I'm probably going to take a lot of flack for this, but I fail to see the appeal of these old Deltic Locomotives. They run rich, they pulsate, and they throw plumes of smoke. If the US had locomotives like the Deltics, the USEPA would be imposing multi-million fines upon the Owners of the Class-1 Railroads.
Maybe because they are a reminder of a different era. Old radial energies have a similar following. They sound like Harley-Davidson motorcycles and spit out clouds of smoke when they start up.
Starting to understand why these locos are so problematic ! Extremely sensitive computer controlled systems but on engine start up all the electrics bomb 😂
The best thing to do in this case is to rev up the engine. The non -firing cylinders are suffering terribly of the totally wet cilinder walls, and the few that did fire are working at a very high fuelling to keep the engine at the set speed. The cilinders start firing once the required end compression temperature is reached. Rather than waiting for the engine to warm up it is better to rev the engine up, the boost pressure increases the end compression temperature and will make them alive, also releasing the other cylinders of the very high fuelling hence the terrible knocking sound.
Injecting more fuel into, the non firing cylinders will make it worse. And could cause it to throw a rod. That has happened elsewhere. These engines are big. The whole issue could have been solved if it was started daily to keep the coolant temp at least warm and the block warm. It had flat batteries, it had electrical issues with the oil priming cb tripping due to moisture. This loco had high engine hours , hence used as a pilot engine only. You can't rev up an engine if you have only three of the eight cylinders firing, it wont pick up revs. The pistons are 30 cm in diameter
It made me cry working on it. Got called to it on a Sunday afternoon, a 300 mile round trip to get it going because no one thought about running it once a day to keep the engine warm . My blowlamp run out of gas trying to warm up inlet air lol. It a big 8 cylinder Mirrlees
Great locos to drive if you knew how to anticipate the wheelslip. Quieter than a 56 but just as good,if not marginally better. Withdrawn far to soon for political reasons.
Don't you just love the way the 58 accelerated quicker than the HST! Miss driving these superb locos. Withdrawn far to soon, & for no reason whatsoever other than politics within the rail industry. But, here we are in 2021, & 30 locos 'might' be heading back home!
And now it's all gone. Shameful. Bloody tree huggers and EU Directives are responsible, at least we know who to blame when the inevitable power cuts accompany the next hard winter. 😡😡😡
Nothing lasts forever. A plant that is 35% efficient at best cannot compete with more modern technology. Sad as it was to see it and many others close; things move on, and it was simply uneconomical to keep it running.
Just after the Chanel tunnel was completed there were plans to run trains direct from Manchester to Paris via the WCML. This is one of the test runs they made before scraping the route. They also built a depot long enough by store and service the 373 in Manchester which stands as a CAF depot for Northern now. Press history on this page to read about it en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_International_Depot
