Locomotives

The British Rail Class 55 is a successful class of diesel locomotive built in 1961 and 1962 by English Electric. They were designed for the high-speed express passenger services on the East Coast Main Line between London King's Cross and Edinburgh. They gained the name "Deltic" from the prototype locomotive, DP1 Deltic, which in turn was named for its Napier Deltic power units. Twenty-two locomotives were built: they dominated services on the East Coast Main Line until their withdrawal at the end of 1981. Six locomotives were preserved and are still running today.

The locomotives were assigned to three locomotive depots: Finsbury Park in London, Gateshead over the Tyne from Newcastle, and Haymarket in Edinburgh. They arrived from the manufacturer painted in two-tone green, the dark BR green on top, with a narrower strip of a lighter, lime green along the bottom. This helped to disguise the bulk of the locomotive body. The cab window surrounds were picked out in cream-white. Although delivered without it, they all soon sported the bright yellow warning panel at each end common to all British diesel and electric locomotives, to make them more conspicuous. Very soon, all were named; the Gateshead and Haymarket locomotives after regiments of the British Army, while Finsbury Park followed the grand LNER tradition of naming locomotives after winning racehorses. By 1966 they began to be painted in corporate Rail Blue with yellow ends. The Finsbury Park depot also chose to paint the window surrounds of its Deltics white, making them distinctive.

Developed from English Electric's astonishing 1955 prototype, the 22 production "Deltics" used powerful but lightweight Napier gunboat engines to deliver a far greater power to weight ratio than any other diesel locomotive of their time. The result was a worthy successor to the legendary LNER Pacifics and their performances on the East Coast Main Line over a 20-year career made them equally iconic. Marking the 40th anniversary of their retirement in January 1982, Heljan have retooled this model and it is designed to accommodate two large "earth mover" speakers and two smoke units for that unforgettable "Deltic" effect. Other new features include a plug-and-play DCC interface, interior detail and lighting and authentic detail variations for later period Class 55s.

LOCOMOTIVE SPECIFICATION.