For Train Spotters

They have brought a Deltic out of retirement, to haul freight in Northumberland

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHkoaIsaDHc

I'ts not that unusual

That was nearly 14 years ago, I suppose it just goes to show what a good loco the Deltic was

Although UK switched to Diesel traction later than many, at the time of its introduction, the prototype Deltic, was said to be the most powerful Diesel locomotive produced:

unless, of course you know otherwise? ... ...

I'll stick to live steam thankyou but the Deltic did have some nice character feature to it, not just a box on wheels, liked the cab shape.

It would be nice to see the kirkless-built locomotive: 'Lindsay' performing in the locality.

britboy Any live steam websites that you would recommend?

duchess pacific for me ,shove deltic where the sun dont shine.

magnificent! my favourite also.

Posted by: priscus (43)
It would be nice to see the kirkless-built locomotive: 'Lindsay' performing in the locality.

britboy Any live steam websites that you would recommend?

Replied: 30th May 2011 at 13:10

I have been collecting quite a few YouTube vids, there are some great steam examples amongst them, I started with "steam locomotives UK," also The Duke of Gloucester 71000 that opened a lot of the YouTube collection and there are a lot including the Duchess of Sutherland and quite a few other famous restorations.
A lot of good vids showing various loco's coming across the ribblehead viaduct and working hard up the shap.

Here's a good starting point if you want to start collecting....

The Duchess

The Duke

This is a Deltic I spotted at Carlisle Station in September 2007, number 40145 operated by the East Lancashire Railway... it was the first time I had seen one for about 20 years.

That’s not a Deltic

It's a Class 40 (Big D) they make a very distinctive sound, having quite high pitched sounding engines, you know when one is nearby

And that particular Class 40 gets about a bit

http://www.cfps.co.uk/40145tours.htm

Priscus

The most powerfull is now a Class 70, imported from Canada.

apls

Baby Deltic?

when the class forty was put on midscot could,nt keep time with duchess pacific loadings ,bankers where refused by management to drivers on shap and beattock,they then crawled over the banks.loadings where reduced to help the class forties keep time .told to me by patricroft driver who was at crewe north at the time of their introduction.

ruddy duck

"apls

Baby Deltic?"

Nope it's not a baby deltic ....

this class 70 is not very powerful

baby

My favourite Duchess quote:

"Nobody knows exactly how powerful she is: Nobody has ever been able to shovel coal in fast enough!"

Thir impressive right enough but I stil would like to see a vid of 'Linsay' resplendent in 'Wigan Coal and Iron co.' livery, performing in once familiar territory.

Lots of great pics Interesting to note in the footage of the first post - 1 freight train = 50 HGV's - says it all really doesn't it?

apls... thanks for the info, I am in no way clued up about these things... I *thought* it was a Deltic.

Only diesel powered locomotives I ever knew and drove were the NCB underground.... Rushton and Hunslett...many moons ago!

britboy enjoyed the duke but duchess could not be found,can you take a look

Posted by: baker boy (3257)
britboy enjoyed the duke but duchess could not be found,can you take a look

Replied: 31st May 2011 at 14:55

don't know what ta tell ya baker boy, link for Duchess runs great on my computer and Iphone no problem

Anyone else having problems with the links?

I see (hear) what you meant about the sound of a Class 40...

Class 40 Soundtrack

just tried. link worked for me.

not yet watched all of it.

bril shots of the motion linkages in action, but I really liked the kid yellin at the DMU.: "Eeyy! I can't see that red train now!"

was the deltic one of the first diesel electric ?

LMS had 10000, and 10001, a pair of them,but the Trasp Commission decided on a Steam-build to see them through till electrification, tho that policy dint last. in meantime, English Electric put their marine engine in the prototype Deltic, loaned to BR for evaluation.

apls

Just testing.

The 'Baby' Deltic's were actually Class 23, numbered D9500 to D9509 built in 1959.

Isn't there a Deltic in the opening sequence of Get Carter.

Illustrating Carter's trip home from London.

Owzat! 1:57

gosh you are observant.

Strange what you remember. I like the film and the opening titles reminded me of that very old speeded-up film taken from the front of a London to Brighton train.

Also, that sequence (Get Carter) was from a faraway place.

Deltics didn't run on the West Coast Mainline which has Wigan at its centre. (Or at least not regularly)

Faraway places:

I'm considering an 'Orient Express' trip. Do you think it would be appropriate to ask on this site for any advice from others who have done so, or is it so def not Wigan, as to warrant being booed off?

It has been asked before, I think. I'll have a look.

Of course you should ask.

Here

Thanks, got it as soon as you put it up. When I get closer to def dates and itinerary, I'll post a request and get any up to date advice that might be offered.

You're welcome.

very old speeded-up film taken from the front of a London to Brighton train.

