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skipepsi
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My first memory was at the Cross in 77, I was fairly new as an enthusiast, I heard it's engines and was forever hooked.

 

Oddest place to see a Deltic in service - centre road Stockport station at 00:30 having come off a York-Cardiff parcels train, I was on my way to London on an overnight service for a spot of train watching in London. Apparently this was quite a common sight.

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Waverley 1973 - standing next to Meld when it took off with the junior Scotsman and a rake of Mark 1s. The noise on the ears was bordering on painful and the platform absolutely vibrated. Driver was definitely heading for an early louse.

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Hi folks,

 

Fascinating thread this.

 

My love of Deltics probably started for real when I was returning from Retford to York one bonfire night in 1981 (I think) on a semi-fast to York. At the front was Pinza. A quick cab visit and a chat with the friendly driver at Retford was followed by an offer of a cab ride as far as Doncaster (where an inspector was due to get on!). I'll never forget travelling in the leading coach after I had moved back to the "cushions", listening to Pinza pounding through the night with fireworks being set off all around.

 

After that I was hooked, but unfortunately they didn't have long left on the main line by then of course. I never got to see either Nimbus or St. Paddy. :(

 

Many locos sound pretty good as they are opened up, but there is something really special about the sound of a Deltic opening up that goes right through your body. Brilliant stuff.

 

Cheers,

Dave

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  1. first encounter was at the over bridger at retford approx 8 yrs old my dad saying looks theres a deltic i remember the defening scream as it shot past and the driver blowing the horn as we waved....do the drivers do that anymore??? must have been approx 1977 or so...wonderfull bit of engeneering!!!

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I have a very vague memory of the prototype outside Euston when I was very young, but being a Sarf Lunnoner my only routine encounters were at KX in the late 60s.

 

Here is D9002 KOYLI in blue leaving on 18 March 1967

 

post-6669-0-19254000-1333466793.jpg

 

D9011 Royal Northumberland Fusiliers stabled on Finsbury Park, 1 April 1967

 

post-6669-0-83152200-1333466789.jpg

 

And D9018 Ballymoss at KX

 

post-6669-0-16614300-1333466798.jpg

 

I don't know when the last shot was taken - I saw Ballymoss loads of times during the period of my only surviving notebook between October 1966 and December 1967, but I can't pair it with D272 alongside. However, comparison with other labelled photos printed on similar paper and size would suggest summer 1968.

 

Unfortunately the only time I've travelled behind one was on the SVR about 20 years ago, but I can still feel my chest throbbing as it ran round our train at Kidderminster.

Edited by 10800
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Rod, nice photos! Any idea where at KX the second shot is; I can't place the single road buffer stop.

 

Rob, nice to see you posting that superb photo on here - the new time absorber of your life with the old girl that took quite a bit of it previously (and still will I guess) ;)

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I knew Deltics from a young age as they were the mythical beast that we watched speeding through our village sometimes with dad on board.

I remember where I saw my last one, Ballymoss. Running into Platform 1 at Doncaster as was waiting to go to Bramall Lane.

As some of you may have seen on the yahoo forum I am in the process of transferring dads diaries to computer and have obviously started with Deltics. I will post on here for those interested when I have finished which should be by the end of the Easter holidays.

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Rod, nice photos! Any idea where at KX the second shot is; I can't place the single road buffer stop.

 

Rob, nice to see you posting that superb photo on here - the new time absorber of your life with the old girl that took quite a bit of it previously (and still will I guess) ;)

 

Jon

 

The old girl will be taking plenty of my time, as soon as get my knee sorted! We've got 2 tours to get her ready for and of course not forgetting Gordon!! ;)

 

Rob

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  • 2 weeks later...

My first memory was at the Cross in 77, I was fairly new as an enthusiast, I heard it's engines and was forever hooked.

 

Oddest place to see a Deltic in service - centre road Stockport station at 00:30 having come off a York-Cardiff parcels train, I was on my way to London on an overnight service for a spot of train watching in London.  Apparently this was quite a common sight.

 

used to be very common used to sit up and listen for it heading to stalybridge if it had a deltic would phone the signalman at diggle for the number next morning on the way to school also got to see them regulaly whilst a box lad at heaton norris working the york mails from stockport after a traction change .my first encounter was on my first days train spotting when my brother dragged me to york for a days number snatching in 77 .best day was coming back from york to manchester with meld on the front had briefly chatted with the driver at york told us to look out at huddersfield whereupon he invited us to cabride from there to stalybridge extacy !got a pic somwhere of koyli on her last service trip over the penines the thursday before the last day at stalybridge (that weekend railtour engine always did a york -liverpool - york run on the thursday before )think im gonna have to digging for those pics aswell .many an english lesson would be interupted by all the train spotters trying to sureptisiosly crane there necks to see the return working on saddleworth viaduct with out mr cheshire catching us lol

