maintenance expectations were very different for this engine and the typical American diesel locomotive. Comparing the two is like comparing a Jaguar from that time to a slant six Valiant. Or something like that.
I missed that the Deltic was a twin, thanks. The nearest American counterpart to the Jumo prime mover was by Fairbanks-Morse, which was used by US fleet subs & was introduced into the locomotive market after WW2. Another failed EMD competitor. I heard one of EMD’s strengths back then was customer service.
BTW, the Brits used the Leyland version of the Jumo to power the Chieftain MBT, which proved to be the weak point in an otherwise good design. Britain seems to have had trouble finding worthy successors to the Rolls-Royce Meteor, a derated Merlin which powered late wartime Cruiser tanks. It seems the Germans have the best modern tank engine, in the MTU MB 873; the M1A1 also develops 1500bhp but is thirstier; no wonder the Leopard has more export wins. Perhaps it’s telling that the M1 is popular primarily among oil-exporting countries.
I remember standing next to these on the platform at Edinburgh Waverley as they sat idling. Even at tickover the noise and vibration was tremendous. They inspired awe and a certain amount of terror in a small schoolboy! A Deltic leaving the platform was always an event: the whole of Waverley Station echoed with the thunderous waves of noise. Absolutely unforgettable.
Most impressive. Beautifully styled, too.
Roger, thank you for covering this absolute work of art. The video at the end, showing the train from a distance, required three views – and likely more later.
It’s encouraging to hear the survival rate of these is so high. The story I hear about the UP Big Boy I have seen (and reported on) in St. Louis is UP found them to be a bother and didn’t comprehend why anybody would want to keep them for posterity. Kudos to those who had the foresight to preserve the Deltic.
I’m not normally a train fan, but pieces like this are converting me!
There’s plenty more great Deltic film on YouTube – hard part was selecting just 1 clip.
Glad you liked the piece
That sound was fantastic!
Thanks Jason.
I think the border between England and Scotland.
Big Paws may be able to confirm
Articles like these are CC at its finest: I learn something on a subject that I know virtually nothing about, and the writing makes it fascinating. Very well done.
Damn, it wasn’t just in the automotive field that the Brits had a difficult time of consolidating. Individual fiefdoms die hard.
Please, don’t ask about consolidating the aerospace fiefdoms….
Good story of an impressive beast, Roger. However, let me wear my Carmine hat and defend GM’s “problematic” SD45. Over a thousand of them were made and they lasted in front-line service into the late 1980s with Santa Fe and Southern Pacific. They had some issues with “soft crankshafts” that were stressed by the unorthodox V-20 configuration. The SD45 could only be considered unreliable in contrast to the anvil-like V-16 SD40 series, which eventually outsold it.
I would be interested to know why GM didn’t sell its diesels in the UK in the ’50s-’60s. They had a 20-year head start at that point. The Australians bought a lot of GMs that look almost like American products, as with their cars.
EMD & GE did sell some Diesels to Ireland (Ulster?) at least, as I recall from the 2nd Diesel Spotter’s Guide. But true, the UK was not a major customer. Bear in mind, although Britain has the same gauge, it has smaller rolling stock, probably because of tighter clearances in old bridges & tunnels, etc.
The writer’s comparison with the EMD E-series is a bit unfair, as it neglects to mention different American customer practice & priorities which may have affected overseas marketing as well: US profit-driven railroads evidently were willing to live with less single-unit HP (compensating by using redundant multiple-unit lashups), in exchange for higher MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure); Alco’s 4-stroke 244, for example, was more powerful than EMD’s 567-series counterparts, but was less reliable, & lost market share. When Krauss-Maffei sent some Diesel-Hydraulic demonstraters to the States during the ’60s, their field engineers were reportedly horrified at how rarely American locomotires got shop service compared to Europe. Whatever the reason, they were a flop & Diesel-Electric still rules.
An outlier, however, was UP, who not only closed out the steam era with massive examples like the Challenger & Big Boy, but during the ’50s & ’60s tried GE gas turbines to maximize single-unit power, and with EMD conducted turbocharging experiments (higher maintenance costs) on its Diesel roadswitchers, resulting in the GP20. But even today, with major increases in single-unit power, you still see multiple-units as a rule on long-distance freight trains. It’s the American Way.
