Baby Deltic

I've certainly seen photo's of them at Peterborough. There is a photo somewhere on Flickr of D5903 (GFYE) passing Peterborough North Signalbox in 1968.

The Baby Deltics weren't a disaster. The reason that there were only ten built may reflect more on BR's dislike of two stroke engines, especially those without cylinder heads. They had a few problems early on due to the power unit and some of the auxilliary drive shafts, but once they were refurbished, they settled down with good reliability figures. They were more than a match for the Brush/Mirrlees class 30's which shared some of their duties. It could be argued that the Brush type 2's were a bigger disaster because BR had to re-engine the entire class.

The sound is won't be quite right. OK, the engine's the real deal, but on a real baby deltic there were whirring sounds caused by the compressors, and traction motor blowers driven directly by the engine. There's a good recording of D5909 at Hitchin in 1959, by Peter Handford on a CD called 'Diesels Through The Decades'.

D5909 made it to Skegness in 1959. It was in the local newspapers.

Indeed. Infact, I should really add another 10 when the unrefurbished variant is released. Gotta have D5909 in BR blue, and do D5908 in GFYE with double arrow symbol for starters.

I think a collection of all 10 would be highly desireable.