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I remember seeing the first DP1 on the WCML through Litchfield Trent Valley, pulling the mid day Scot, it was a great sight, but I'm afraid it was no comparison to seeing a Semi doing the same

 

I remember seeing the first DP1 on the WCML through Litchfield Trent Valley, pulling the mid day Scot, it was a great sight, but I'm afraid it was no comparison to seeing a Semi doing the same

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Just found my diary for 1962 when working at Vulcan Foundry, the one about Deltic being taken to pieces, was when it was being prepared for its journey to the Science Museum in London, and RR 1312 was a loco for Rhodesia Railways. Started in 1961,( the day D345 left the works,) from school, always deltics leaving and returning up to D9021 leaving in 1962. Never finished my apprenticeship (never finished anything in life ) left to join BR in 1964 when the works were full of returned baby deltics and building AL6 electrics. A fascinating time, so long ago,sorry for boring you young uns'

 

 

post-6977-0-11610900-1338225884.jpgpost-6977-0-80050800-1338225900.jpg

 

Tom

Edited by Thomas
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My 1st close up encounter with The Deltics was when id heard about their appearances at Dundee Tay Bridge station around about 2 pm when the local DMU going the opposite way arrived.One day of the summer holidays i went and boarded the local class 101 dmu at Balmossie Halt into Dundee.

Half way through Dock St tunnel you could feel a vibration and a buzz in the air and as the unit squealed past the Restricted clearance semaphores and Dundee East signalbox i glimpsed this gigantic yellow nose with white cab windows on the opposite line!.I jumped off the unit and bolted towards platform 4!The whole building was shaking and dozens of people(not just enthusiasts) were admiring this monster.The driver let me see the cab from the open door while enthusiasts "brass rubbed" the nameplate!The guards whistle blew and the steady roar got louder and louder as twin plumes of exhaust crashed against the tunnel.The loco was PINZA and that was it- i was hooked!!

The rest of holiday i spent many a day at the end of platform 4 hoping for another Deltic and thankfully saw many of them !

This memory is equalled by getting to "cab a Deltic" at Dundee and getting to sit with the driver for ages as it awaited its 9am departure time

Other memories that stick out is seeing 55 002 in green power through Broughty Ferry and 55 008 roaring loudly through the same location looking really mean with its domino headcode!!.Wonderful memories !!!

ps Tay Bridge- i used to go to Monifieth High in 1981 and also used to listen out for any Deltics heading north!!!

Edited by MRDEEDIESEL
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  • 3 weeks later...

My Deltic memories go back to a rainy evening at Doncaster station in late summer 1973 and my first known sighting when 9010 'The King's Own Scottish Borderer' rolled magnificently in. I'd already acquired a knowledge of Deltics thanks to a fellow schoolboy who'd pressed an Ian Allan "Combined Volume" into my hand. Little did he know that, in showing me the page on Class 55, like some sleezy drug pusher, he'd stirred something in me that would see me totally addicted to this elite, glamorous class of locos - an addiction that remains to this day.

 

A few memories. My first visit to London and therefore to King's Cross in November 1973, when Dad had taken me on a day 'Merrymaker' excursion from Pontefract. We were Peak hauled into St Pancras but before catching the return home, we visited The Mecca. As I hurried up the steps from the KX underground for that very first time, I remember the concourse was quiet as I excitedly crossed to see what might be found at the buffers. Fairly quiet there too but standing, engines silent at the platform 4 'stops' was 9007 'Pinza'. Finding our way to the country end of platform 10, we had a view of the King's Cross loco inspection point. Here, two more of the enormous Napier engined beauties were parked buffer to buffer with a third nearby and I recall my panic at being unable, in the darkness, to read their numbers - the first time I found I was shortsighted. Dad's much older eyes told me they were 9004 'Queen's Own Highlander' and shedmate 9021 'Argyll & Sutherland Highlander" with 9020 "Nimbus" adjacent. These were some of the very first Deltics I ever saw, and such a highly developed sense of nostalgia and sentimentality do I possess, I still summon up that same electrical tingle of excitement in the stomach when I think about that first visit to 'The Cross' or even when, today, I alight from an underground train at King's Cross St.Pancras as me and Dad had done all those years ago.

