My 22 old friends: part 2

13 min read

Ben Wyvis concludes his memories of each of the Class 55 ‘Deltic’ locomotives. In this issue he looks at the remaining locomotives numbered from 55012 to 55022.

55012

55012 is in the loco servicing sidings at King’s Cross on 2nd July 1977. It had arrived with 1E01, the 08:00 Edinburgh to King’s Cross, and would later take out 1L34, the 18:04 King’s Cross to Bradford. JOHN DEDMAN

Despite several Anglo-Scottish trips in the heyday of this machine, my memory of ‘Crepello’ involves a trip from Peterborough to London not long before the loco received white cabs in 1979. She was hauling a scratch set of coaches on a York to Kings Cross job and I was in the leading brake second open which, unusually for a south bound train, placed me immediately behind the locomotive. With the brake van and guards compartment between the seating area and the rest of the train, other passengers must have been deterred from walking through as I had all thirty odd seats to myself. As we powered south the low sun made a perfect silhouette of ‘Crepello’ in shadow on the down fast line. The outline was so perfect as to be able to pick out the shape of the air horns and even the small air pipes from which they were supplied with compressed air. Every time power was applied the silhouette grew to reflect both locomotive and exhaust. My own private show lasted for a little over fifty minutes. This was another one of those magical and much missed experiences.

55013

55013 is seen near Sandy on September 14th 1977 with 1A04, the 07:20 Bradford to King’s Cross, the ‘Bradford Executive’. JOHN DEDMAN

I have been blessed with many fine runs down the years, from Anglo Scottish express trains, to overnights and locals with this iconic ‘Deltic’. My choice in her memory involves a run on the down ‘Hull Executive’ in the summer of 1979. The run from Kings Cross to Hitchin was dogged by delay and an apparent problem with the locomotive or coaching stock. We finally came to a stand on the down main somewhere south of Hitchin and both driver and guard walked down the cess side releasing the brakes on each of the eight Mark 2d coaches. After around 20 minutes delay we were off again. With a wound up driver and time to make up, ‘The Black Watch’ went on the rampage with some fine running. Standing in the leading vestibule, I watched through the small coach end window the bright yellow snout pitching and swaying as speed increased, I was mesmerised by the awesome display of power taking place a few feet ahead of me. Whatever the root cause of the delay ultimately turned out to be, no loss of t

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