They are fantastic locos they were devloped to replace the high power steam engines that hauled expresses from London to Edinburgh. They at that time needed a lot of power in a given weight load and they decided that the Napier engineering Deltic engine used in fast naval power boats would fit the bill with the amount of power versus the light weight they could produce. The Loco was fitted with two each of 1650 HP and in normal operation both engines wouild be in use but if need be or that had a fault one engine could still haul the train.
When i were a lad me and my old dad used to skip work and school and have a days trainspotting on the lineside north of Huntingdomn station but the best thing about them was the noise, No Sound!! they made with both engines running it was described and a very loud G Chord palyed on a heaven sent organ!
They were naughty ladies they had a bit of a habit of devloping exhaust fires as per this vid, run it on to 8:30 and you'll see what I mean. The usual way of putting them,out was to rev the engine and blow them out! The got the mame Deltic from the odd engine block laypout normaly engines have straight cylinder block arrnagement, some have a "V" but these were a "D" well rotated D that is by 90 degrees one bank at the bottom and one each side at the top with a very complex gear system but a lot of power in a small space!.
All good fun:)
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