P.S. I looked it up & found out why those fuel-hogging 8500hp turbines were practical: lower-grade fuel oil (which like biodiesel, needs to be kept warm) was cheap until the late ’60s when the petrochemical industry found ways to refine it into more useful grades & competition for it (& thus prices) rose.
Article on these monsters:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Pacific_GTELs
Yes, as I noted above, comparing the Deltic to a typical American diesel of the time is like comparing a Jaguar of the time to a slant six Valiant. Very different expectations of maintenance and time-in-service.
The Fairbanks-Morse H-24-66 Trainmaster was a ’50s high-horsepower model which failed in the US marketplace. The 3500hp Krauss-Maffei ML-4000 from the ’60s, though according to Wikipedia was reliable, were found unsatisfactory by SP & Rio Grande in their mountainous routes, no reasons given.
I now realize that railfan magazines were not very specific in their tech assessments of historic locomotives.
The highlights of my 58 years of railfanning are:
1. Seeing a UP Turbine just before they got rid of them. I was so pissed when my dad wouldn’t pace it.
2. Riding in a DD40AX between Vegas and “Cima Hill”, and back to Vegas in an SD-40. Later on, I rode in the same DD40AX between Vegas and someplace in the middle of nowhere, and riding back in a seriously messed up SD-45 that had alarm bells going off the entire trip.
3. Riding in, and going into the back of a Penn Central F unit.
4. Riding in, and going into the back of a Penn Central E unit.
5. Riding in a Toledo Terminal RR Alco S2.
6. Riding in a brand new Conrail SD-80MAC. Sometimes, it’s good to watch trains in the middle of the night!
7. Getting a ride in a CSX AC6000, back when they were really 6000 HP.
8. Seeing an amazingly long string of steam engines going to scrap in about April of 1960.
9. Riding to Washington, DC in 1968, and hitting a pickup truck. It exploded in a huge fireball. The driver was killed, and the lead loco couldn’t hold air, so a replacement had to be brought in. We spent several hours sitting outside at the Willard, Ohio station waiting for it to show up.
10. Sitting near the summit of Cima, and a UP SD-40 blew up about a hundred feet from us.
Lowlight:
Calling the NS police in Philadelphia (I guess they inherited it from Conrail), and the guy on the other end getting everything I told him about a locomotive being on fire completely wrong. Twice. The local NS police got a big laugh out of the calls, I’ve been told. Those two calls were probably the most bizarre calls I’ve ever made. It was like the guy on the other end spoke English, but the words meant something different. How he messed up the info I gave him, (Milepost, lead unit number, direction, and which track he was on, and what was happening (Traction motor wiring was arcing) both times is puzzling and if I was his managers, I would have insisted on a drug test, something was seriously wrong with him.
I just learned here that EMD finally got a British order for a mainline locomotive, the SD40-2 based Class 59, with car body to suit British practice:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_59
Class 66 was a follow-up. This has been adopted in Continental Europe as well.
Because it was politically unacceptable for British Railwas to buy non British products.
Interesting Opinion. The Sulzer 12LDA engine used in classes 44-47 was a British build of a licenced Swiss engine. Most of the Great Western’s Diesels owe their heritage to the Germans! All British built, but heavily influenced by the likes of Krauss-Maffei.
It was (and remained until privatisation in 1997) politically impossible to buy complete locomotives from outside the UK, as in the 1950s the government(s) wanted to support British loco builders. From the 1970s onwards, the unions were so powerful they would have stopped it. Indeed, BR wanted to buy a version of the GM SD40 in the 1980s, (class 59) but were forced to buy British (Class 60) – and the locos were plaqued with troubles (although very good when they worked).
The truth behind the Class 60 procurement was rather more prosaic. BR issued a specification largely based on the Class 59 specifications. There were two bids, one from GEC which would have been a licence-built GM/EMD design and the other from Brush, but the GEC/EMD design didn’t comply with all the specifications while Brush did. Both designs would have been British built.
