All Praise the Napier

A new photograph from Ian Simpson

Class 55 Deltic 55007 'Pinza' stands at York station in evening sunshine on 20th April 1976, at the head of the 16.00 King's Cross to Edinburgh, 'The Talisman'. On the platform in front of it, a young spotter kneels down and hails the locomotive, presumably with a duffel bag packed for an evening's spotting of his own.

Underneath it all is the throb of the twin Napier engines, idling at rest before the next stage of the journey north, a sound that will have added to the Deltic's presence for a boy standing so close to it. For someone with a duffel bag and an evening free, there can have been few better places to be: a Deltic held still at a major junction, lingering long enough to be properly looked at rather than glimpsed from a bridge as it went through at speed.

55007 had already put in a full day's work by the time this photograph was taken. It had come down from Newcastle that morning on the 09.20 Newcastle to King's Cross, 'The Tees Tyne Pullman', before working back north in the evening on the Talisman, the train the boy at York caught it on. At the time it was allocated to Finsbury Park, the London depot that supplied Deltics for the top East Coast Main Line turns, the kind of diagramming that could put a single locomotive through King's Cross, Newcastle and Edinburgh within one day's work. Across that April, movement records show 55007 working this same rhythm of King's Cross, Newcastle and Edinburgh turns again and again: a diagram it clearly knew well by the time this photograph was taken. A Finsbury Park engine photographed at York in evening light, midway between a morning run south and an evening run north, is a locomotive caught at the busiest part of its day.

55007 had entered service on 22nd June 1961, one of a fleet of Deltics built by English Electric to take over the East Coast Main Line's principal expresses from steam traction. Like several of its classmates, it carried the name of a racehorse: Pinza, winner of the 1953 Derby. Through the 1960s and into the 1970s the class worked King's Cross out to Newcastle and Edinburgh on named trains like the Talisman and the Flying Scotsman, the backbone of the route until the InterCity 125s began to take over the principal diagrams in the later years of the decade. This particular locomotive's year did not pass without trouble: five weeks after this photograph, it went into Doncaster works for an unclassified repair, needing attention to both boiler water tanks and a replacement of Power Unit No. 1 after a loss of drive between the engine and the main generator. It returned to traffic and carried on working for several more years afterwards. 55007 was withdrawn on 31st December 1981, and scrapped in August 1982.

Why this photograph?

What stays with you is not the locomotive alone but the pairing: a Deltic still doing the top link work it was built for, and a boy who knelt down, on an evening with the sun still up, to hail it properly. Most spotters caught these engines at speed, a blur past a lineside fence or a platform end. This one got the version that stood still, and that is the rarer photograph.

Available as Prints and Frames

Browse the All Praise the Napier print and framed editions, or see more of our Deltics Class 55 photography.

The photograph

• Locomotive: Class 55 Deltic 55007 'Pinza'
• Location: York station
• Date: 20th April 1976
• Working: 16.00 King's Cross to Edinburgh, "The Talisman"
• Also in frame: a young spotter kneeling on the platform with a duffel bag
• Photographer: Ian Simpson

Copyright Notice

This photograph is the copyright of Ian Simpson. It is reproduced here by permission and offered as fine art prints and framed editions by Memories of Motion.

The image may not be copied, reproduced, redistributed, transmitted or used in any form, in print or digitally, without the prior written consent of the copyright holder. All rights reserved.