For some time Ben Wyvis has thought about producing a definitive list of his most poignant memory of each of the Class 55 ‘Deltic’ locomotives. The list, as you would expect, is personal and based on nothing more than memories from 40 years or more ago.
In July 1977 my family and I were travelling from our home in the Highlands to North Yorkshire. We arrived in Edinburgh, with onward connections to Darlington on the 17:55 Edinburgh to Leeds. As we walked down platform 19, I could hear the sound of idling Napiers: ‘St Paddy’ was standing at the head of the 17:00 to King’s Cross, calling at Newcastle and then York. After much pleading for a change of plan, we boarded the 17:00 as far as Newcastle, with a change there for Darlington. ‘St Paddy’ must have been idling for some time; she cleared her throat on departure, with a thick white exhaust trail which went on and on well past Portobello. The stock for the 17:00 was the weekday ‘Silver Jubilee’ rake and therefore each head rest carried one of the white antimacassars specially made for this short lived train. I thoroughly enjoyed my 125 mile ride and, even to this day, the memories of watching her snake high above the North Sea and through Berwick, Alnmouth, and Morpeth stay with me. This turned out to be my one and only run with ‘St Paddy’.
In April 1979 Steve McFarlane and Paul Gildersleve and I travelled south with KOYLI on the 08:40 from Leeds. It became quickly obvious that all was not well; No2 kept losing an engine and running for long periods at reduced speed. Whatever the fault was the defective engine would cut back in every 20 miles or so. This caused the strange situation of us running at 80-85 mph and then accelerating up to 107 to win back lost minutes. The net result of all this was a time loss of 20 minutes from Doncaster to London. Number 2 epitomised a Gateshead ‘Deltic’ perfectly that day, filthy, noisy and loveable. There was at the time real despondency around Deltic availability and reliability. The beginning of the end felt it was close at hand. Both 55002 and 55005 were in the worst external condition that I have ever seen and it was saddening to see them both flogged on one engine at various times that week.
In September 1979, I enjoyed a hugely successful two week rail rover on the East Coast Main Line. Just about every move that I made paid dividends. On the night of September 18th I found myself at King’s Cross covering the Northbound overnights. ‘Pinza’ went North on the 22:15 t