 

Another. One freezing Saturday night I think, in 1979, I had word that engineers had possession of the ECML route through Selby and that traffic would be diverted through my home town Knottingley. I arranged to stay at my Nanna's house which overlooked the Doncaster line near Knottingley South Jn. Rather than sit upstairs as I would normally with a view of the lines from her cold front bedroom, I decided to walk down the approach road into Knottingley depot which was right by the trackside to get a bit closer to the action. But was there to be any action? I began to wonder as, by 11pm, I'd seen nothing to suggest any East Coast traffic was being sent through. Picture me there that night, a sixteen year old standing in the shadows by Knottingley depot, worried that some car entering or leaving the depot would pull up and the driver tell me to clear off out of it, staring into the gloom as the snow fell heavily to give that special kind of silence you only really hear when snow lies thick. Then from the south, faintly at first and after fading and coming back now stronger, yes, there it was. Even though the northbound signal, not twenty five yards from where i stood remained its usual red, there was the unmistakable sound, that throbbing mixture of drone, hum and rumble and my favourite sound of all. It was almost shocking that on this most silent of snowy nights, the peace was being shattered on this lonely backwater line - my very own hometown backwater line - by a Deltic. Incredibly, memorably, instead of passing by on the groaning tracks at 20mph, the twin yellow headcode 'eyes' and the amazing, curvaceous bodyside came to rest rest right in front of me, halted at the signal. The din of a Deltic with that inviting yellow glow from the clearly illuminated engine room cutting through the still blackness of this December night was extraordinary. After standing maybe 30 seconds and allowing a crew member to jump down and trot across into the Knottingley messroom, 55021 'Argyll & Sutherland Highlander' got 1S60 the 20.00 King's Cross- Edinburgh, sleeping cars within the consist, underway again towards Ferrybridge Curve, York and beyond.

 

A recent memory - from only last Saturday June 23rd actually - is from timing 55022 'Royal Scots Grey". I watched as the readout on two side by side GPSs climbed past 99 onto 100 mph as we streaked across the Somerset Levels with no less that 520 tons in tow. With power unwaveringly on, we passed Taunton at 95 and tore into Whiteball, going over the summit at 68. Then descending towards Exeter somewere near Cullompton and doing 103mph, she was throttled back for the first time since Bedminster, Bristol and, with almost 40 years of loving Deltics under my belt, all seemed well with the world.

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  • 2 months later...

My first sight of a Deltic was at Chester le Street in the summer of 1961. It was D9009 Alycidon heading north. It was preceded by 60027 Merlin on the Elizabethan and follwed by 60008 Dwight D Eisenhower on the Flying Scotsman. We cycled there from South Shields, do kids still do that these days?

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I was lucky enough to have worked on the Deltics in service as a secondman at KX from 1976 till 78. Look on the protoype discussions forum for the thread marked "fastest Deltics" to see one of my record-breaking runs actually timed by someone I thought I would never hear from again!

 

114mph for some considerable distance! Not bad eh?

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Sometime towards the end of 1966 at the tender age of ten I made one of my first spotting trips outside of the Nottingham area. This started at Nottingham Victoria (by then a virtual ghost station) and my destination was Grantham. As I got off the DMU at Grantham my first encounter with a Deltic occurred as I was confronted with D9017 The Durham Light Infantry powering through the station at linespeed with a northbound express. It was an experience I can still remember vividly today.

 

55017_1976_05_Retford

 

In April 1972 the last episode of a week’s Freedom of Scotland Railrover was a visit to Haymarket depot before catching an express south to York and then on to Nottingham. There were three of us, my mate Phil and I (16 years old) and our “leader” Ray who was a lot older and worked for BR. We had our bags with us and Ray arranged with the shed foreman to leave our bags in his office and he got a driver to take us round the shed. Turned out that the driver was to work our train south later in the day and the engine for the train was standing in the yard, 9019 Royal Highland Fusilier. Outcome of the chat with the driver as walked round the shed was a cab ride on 9019 from depot into Waverly station

 

55019_1979_04_Kings_Cross

 

 

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My first Deltic - 9002 Doncaster to York sometime in late '72.

 

What really gets me though is the fact that my other half (in her yoof) lived in flats overlooking Ferme Park CS just outside KX and didn't even know what a Deltic was !

 

Oh for a time machine..............

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  • 4 months later...

Hi

 

Can't provide photos as I didn't get custody of them :nono: (not that I am bitter.....)

However

 

My memories are from 1980 on when we used to listen from Monifieth High School to see what was passing Monifieth heading to Aberdeen ex Kings Cross. (While studying hard of course.....) The distinct Deltic sound led to a swift bus journey/car to Dundee Tay Bridge.to get photos/haulage. My personal favourite following a cab ride was 55 002 when in two tone green guise. I was on my own that day too! I remember some long faces when I got off at Dundee :sungum:

My best mate from those days,Ken Joy went on to buy a few locos through Diesel Group at Brechin including 27 024 etc.

We were a great crowd at Dundee then but time has fogged the memory re names. If you were there drop me a line!

I remember some Nestle Chocolate eating.......you will know if you were there! :angel:

Great Deltic days indeed!

I think I was one of the envious ones stood on the platform that day!

Cheers

Mark

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My first Deltic - 9002 Doncaster to York sometime in late '72.

 

What really gets me though is the fact that my other half (in her yoof) lived in flats overlooking Ferme Park CS just outside KX and didn't even know what a Deltic was !

 

Oh for a time machine..............

...........and my most recent Deltic ?

 

A Heljan model (to be 9002), Loksound decoder and a 'proper' speaker.

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