Monday, May 30, 2011

Deltic locomotive returns to haul commerical freight trains

[Later. You may also enjoy this recent video of a Deltic hauling freight in the Scottish Highlands.]

It' s rather like finding a Derby winner pulling a milk float, but Dan Falchikov reports the welcome news that a preserved Deltic locomotive has been hired to haul commercial freight trains because of a shortage of locomotives.

Deltics hauled the express trains on the King's Cross to Edinburgh line in the 1960s and 1970s, though by the time I was a student at York they had been relegated to heading the stopping trains from there to London.

There was something very attractive about Deltics: that hunched, powerful shape and the throaty roar of their engines. People used to say that people would never mourn diesels they way they had the old steam locomotives, but I suspect the last days of the Deltics and the crowds they attracted formed the high-water mark of rail enthusiasm in Britain. Certainly, I spent their last evening in service (2 January 1982) beside the track near Little Bytham.

Dan has the video of a news report about the return of the Deltic and you can also see them in the opening titles of Get Carter...

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