At last! DP1 is coming to TS2014!

[johnmckenzie]

The 1955-built, prototype Deltic loco is coming to Railworks! RSC have posted this photo on their Facebook page.

Before it's launched I have to tell you that the headlight WON'T work, it was never fitted with a light as we didn't use them in the UK. An expected visit to the US never happened, nor did a planned trial in Canada.

The real loco was restored for static display (in the Science Museum, London) in 1963 and is now in the National Railway Museum, displayed either in the York or the Shildon museum.

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

The "face" of that loco is straight out of Chugginton, or is it the other way around? Looks very friendly in that light blue and stripes.

Never mind, were the makers really solliciting orders from the USA and Canada for this loco?

[johnmckenzie]

Yes, EECo gave it a US-style nose, (dummy) headlight and their idea of an American-style livery!

[BNSFdude]

If they would have offered it in a more contemporary cab for US/Canada, I'm sure the deltic engines would have been great power plants. Especially in competition with EMD's own 2 stroke diesel design. More power out of a lighter, smaller engine than an EMD.

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

Nah, I don't think so. Too complicated a design, hence costly, fragile and unreliable, for the US market.

The Deltic prime mover came from a military marine environment, where performance to weight ratio mattered most, i.e. torpedo attack boats.

Even the US' own marine Diesel prime mover, the Fairbanks Morse opposed piston engine which was designed for patrol submarine use, didn't do too well in locomotive service.

All slow speed, large bore Diesels which did very well in marine service, fared less well in locomotive service.

EMD's 567 series proved the best suited in the transition from steam to diesel locomotive haulage.

[johnmckenzie]

Nah, I don't think so. Too complicated a design, hence costly, fragile and unreliable, for the US market.

You hit the nail right on the head.

British Rail saw a great deal of potential in these locos - they would allow a great speeding up of East Coast expresses and replace large numbers of steam locos in the process. No rose tinted spectacles either; the board recognised that these would be high cost and high maintenance machines but nothing else available fitted the bill. BR devised a whole new way of maintaining the Deltics in order to keep as many running at any one time - component exchange maintenance, now seen absolutely everywhere. In order to allow CEM to operate, BR ordered 24 locos (later reduced to 22) and a large pool of spares, much larger than they had ordered for any other type.

In the UK these machines were maintained in Doncaster, almost midway between London and Edinburgh, and on power unit failure a new one could be dropped in and the loco back in service in just one shift!

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

Ah, you're a Brit, hence your knowledge.

The only way I would think a Deltic prime mover could have been used in US railroad service was when the concept of high performance DMU's caught on.
There have been several experiments conducted in the mid-fifties to keep passenger trains in business by developing light weight 'unitary' trains.
GM's "Train of Tomorrow", B-L-H's "Xplorer" and also some F-M powered train, plus some Talgo experiments which I don't recall exactly.
Here, a light weight, high output prime mover in dedicated service could have made a difference.
Even swapping power units, either the whole lead/trailing "locomotive", or dropping in replacement Deltics, shouldn't have been much of a problem in frequent corridor passenger service between dedicated terminal facilities.

None of this was to be, the passenger train was bound to loose the battle with the airplane and the automobile/motor coach.

Bombardier's LRC even could have been Deltic powered.

[johnmckenzie]

More images have appeared on Facebook

[johnmckenzie]

Now available!

[Bananarama]

I'm not overly fond of locos outside the US, Canada or Australia, but that is one fine-looking model!

[JWStilwell]

A fine looking model indeed. I was interested in the headlight on this model and I have a few questions for our friends across the pond. I was wondering about not using headlights in the UK. Has this been a practice since the start of railways? How would you see anything at night? Have there been many grade crossing crashes due to no headlights?
just curious....

[johnmckenzie]

To answer your question - no, we never used headlights right up until the early 1970s when new locos and units were delivered with one albeit nowhere near as powerful as those used in the US.

Headlights were retrofitted from 1979 onwards, on a type-by-type basis and are now mandatory.

How would you see anything at night? Beats me! The headlights now fitted wouldn't illuminate any meaningful distance in front of the train anyway, they really only serve as a warning to others that a train is approaching.

Grade crossing crashes are rare at any time of day or night here and I think that is for several reasons :-

1. Most have barriers which close when a train is oncoming

2. Compared with US freight trains, many of ours are very fast moving passenger services and the risk of being in collision if you did attempt to cross is correspondingly higher

and

3. Compared with US freight trains in particular, our trains are also extremely short... Get stuck at the lights and you're only likely to be there for 5 minutes anyway. Combine this with point 2 and you really have some great disincentives to jump the lights.

I've always found our horns far more "polite" than yours as well, probably for the same reason

[mrennie]

Somewhere I read that another reason given for not using headlights in Britain, since the days of steam, was that it was thought they would make it more difficult for the footplate crew to distinguish the lights in the signals at night, especially with mist or fog in the air.

Also, the fact that the law was changed to require all lines to be protected with fencing meant that there was no need for a headlight to be used as a warning for anyone walking on or near the track. The lack of fencing on either side of the track was one of the things that caught my attention when I first got interested in North American railroading.

[johnmckenzie]

I'd forgotten that, Mike - I read that somewhere too

[thebigroyboyski]

The headlights on the 380 units that run on my local line are pretty powerful. You can see them lighting up the track a good distance in front of the train.
As for our level crossings (grade crossing to my North American friends) they seem to be much better marked with high visibility lights mounted on big backboards so they are very hard to miss. I always thought the NA lamps with no back boards must be hard to see under certain light conditions.
I remember seeing the prototype deltic at the NRM when I was kid. A very good looking loco in the flesh.
I was also lucky enough a month or so ago to see a deltic running on my local line. It was hired for a rolling stock move taking newly overhauled coaches from Kilmarnock back to their owner. It's amazing the amount of smoke they produce after they have been sitting idling for a while. You could see it coming for miles.