DP1 and DP2 were both tested on the WCML,remember them going past school in very early 60's

They were built not far fom Wigan, so it was probably the handiest place.

I can hear him seething.

Inter-regional special that dustaf

Merseyside Express N gauge

Crank!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not really.

Just an ex tractor fan.

I'll get me coat. And a telling off for recycling that one again.

I was an apprentice at the Vulcan when the Deltic was in production. The engine, built at Napiers at the Liverpool end of the East Lancs,was a masterpiece of engineering.
The photos are from the Vulcan magazine.

*

the gubbins

my husband worked on railway when deltic ran in 1958 it was the 1.35 euston to glasgow and it stopped at wigan

Looking at the engine from an engineers viewpoint it looks like quite an ambitions piece, 3 crankshaft carrying horizontally opposed rods and pistons, timing must have been very critical.

I want one for a mantlepiece ornament!

Just been looking at some engine animation, what a beast, 36 piston, 3 cranks, horizontally opposed...very nice.

For someone who does not particularly like diesel loco's, my head has been turned.

compact power to meet the demand for small, fast motor-torpedo boat, in WW2. I think the Science Museum once had a working exposed model of the gearing that picks up the rotation of the separate crankshafts, and combines into the single final drive.

ps Daniel Gooch, Brunel’s Locomotive Engineer:

was Vulcan-trained.

Where I grew up, we used to have trains going through they did away with the tracks. IN Canton and Massena they had trains going to them towns al the time. I collect them shinning time station trains, my hubby and I are both fans. When I was younger my sister and I used to put penny and nickels on the tracks and see if they would get flating or get blown off the tracks.

dustaf

On the same line as your previous comment, did you also spot in the 39 steps, train went from Kings Cross to Edinburgh, via the portal of Box Tunnel (near Bath)? Only I can't remember if it was in the Hitchcock, or in the remake.

I wouldn;t go on no amtrak just in case it blows up. I would rather go on a real train.

Recommend cross reference to the thread: 'Wigin mkt Sat morn' for those who like to get close to diesels.

I can't say I've noticed the Box Tunnel, Priscus. But by a strange coincidence I noticed the Deltic headboard 1:17 (On Hire To GB Railfreight) as I watched the news article on Monday morning. Shortly afterwards I caught a bit of the old Thirty Nine Steps film and noticed another headboard 'The Flying Scotsman', on the loco pulling the train Hannay escaped to Scotland on.

But, as I looked at the loco, remembering the famous 4472 number, it was different.

Google time to check when the service name was given to a single loco and the year of the B&W film.


There was a series of TV programmes which re-visited famous film locations and the Thirty Nine Steps was featured. Lots of locations were shown, including one where the fugitive escaped on the bridge. (Possibly presented by Ben Fogle)

However, the bridge featured was not the Forth Bridge, but a smaller one in England, featured in the later film. I'm wondering if the latter version featured the Box Tunnel (GWR) if it was filmed in the South. (More Googling needed)

Edit

Big Screen Britain (episode 7)

There's a Wiki page on the service

Headboard naming the train (Service) rather than loco though??

I always liked this...

This is the Night Mail

Yes, see my above edit.

Film was made 1935

Scotsman built 1932

Severn Valley Railway (1978 film bridge)

Lets see if I can make up for the Deltic/Class40 blunder... and get the type of this loco right...

August 2007 - Whilst waiting for our train to Carlisle, this monster thundered into Wigan North Western, we should have known something was afoot because of the number of gents with cameras on the other platform. A4 Pacific 60009 'Union of South Africa' (LNER 4488)

I used to know what the locomotive was in 'Night Mail'.
No doubt someone will come on to tell us. Remember it's an unrebuilt Patriot class, and there arn't any o them survivin.

Takes me back to my student days. My Christmas Post job: loading and unloadidng parcel vans in the dead of night.

Wonder if anyone got pics of Wigan's TPO nets, just north of NW station.

"we should have known something was afoot because of the number of gents with cameras on the other platform."

There's diplomatic.

Seaforth Highlander

Night Mail

by dustaf
<<There's diplomatic. >>

Yep... I nearly said 'photographers'

When did the term 'Gricer' appear? And is it used in this part of the world?

I remember a driver who was a contestant on The Weakest Link (or similar) complaining about Gricers. Hadn't heard the phrase before.

There's a WW member(s) called Gricer who last posted in April 2010.

Gricer

Box Tunnel, as pointed out by Priscus.

Errors in geography: Hannay gets the train from London to Scotland, but the train on that journey is seen bursting out of the Box Tunnel near Bath, which is nowhere near the line from London to Scotland.


1935 version. Here

I did not spot it. It was pointed out to me when I watched the film with a former neighbour, who used to live in Box.

So not just gricers....

well learned a new word so not passin up the opportunity to use it.