Thanks again for another great read Roger.I used to see these as a kid in 60s and 70s Britain.The arrival of affordable cars meant the kiss of death for the railways from Dr Beeching.We didn’t have a perfect railway system but it was very good
Great article. I’ll second Syke – this (and Gremlins and Volvos and Australian or Argentinian parallel universes) is why CC is first on my daily reading list. (Oh, plus brown, diesel, manual wagons with good visibility…)
Seriously though, I’ve been working in the rail industry for a number of years now, and have found that, more than in any other industry, rail people love their jobs. Probably half of them have model trains in their basements, and just as many take vacations to go watch trains. (Google “foamer”. )
I’m not a fan of British/European aesthetics for the most part, but this article was a joy to read for this rail enthusiast.
That triangular engine really intrigues me, and I’m going to study that a bit further when at home over the weekend.
CC at it’s finest, indeed!
I’m a hardcore railroad enthusiast but… British (and European) outline railroad equipment is just plain UGLY IMHO. Gawdawful ugly. Rolling mudfence ugly. Too effeminate, too dainty. Give me an SD70MAC or a GEVO or a classic six axle Alco Century any time.
Roger, how about Russian stuff? See below…
Cool stuff!
Kinda looks like a gigantic caterpillar, but, as they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Even though I`m somewhat of a US rail fan, gotta love the Deltic.Incredible design, light years ahead of anything else on the rails of that era. I once had a HO model version with some British passenger cars to go with it. Looked good on my `50s set HO layout,a nice contrast to American trains I would run on it.
Thanks for this in-depth look at a locomotive I was somewhat familiar with, but not in great detail. I watched some of the other youtube videos of the engines starting and idling, and taking off, and it does have a very distinctive sound. I can see how folks came to feel so intensely about it.
Thanks Paul, and I like the idea of this being like a Jaguar to Valiant
The F-B failed in the US but its copy is alive and well in Russia in the TE locomotives darkening the skies of the Siberian outback regularly. Those also run as multiple units with up to app. 9000hp but remain coupled at all times and are considered as a single unit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TE10
and yes the Deltic is impressive but the Russian monsters have their own brutish charm. If the Deltic is a Jag, the TE is a ZIL I suppose. see here:
Who said being a Rail Fan is boring ? .
GREAT article , thank you .
-Nate
I’m not a rail fan at all but the similarity to the diesel electric setup on our past submarines makes me read all of these. The napier reminds me of the fairbanks morse boat engines and the deltic is just a “why not” moment for me. Pretty smart.
A great article Roger. And a truly magnificent beast…
Wow thanks for sharing! Ive read about deltic engines on Wikipedia, so I was aware of their existence. Never knew they were from the U.K. Im not much of a train guy, per se…but I do appreciate anything powerful and cool looking. Which means Im learning to like them a lot more. I will say that’s probably the sexiest sound Ive heard coming from ANYTHING on rails! The buzzing roar reminds me a lot of a Detroit diesel.
Very nice article.
I know just enough about British trains to be dangerous, but the Deltic is the one loco I can identify easily.
From an American perspective, they look massive until you spot the crew in the cab, and then suddenly the loco shrinks about 10%
The Napier Deltic did make it to the U.S., not as a locomotive prime mover but has one heck of a fire pump:
http://www.ptfnasty.com/ptfsuperpumper.htm
U.S. locomotive builder Fairbanks-Morse built a number of diesel-electric locomotives using an opposed-piston diesel similar to the Junkers Jumo. Though the Fairbanks was a successful marine diesel (U.S. Navy submarines for one) in locomotive service they turned out to be a bit maintenance-intense. Being difficult to work on made matters worse, but some railroads made good use of them. Southern Pacific used 2,400 h.p. F-M Trainmasters in Bay Area commuter service for many years.
U.S. railroads were largely dieselized with EMD products. Though seldom the most powerful, EMD’s were extremely reliable and tolerated abuse and neglect far better than competitive locomotives.
Bob, the Russian TEs I posted on above are copies of the F-M and there are hundreds if not thousands of them, thrashed to within an inch of their lives. I think the problem with F-M was that it was not as big as GM without the budget to push its products as much…
It’s pretty impressive that GM upstaged the rest of the locomotive industry so well. Alco, Baldwin, Lima were all experienced builders, but none were equal to the upstart in the Diesel biz. Even GE was no newcomer, having supplied components for the earliest Diesel-electrics in the ’20s & having built industrial switchers for years, but were slow to respond in kind until they “divorced” Alco & threw down the gauntlet with the U25 in the ’60s.
