British Rail Class 55

The class 55 of the British Railways was a series of 22 diesel locomotives, which were built in 1961 and 1962 by English Electric (EE). They were developed for the high-speed train passengers on the East Coast Main Line between Kings Cross and Edinburgh to London train station and were in use until 1981.

The term " Deltic " of the prototype, DP1, derived from the particular type of engine and is transmitted to the whole series. Six locomotives were unserviceable condition.

Production

The class 55 was equipped with the most powerful opposed piston engine type Napier Deltic, who was usually installed only on small, fast naval vessels. They were also acquired as part of a service agreement with English Electric, where EE took over the maintenance of motors and generators. In this context, additional replacement engines were produced and provided to allow for complex maintenance and repair intervals, a continuous operation of all locomotive units.

The original color was at the top of the dark BR green with a narrow lime green stripe along the bottom, the front sections were first in cream- white color scheme, held in the usual yellow warning color design later. In 1966, the side surfaces of the machines were "corporate Rail Blue 'is deleted, the same time as the installation of air brakes.

Use

The " Deltics " were distributed to three locomotive depots. Very soon, the machines were given individual names, stationed in Gateshead and Haymarket locomotives were named after regiments of the British Army and the resident in Finsbury Park machine in the tradition of the LNER locomotives after winning racehorses.

The " Deltic " Locomotive series replaced more than twice as many (55 ) by Nigel Gresleys famous steam locomotives in the "Pacific " type in operation.

In the late 1970s the Deltics turn of express trains of Class 43 High Speed ​​Train (HST) were displaced and then operated with reduced maintenance because the care for this relatively small group of non-standard vehicles appeared too costly. Subsequently, these locomotives were increasingly lie with machine problems. They were transferred to 1981 on the Doncaster Works for scrapping. The last regular drive a Deltic was carried out on 31 December 1981. One last nostalgic trip back and was carried out with the " Deltic Scotsman Farewell" on January 2, 1982 by King's Cross to Edinburgh, drawn from the 55 015 " Tulyar " and 55022 " Royal Scots Grey".