My future wife had learnt about my 55-year infatuation with the triangular engines and this tour was her initiation to that Deltic din, always at its best when leaving "The Cross", enhanced by the tunnels, the blue fog in the front carriage and the smell of burning oil. We were on that tour stood in the very same vestibule as yourself hanging out of the opposite window while you were filming, and oh! how magnificent it all was. Thank you Rob for posting this and allowing us to re-live the best bit of that memorable day.
I remember the deltic very well. Used to live next to the east coast mainline and always knew when a deltic was coming because I could hear screaming as she left the station 3 miles away.
i guess Im randomly asking but does anybody know a trick to log back into an instagram account?? I somehow forgot the password. I would love any tips you can give me.
@Stefan Cade I really appreciate your reply. I found the site through google and im in the hacking process atm. Takes quite some time so I will reply here later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
....magic!! Window hanged behind No7 from Berwick to Waverley in 81', arrived with face covered in soot/oil/flies!!!...happy days! They will never be beaten.
The noise, reminds me of school summer holidays going from Doncaster to Newcastle to see relatives in the early sixties. Lovely green loco with maroon Mk1 stock with coach vent widows open on a hot day, you could hear the engine din halfway down the train. Halcyon days. Then came corporate blue everything..... ugh! Sorry you blue era chaps but those deep sides of the Deltic, all blue without a lower lighter colour band, to my eyes turned a racehorse into a cart horse. As to some of today's TOC liveries, no comment!
My dad was a BR TCS at Tonbidge in Kent , I have great memories of Deltics and the thunderous noise they made. I loved being in them back in the 70’s. I’m 53 now…. Miss you dad.
I can remember 1981 .A Deltic went past our house about 10yards from Aberdeen- Kings cross main line 25miles south of Aberdeen.What a sound .never forgotten.
As always these fine engineered locos rarely fail to impress, ahead of their time and sound awesome when they come on song! Pity it was raining in the video but the sound makes up for this! Long may they reign for all to savour the experience.👍
I would take the east coast line regularly in the 1980's from York station. A deltic in York station (with the great echo) was a sound to behold, and 2 of them could stir your coffee for you.
Memories of some great days, including a barmy one when I managed (in service days) to get behind two Deltics, a Western, and a 73 on the same day... Totally stupidity but fun!!!
Lovely, great memories, 1981 we used to open the windows in the first coach to get the smoke in and get rid of the ordinary passengers lol. Train guard used to apeshit. Hanging out of the windows "my lords" ...... Great place to be the cross in that last year. Will never ever forget the last night.
Ive noticed lately that generations younger than me choose to slag Deltics off having never experienced them in BR days.Well I have happy childhood memories of them into teenage years, i.e. I was there.Dont judge what you dont know or what you never experienced I say!
I know you commented 3 years ago, but; I don't much care for the Deltics myself but the big EEs like the class 37s or 40s make me hard enough to cut diamonds!
For example listening to 47 men slagging off 50s and vice versa and 37 men slagging off 47s and vice versa for decades has become extemely tiresome to me.You like or dislike a certain type, who really cares, more so when they go on ,and on, and on about it for years,even decades.Getting old is mandatory, growing up is not in some cases it seems.
I spent my childhood out in the sticks just south of Donny. The ECML was visible perhaps a mile and half away. The eery rising roar as the Deltics powered up heading south out of Donny station was very clearly audible. The 5 minutes or so it took for the train to reach and pass by was an aural fantasy. Many a night I laid there in my bed listening to the tone of the wail change as it began to recede into the southern night. It was a long drawn symphony of slowly rising euphonious noise. You didn't need to see these beasts. They were, and are, the stuff of legend. They could shift too!
Absolutely magic video - I had my childhood dream come true that day and took my Dad too - he got me a cab ride on 55019 back when I was 13 (a moment...) - but out of the Cross and on full chat: utter heaven. There is no sound like it in the world. Thanks to all at Spitfire & the RSG crew, especially Martin Walker - and please let's do it all again!
Awesome Music To The Ears Conversant to this sound from Leeds cabbing in the mid 70's and getting pulled around the north east and Scotland by these beautiful majestic Engines Napier Deltic Bless you and all who rail and sail with Deltic
Enjoyed this? Type in 'Deltic after Dark: Napier acoustic magic at 100mph'. Sit back and experience a spine-tingling expectancy of what is about to emerge. Once heard, never forgotten.
As a kid going home at weekends KX to Pboro, used to mess up dozens of clean shirts due to hanging out of the window, face in the wind and covered in spitting oil. The dim cab lights were my weakness lol.
With 3300 hp under the mid section produced from two Napier Deltic Two Stroke Opposed Diesel Engines and with a top speed of over 100 mph... Lovely Jubbly... However I used to drive the 43's out of Kings X up the ECML... With 4500 hp under the bonnet ( 2250 hp ) one up front and one up the botty there was plenty of power on tap... Pulling out of the station on notch five with the Paxman Valenta turbo's screaming their little heads off and clouds of exhaust smoke ( sorry Greta Thunberg ) was something to behold with more excitement to enjoy... 125 mph here we come although they would top 148 mph... Now there is food for thought but as I did not fancy tea and biscuits with the Boss well need I say more..
Finally I've found a good video with a good recording of the engines! :), well upto ~4mins anyway ;). (Btw you're not the RW who works in Slyfield are you?)
Yes me too, as you can see from the video it got a little smoky at times, by the time we reached the old Finsbury Part depot site I had had enough. She was really picking up speed then and the rain and wind were making it hard to keep the camera still. I haven't done that since I was a kid!
That is one sexy beast. Don't you just love the clunk of chunky wheels over the points. If only they could come back without the clag, we could get rid of the bland rubbish we have today... sigh.
I'm of the age group just about to miss Deltics in favour of the hallowed HSTs, and as much as the Deltic generation is loyal to its racehorses, I am loyal to my Valenta powered "trams" as many call them. I wonder if I could ask if this is typical for the sort of KX departure of a Deltic as it seemed a little slow to me. I know a HST would beat it, but then it had nearly 20 years and having 2 Type Four Locomotives in the rake, so I don't mean to disrespect the Deltic, but from the few journeys I remember they seemed a fair bit faster than that. Is it a preservation thing or was it only running on one engine??? For me, the ECML will always be associatied with HSTs, much as you will associate it with Deltics and your Dads with A4s and A1s. Sadly, we've all lost out now as it's Japanese imprted rail buses.
@@waynedixon1253 Was on a tour from Didcot to York about 10 years ago behind RSG and we hit 107.4 down Stoke Bank on the return. We then had signal failure on the North London Line and had to return via WCML and Coventry to Didcot. Lots of extra mileage, great! Didn't get back to Didcot until nearly 2 am!
One engine is on full whack between Gasworks and Copenhagen. The other with the exhaust on the camera side winds up in the tunnel and both are screaming as she exits.
Nice noise, always made my spine tingle when they hurtled through Retford full bore, shame about the obligatory 20 hangers on in the back cab whenever this engine ran creating a sea of 🍊 🟧 📙
I read somewhere that replacement parts were very expensive so as a result they received only basic maintenance. Government cuts to british rail in the 80s did not help either, more or less sealed their fate.
Very nautical sounding... they are effectively derated torpedo boat engines, aren't they? On 'combat duty', they had a very short life expectancy at double the output! Bet that sounded sublime.
The trouble is the people today who have a go and these twin engine leviathans have no.clue what it takes to power electric trains where does the power come from not all nuclear i assure you lol
