Next up for Enzo

USA needs to have on on a tour!

To be honest, I blame Deltics for the dreadful situation that British Railways found themselves in during the 70s.

The Deltic designers got it *just* right. Deltics worked. Full stop. Period. They were very powerful and hugely capable. On top of that, they were reliable. Sadly that led the members of the British Transport Commission into a false sense of security. Expecting all diesel designs to be as good as the Deltics, they pushed ahead with the 1955 Modernisation Plan and replaced a mature technology - steam traction - with an unproven one - diesel traction. They then found out - to their horror - that many of the new diesel designs simply were not up to scratch. Of course by that time it was too late, as the steam engines were all scrapped. It took years for British Rail to recover from that blow and then -just as BR *was* showing signs of recovery and was becoming reliable and profitable again - it got privatised!

i know you guys have small, high powered locos for passenger but seeing a big boy or a challenger pull a 5 mile long coal train through the rockies is amazing. i'm sure that 2 of your 3k hp trains could pull that on level, but i suspect they might not have the weight for traction up steep grades. even the big americans slipped and slid at times. lots of wheel spin until they get moving well. those articulated monsters are just outright beautiful.

the story of amyrak is a who's who of morons. it's a real horror story and was the death knell of passenger service in this country. i can't believe there is no passenger service to las vegas. i would hop on here and save gas and enjoy a wonderful desert ride. we have many morons in out rails, too.

a race with a challnger!

Looks like I can have both an airbrush and a Deltic. Dapol have re released the Airfix OO kit for just £7.99. That could be a nice backburner project. In case anybody wonders why the fuss about Deltics, look here for a start:

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Just remember that the Dapol/Airfix kit represents DP1, the Deltic prototype. There were significant differences between DP1 and the production English Electric Type 5 locos.

Ah, the Deltic -- only got to ride behind one once in 1979 ("The Fife and Forfar Yeomanry" - couldn't miss the big cast placard on the sides of that puppy!) Alas, the train was full of drunken Man United fans (hope that is not redundant) so not a great trip -- rode it from Sheffield to Bristol when they changed out the locomotive for a more prosaic one (Class 50/).

My favorites are the GWR ones though -- shiny dark green with bright brass.

Cookie Sewell

Yes, I know it's the prototype, but it looks like it could be brought up to the standard of a service loco with some work. I'll try and search one out this weekend, and when I look in the box, I'll know more. And no, I will definitely NOT be scratchbuilding a working Napier engine.

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From what I remember, the production locos were appreciably longer than DP1. That means you will either need two kits to do a "cut and shut" or you'll need a lot of plasticard to build a body extension.

That said a Deltic will shift 1000 ton of sleeper carriages at 90mph (were not allowed to do 100 with sleepers)

Well our best steam locos will manage 2200 tons on a slope.

A 60 will manage around 4000ton, Brush designed it to exceed the specification

Don't knock the 50s - best thing after a Deltic, had some fantastic trips behind 50017 Royal Oak.

A few were tweaked to raise output by 500bhp

Totally different body profiles - want cheap - Lima, want decent, Bachmann

Not beautiful, but since Starting Tractive Effort was the real name of the game, you had ugly brutes like EJ&E big boxy Baldwins that had near the same S.T.E. as the big steamers with far less operating cost, for the Mother of all Centercabs, the Baldwin DT series for the early diesel era

great information, thanks!

How fast did it go when one of the power packs failed, as they often did?

(kim)

Wasn't DP2 the testbed for the 50?

(kim)

lumpy trackage or fear?