Talk:British Rail Class 55

Unique engine design

What about mentioning the engine, it was pretty unusual. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 85.210.112.4 (talk • contribs) 03:07, May 28, 2006. agreed the engine was a ship engine i belive.

Hear hear indeed, highly distinctive. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 5.69.57.38 (talk) 15:58, 5 November 2015 (UTC)

Service and performance

Could do with a lot more info on service - the Deltics were exceptionally high performance for diesel locomotives, not just becuase of their power, but also becuase of the spec of the electrical transmission system. They forced extensive speed upgrades on the ECML and paved the way for HST and later IC225 workings. No other UK diesel locomotive could have done that.--81.152.21.121 10:39, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

White window surrounds.

Could we clarify this, all the pictures I have seen of green Deltics indicate the whole class had this feature while in BR green. I had understood that Finsbury park had re-instated them to it's machines before withdrawal in BR Blue. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 217.38.64.93 (talk) 21:12, 20 January 2007 (UTC).

That's true pictures of 55003 Meld illustrate it with both blue window surrounds (admittedly with the paint flaking to reveal white underneath) and also in servive with the white surrounds. The white surronds were added on April 6th 1979. There are also pictures of 55003 Meld on the scrapline at Doncaster works with this feature. Meld was assigned to Finsbury Park. (Ferdinand4321 16:26, 25 January 2007 (UTC))

The deltics were delivered from the Vulcan works unnamed, and with off-white window surrounds, as a part of their two-tone colour scheme. By the 1970's, all of the deltics were painted in rail blue, and with full yellow ends. The deltics were split into three groups - the ones named after Scottish regiments were stabled at Haymarket depot, the ones named after English regiments were stabled at Gateshead, and the ones named after racehorses were stabled at Finsbury Park depot in London. In 1979, the Finsbury Park depot re-applied the white window surrounds to their deltics. This was not official British Rail policy, and when the racehorse deltics were reallocated to York depot in 1981, the white window surrounds were painted over in blue. 55003 Meld and 55012 Crepello were the only deltics which went to the scrapyard still sporting their white window surrounds. Pinza7 (talk) 11:26, 29 December 2016 (UTC)

DP2

Although out of the scope of this article mention should be made of DP2 (linked back to the class 50) article, if for no other reason than to prevent people mistaking an un/wrongly captioned picture of DP2 for a production Deltic. Comments either way please. (SouthernElectric 15:51, 17 September 2007 (UTC))

Fair use rationale for Image:The Flying Scotsman (train) centenary poster.jpg

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BetacommandBot (talk) 19:57, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Removed section

I removed this text, which was under a section heading of "Ghost Sightings":

A British Rail Class 55 "Deltic" diesel locomotive was sighted on the main line outside of Crewe nine months after it was scrapped. This ghost train is known as Nimbus. The locomotive was 55020 and the incident was later reported to be a hoax.

There are no references given whatsoever, and Google searches such as "Deltic 55020 hoax", "Deltic D9020 hoax" and "Deltic Nimbus hoax" turn up nothing relevant. As such, this looks like - at best - a hoax remembered only within a small group of people. As such, I don't think it should be in unless a proper citation can be given. Loganberry (Talk) 18:07, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

It's been confirmed as scrapped through photographic evidence http://neil-gibson.fotopic.net/p54079839.html Patrick lovell (talk) 10:43, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

The Nimbus story is probably better known as a ghost story rather than a hoax (though whether or not you actually believe in ghosts is another matter entirely.) Hoax or not, the *ghost story* version has gained a fair degree of exposure - I do know it has been featured in several books of railway ghost stories, and while a quick Google search of "Nimbus hoax" and it's variations don't reveal much, "Nimbus ghost train" and it's variants do come up with a significant number of websites which feature the story. 82.27.30.105 (talk) 16:35, 29 June 2011 (UTC)

Dead link

http://www.peakrail.co.uk/delticwe.htm has gone dead. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.249.232.187 (talk) 02:32, 7 April 2009 (UTC)

Possible change to the title of this article

This article is currently named in accordance the Wikipedia:WikiProject UK Railways naming conventions for British rolling stock allocated a TOPS number. A proposal to change this convention and/or its scope is being discussed at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject UK Railways#Naming convention, where your comments would be welcome.

