The LNER Encyclopedia

Built for the job intended...O.K in the boat's ... just like Coventry Climax pump's, put the same engine in the Imp and it all goes wrong.

Mr B...one happy Arriva passenger. (must get the Plas back on the road...Imp engined !)

I liked my Imp estate ( Husky? ) it just had an appetite for water pumps,
my father-in-law had the same problem with his Imp

At the risk of diverging into automobile trivia wasnt the husky the van equivilant of the Minx and the vehicle your thinking of was a Sunbeam Stilleto?

I did occasionally use my Hillman Imp to drive to Temple Mills for early turn Saturdays (job and finish...) Anyway, sure we don't want to become a branch of the Imp Club Forum but the Husky name applied to both a small estate car based on Hillman Minx mechanicals and also to the estate version of the Imp van. The Stilletto is a fastback version of the Imp, top spec with twin carbs etc. As it happens, I still own a Husky Imp and a Singer Chamois, but swerving the topic well off course now!
Anyone else remember the Dundee, Perth and London Shipping Co.'s premises near Channelsea Curve? The DP&L used to send traffic by rail but think that had finished by the late 1960s.

Calm down guys! I was on about Nappier engine's. The Coventry Climax and Imp was only used as a example! Mind you a Plas in good fettle can touch the ton,,,remembering its the low compresion (8 to 1) Imp unit. I've seen one fitted with the motor and carbs plus oil cooler etc from the Stilleto Spot (998cc). Now back to Deltic's baby brother....

Mr B... A happy Arriva passenger (and Plas owner).

Yes back to Deltic trivia why were the babys so bad were they that overstressed. They seemed ok in Adult form.

The Deltics were a brilliant concept and saved the bacon of the ECML after it became clear that electrification would be slightly delayed!! But, they were complex machines and more 'high maintenance' than a bevy of super models or divas. When the LMR electrification was halted C1959 for the Stedeford financial review - the costs having escalated form £75 million to £161million pounds - it was asked why dieselisation had not been considered as an alternative, instead of a stop gap as happened. Some cost studies were done and one of these arrived at an estimate of 207 Deltics needed for West Coast services. The mind boggles, given the early history of dieslisation on the LMR, and the problems of maintaining 22 Deltics on the ECML- brilliant though they were. How the 207 figure was arrived at defies belief, as surely no more than fifty would have been needed, given that on the ECML 22 Deltics replaced 55 steam Pacifics.

The Baby Deltics weren't actually that bad a loco - you hardly ever had major electrical issues and their acceleration was phenominal but by 1962 the GN House authorities had had enough of the unreliability and started to use them on pass work only when they had to. The main issues with them at that time were the cylinder liner cracks and that flailing auxiliary shaft which used to knock out the coolant hoses and quite a lot else!

In retrospect using a Deltic engine on stop start work was not ideal - with a high reving engine you really want to just power up and let it go. After refurb they were much improved and 100% availability was quite common. But with just 10 of them at 1100hp against 50 odd GN class 31's at (eventually!) 1470hp, they were definitely the poor relations and tended to work out of Hitchin on outer subs as well as freights such as the Cadwell Naptha run which started at Fawley. A pair of them used to work it down from Ferme Park.

Sadly the National Traction Plan put an end to these smaller classes.

If you want to see one on the move (plus a lot else all around London Termini), try googling London's Termini in the Swinging Sixties. This is a 19 minute film on the Dailymotion.com website with a soundtrack that, if you are as old as me, will definitely take you right back.

p.s my parents had a Hillman Imp in the sixties. Lovely engine but that automatic choke - what a nightmare.

Bear in mind too that the baby deltics were overweight and unsuitable for some of the routes round London, the D8200/D8400s were better suited and beautifully turned out by Stratford but unfortunately let down by the power unit, I did like the rasp of the Paxman though when the throttle was opened.

G'Day Gents
The baby deltics had a very limited area of operations, London, Stratford, Hitchin and Cambridge, I never even seen a picture of them at Peterborough?? anyone know any different??
manna

Life is like a box of chocolates, but they melt quick here

Probably wondering whether he's going to get it back to sunny Hitchin..

Next month's Sheffield Railwayana Auction has one of the worksplates from Baby Deltic number D5903.

http://www.sheffieldrailwayana.co.uk/ca ... /flyer.jpg

I've just caught up with this thread again , and it's fascinating but disturbing.
The job seems to have entered a nightmare phase since my days.
Goods guards preparing for a kip on the run? They must have had some pretty gentle drivers, or were the trains all fitted?
TV sets in enginemens' messrooms? we were never allowed to sit there long enough to watch, there was always a clutch of engine disposals or preparations to keep the out-of work busy.
Mind you, we would have appreciated some entertainment on the rare occasions when fog wiped out the freight work.
Of course at Hornsey we had the 'luxury' of the comparitively modern canteen which although basic was more comfortable (and cleaner) so we tended to eat there. Also had a radio, not used.
What went wrong with the North London to give it such a bad reputation? Apart from the time when the track on a bridge spread and left a 3F suspended over the road below, and a dubious tunnel at Hampstead Heath it seemed an ordinary sort of road to me. Mind you, I never worked into Willesden Yard , our destinations were Feltham and Acton GWR.
On enginemens'messrooms, does anyone remember the one on the Up platform at Hitchin?
This seemed to be used only by Hornsey men and Bungits, could it have been because they worked the Ferme Pk coal traffic? When I first went there I was amused by the method used for giving the crews instructions. A voice seemingly came out of nowhere "Driver Bloggs - 999 up at the south" which set the unfortunate pair off to relieve on some wheezing relic. After a few trips I found that there was a trap door down by the floorboards through which the foreman's runner announced the fate of the next victims.
Hitchin South was not a bad walk, but Cambridge Junction could be a swine in the cold and wet, especially when we had to walk back along the rank until we came to our train. Quite a performance in the dark. Still, wouldn't have missed it for anything, but I have a lot of respect for the 'Old Boys' who stuck with it for all their working lives.

Stratford in East London was our parent depot whilst I was working at Enfield. We had a turn where we went passenger to Stratford and worked a North Woolwich- Palace Gates train from there. Stratford depot was an enormous place. I have heard it was the largest MPD in uk. What I did'nt like about Stratford was the smell. In some places the smell was a mixture of bad eggs and gas fumes. I was always glad to get away from there.