I'll now have to google the Box Tunnel myth.

Sunlight on Brunel's birthday or something like that.

BTW black staff nice pic thanks for posting it. honour more than restored I'm sure.

"April 9th is Brunel's birthday," says Andy Quinn DCSA – Quarry Manager, "and if you stand at the western end and look through the tunnel at dawn you can actually see the sun rise through the eastern end. It was engineered perfectly straight."

With no photographic evidence though... we're still to be convinced.

Here



A little light reading

twas a unrebuilt royal scot not a patroit

Sorry, Jo Anne, I missed your link earlier.

Today the traditional gricer is rare. I must also stress that I never quite conformed to any of the above descriptions (and emphatically not to the model suggested to me a year or two ago by a Dutch correspondent, who was convinced that gricing was trainspotting whilst in the nude)!

thannks mache I stand corrected

I've made that mistake before.

Never could tell them uns apart.

Cliff, who was a fireman at the time,on the L&Y, says he seems to remember when Deltic was on a trial run through Wigan North West station the signalman sent it through the back platform..instead of up the main line and it caught the stonework of the platform,that was probably because of it's length.

My favourites were the Dub D's...

Austerity... WD 2-10-0

Great engines and drivers loved um...

Robert A. Riddles designed them...

Mojim, I heard a few folk claim that Deltics couldn't go through Wigan NW due to the platforms. Mache's pic on the 31 st (19:21) clearly proves otherwise.

Your post with Cliff's comment is probably an explanation of the myth.

I had wondered if it was the case that they (Deltics) couldn't go through Wallgate.

Has one ever gone from Manchester Victoria to Southport, I wonder?

A Streak came through Wigan, once...

When the proto Deltic ran north of York, it tore off its cab steps and damaged a couple of platforms.

Heard a bit of a Radio 2 programme similar to The Rock & Roll years which immediately reminded me of this thread. Sounds of the 20th Century

I googled and found the article (with pictures) here.

Those instrument labels look like something out of The Bat Cave.

Not too sure if this belongs here...but for lovers of all things 'trainish' there are two excellent murder mystery book series out there...

The Inspector Colbeck 'Railway Detective' series by Edward Marston... based in the 1850s

and...

The Jim Stringer Mysteries, by Andrew Martin...based in 1909 onwards.

Both excellent reads.

black staff: Thanks for recommendations, will keep for winter:no time to read this time of year.

upthetims: There is a photo of DP2, through NW station, on the site. (photos/album/assorted/railway)



dustaf: variation on a theme. Film won (channel 4 I think), 'Best Short Film' award when first released:

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXY8X4Ps60U"]

sorry thought I had typed that as per instruction at footer for placing a link. Obviously not!

I like that film, Priscus.

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXY8X4Ps60U]Priscus's Link[/url]

Copy and pasting that ^^^^^^^

Gets:

Priscus's Link

the reason it came out of box tunel was leaves on the line at hatford

Andrew Martin writes good railway books.

I'm more a railway historian than rail fan, so my recommendation, for best (non-technical specialised) railway book is:

'Railwaymen,Politics & Money' by Adrian Vaughan

It gets beneath a lot of the myths of railway past.

I would like to get my hands on a copy of Triangle Publishing's book on the Lancashire Union Line, reviewed elsewhere on this site, if anyone has one to sell.

black staff - thanks for the Night Mail link - for some reason I always thought that was John Betjeman's work

Priscus... that was a brilliant link. It may be sad in a way. But on the good side a lot of the original road route still remains for folk like me to walk along.

Also, if ever this country does finally drink the coffee and begin to rebuild a rail network, I will not mind sharing the path with a train... just so long as we are not on the same bit of it! there are a few places where a six lane road has been reduced to a two lane one, and walkers been given a path along it. We seem to get a long, and always stop to take a piccie of the train.

Thank you.

'Murder on the Orient Express', is on TV again this Fri/Sat.

Agatha Christie, was a frequent traveller on the O.E. Her accounts amount to an archaeological record of the experience. Unfortunately, the film sacrifices these for cheap cinematographic effect. eg. The loading of the train, prior to departure. The Hotel was also owned by The Wagon Lits Company, and provided dinner prior to boarding, because the dining car was not attached till the following morning! (no point having catering staff on board over night, and possibly having to sleep them!) The constant shunting: cars being attached and detached at various cities during the night, made it quite difficult to sleep on the O.E. Hence the heavy consumption of substances to help sleeping. etc etc.

But I will still watch it, possibly imagining the film that could have been made?

ps
and the video you liked, reminded me of this

DP2 last photo ?

OUCH!

That's a strong firefighter!

"My Dad punches Deltics"

That's super, man!

Tornado expected today wed.8 june 20:33 wigan n.w.

Wish I could be there to see it. Hope someone will put up a photo.