It seems like this presaged what the Japanese did to the US car industry later.
GE locos were kind of a “Well, we will buy 50 of them, just to keep GE in business, and to keep EMD homest”, and it continued until the early 80’s when GE decided to truly go to war with EMD, who stumbled with the awful 50 series , which had engine and electrical “new car” bugs to iron out. The Dash-8’s were just better than the 50’s and at least equal to the 60 series, which were pretty decent. A friend’s dad who worked for NYC/PC/Conrail HATED GE locos with their slow loading and in some cases rough ride. One of the things that shocked me about the GE rise is that previously to the Dash-8’s, no locomotive ever had any sort of warranty! GE stuck the knife in further with the “warranty protection units” that were free to use when a covered loco went down, and cost the RR the normal lease rate when used normally. EMD has struggled ever since, and them being sold twice hasn’t helped them any.
” Rail had been nationalised in 1947 as part of the great post war transformation of Britain under the hugely influential Labour government of Prime Minister Clement Attlee, ”
Quote
Britain was bankrupt after the war ended, and the Labour government the population elected destroyed any chance of the long-term recovery it deserved.
I remember ride on these,great wright up ..loved it
I have a memory of spitting onto those GM diesels in New York Central livery while they idled under a bridge, and watching the spit boil off the top.
… and putting coins on the tracks before the train arrived? We used to do this as kids in Israel, somewhere I had a few flattened Israeli Agorot (=Cents) but my mom threw all my stuff out years ago.
I learned something from this article – thanks!
The engine is fascinating.
And the sound – FANTASTIC – I’m glad you attached the video. I watched it a bunch of times.
I’ve always been kind of interested in trains, especially the late steam and early diesel streamliners. These Deltics definitely belong to that group, with a brawny charm all their own. Plus those engines are pretty incredible! I never knew such a beast existed.
When I was trainspotting in the early ’70s I well remember going to the Cross (Kings Cross station, London) to experience the Deltic rumble. The platform literally vibrated underfoot as these beasts stood there, even when idling. There’s a lovely throb to the sound as the two engines slip into and out of synch.
The Pathe film has some interesting old footage, but it was amusing to hear them talking about 27000 (at 1:55) as a new diesel when it clearly has a big electric pantograph on the roof!
Deltics at the Cross – happy days!
Those Napier deltic engines also saw service in Vietnam war era U.S fast patrol boats. I’m not sure how that worked out as they were basically sealed engines that had to be returned to the manufacturer for reconditioning (every 1000 hours or so..they were a highly strung engine”
Dare I say, trust the British to look at the Junkers Jumo design and think “This needs to be more complex.” 🙂
Move complex yet in some ways a brilliant idea. The opposed piston engine is a pretty good design but one handicap is the two crankshafts. The deltic has three banks of cylinders and only 3 crankshafts vs one bank of cylinders and two crankshafts. I believe they even did some turbo compound engines with this layout.
VERY interesting article. The animation of the Deltic engine shows the upper right crankshaft rotating clockwise while the other two rotate counterclockwise, which couldn’t be arbitrary. Is there a reason for the different senses of rotation?
3000 hp locomotive was indeed very powerful in 1961. But by 1962, German had introduced V320 diesel hydraulic drive locomotive with 3800 hp, which later export to China and Egypt. In China, they are famous NY5, NY6 and NY7. They performed very well in China, the last two NY6 used for VIP services were put into service in 1969 and retired in early 2000. NY7 put in service had close 5000 hp making it one of most powerful locomotives then. Track test in German showed NY5 easily achieved 200 kmh, In China railways, it was routinely running 120 kmh with passenger services.
Well written article. I came of age in Edinburgh just as the Deltics were running their last miles in 1980 and 81 and made an extensive B&W record of those days. As the article says they had an enormous presence, as near to being alive as it’s possible for a machine to be. Thanks to Covid I’ve finally got round to scanning the negatives and they may be of interest.
https://flickr.com/photos/Iain_Flynn
Some great shots there Iain!
What does IE68 mean?
What is the number of this locomotive D9xxx ?
An emblem with the number “animal on the crown”?