Scope of Article

About 75% at least of this article deals with the surviving locomotives after preservation, and on livery changes which are of minor interest and unsuitable for an encyclopaedia. Like so many wikipedia articles on British diesel locomotives there is little on the locomotives during their working lives which is surely what matters. I suggest that the preservation `news' - much of which is trivial or out of date - be moved elsewhere, or, preferably, deleted, and that an expert on the subject writes an informative, readable account of the concept behind these locomotives, their design, construction and operation. Barney Bruchstein (talk) 15:10, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

I agree. Separate articles on surviving locomotives wouldn't be unwarranted, and is largely how we deal with articles on preserved steam locomotives. Good thingking user:Barney Bruchstein! Tony May (talk) 12:00, 11 March 2019 (UTC)

External links modified

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9 cylinder Type 3?

Can anyone verify this change? [1]

The article previously stated that this Type 3 loco (1500-2000 hp) would use a single 18 cylinder engine, which is plausible. It now reads that it's a 9 cylinder, as used for the 1,100 hp Type 2 Class 23, which isn't. Does anyone have the cited ref handy? Andy Dingley (talk) 03:04, 16 January 2018 (UTC)

Yes. It definitely says "a 'Deltic' 18-cylinder engine". A single Napier engine of the type used in Class 55 would give 1,650 bhp, well within the band for Type 3 of 1,500-1,999 bhp. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 21:21, 16 January 2018 (UTC)

Clarification

Article describes it as ‘most powerful single-unit diesel locomotive’. Could this be misinterpreted as single engine? Would the meaning be the same without the term ‘single-unit’? Andyeff (talk) 06:30, 9 August 2023 (UTC)

Single unit refers to the vehicles which make up the power unit - as an example, look at certain American locomotives which had A and B units - technically the same locomotive, but two coupled vehicles, which of course thereby had much higher power output. Danners430 (talk) 07:04, 9 August 2023 (UTC)

LMS No. 10000 and 10001 were often operated as a pair known as the Ivatt twins. This was because on their own they were not powerful enough for the heaviest tasks, like many of the early diesel locomotives. The Class 55s were notable because they could easily replace the most powerful steam engines of the day without doubling up.--♦IanMacM♦ ^{(talk to me)} 11:34, 9 August 2023 (UTC)

So why not simply ‘single locomotive’? Andyeff (talk) 19:51, 10 August 2023 (UTC)

Because some American locomotives with A and B units are technically "a single locomotive", despite having two units. Similarly there's the Iore in Scandinavia which is made up of an A and B unit, but classed as a single locomotive. Danners430 (talk) 20:58, 10 August 2023 (UTC)

'Single locomotive' would be even more confusing, as it would imply there was only one of them. G-13114 (talk) 21:12, 10 August 2023 (UTC)

Just locomotive? In response to other posts, can anything that is coupled to something else be a ‘single’ unit? Can forty parts coupled together be a single unit? Andyeff (talk) 15:05, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

No - the examples I'm talking about are locomotives where the two (there used to be some examples with three) units are specifically designed to be semi-permanently coupled together to form a single vehicle. They would be the most powerful locomotives, but not the most powerful single-unit locomotive. An example would be the Alco FA, which could have a second unit Danners430 (talk) 16:50, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

What Danners430 said. As examples, see this image - it's got four locomotive units, followed by a mail car, two more cars, three vista dome cars and then the rest of what appears to be a sixteen-car passenger train. This heavy load needs plenty of power, both to haul it up stiff gradients in mountainous country, and to provide a good turn of speed when conditions are favourable. The first and fourth locomotive units each have a single cab - they are EMD F7A units; the second and third are cabless - they are EMD F7B units. An F7B, having no cabs, cannot operate independently but only if coupled to an F7A and remotely controlled by the cab of the F7A. One F7A may be used alone, but if also used alone for the return trip, it needs to be turned around between trips. When more power is required, one or more F7B may be added behind the F7A, but this does not eliminate the need for turning. Two F7A may be used back-to-back, which both doubles the power output and eliminates the need for turning; and when even more power is required, one or more F7B are added in between the two F7A. See also A unit and B–unit. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 09:57, 12 August 2023 (UTC)

Deltic Records

Raymond Ian Burns named his Deltic Records after the locomotives. Citation Quietus, The (2009-11-10). "The Damned's Captain Sensible On Why He Likes Trains". The Quietus. Retrieved 2024-06-30.

Where in the article is appropriate to add this? A new 'In popular culture' section, perhaps? ElectronicsForDogs (talk) 16:13, 30 June 2024 (UTC)

It's one of those things that isn't a major part of the subject matter here because it is only of passing importance. It is mentioned at Raymond Ian Burns because it is more about him than it is about the locomotives.--♦IanMacM♦ ^{(talk to me)} 18:10, 30 June 2024 (UTC)

Any distance info?

It would be nice to know how many miles/km each of the locomotives travelled during their service life. Lkingscott (talk) 14:47, 14 October 2024 (UTC)