Class 55 – 55019

Class 55 55019 Royal Highland Fusilier

One of three Class 55 Deltic locomotives owned by the charitable organisation, the Deltic Preservation Society, 55019 dates from entry into BR service on 11^th December, 1961. It cost £156,000 when new from English Electric’s Vulcan Foundry Works at Newton-le-Willows. The fleet of 22 locomotives, deservedly dubbed ‘The King of Diesels’ was split between three depots for maintenance, although administered from the Eastern Region, later merged with the North Eastern Region in 1967.

When new, it was numbered D9019 and was un-named. It was allocated to Haymarket depot depot, Edinburgh.

The Scottish Region followed the long tradition of naming its Deltics after Regiments and D9019 was bestowed with the name Royal Highland Fusilier at a ceremony at Glasgow Central on 11th September 1965.

The advent of air-braking in the late 1960s saw this Deltic fitted with air brake equipment at Doncaster Works, being outshopped on 10th November 1967.

By now, the corporate BR blue era had arrived and D9019 lost its two-tone green livery, to be replaced by all-over BR Blue, the locomotive debuting in this guise after a visit to Doncaster Works in April 1968.

The introduction of Electric Train Heat rolling stock saw the whole of the Deltic fleet and many other locomotives converted to provide power for this facility, D9019 being so modified on 24th April 1971.

The introduction of TOPS, the BR computer system, Total Operations Processing System saw every locomotive given a class number, the Deltics being classified 55. Thus D9019 assumed its new TOPS number of 55019 in November 1973.

The 1970s saw BR’s InterCity sector striving the decrease journey times, with particular emphasis on attracting the business clientele. The East Coast route saw several speed-restricted locations vastly improved, eg Newton Hall and Peterborough. By the late 1970s, a Deltic was rostered for Britain’s fastest train, the ‘Hull Executive’. 55019 was often let loose on this exacting schedule of an average of 91.4mph between King’s Cross and the first stop at Retford. Invariably, speeds of over 100mph were attained.

By now, however, the High Speed Train (HST) was spelling the end of the Deltics’ reign. HST operation on the East Coast Main Line started in March 1978.

The first two Class 55 were officially condemned on 6th January 1980 – the end was in sight.

55019 lasted until the very end. In fact, it had the unfortunate distinction of working the last Deltic-hauled service train – the 1E26 16.30 Aberdeen (from Edinburgh) to York on 31st December, 1981. Withdrawn by York depot on arrival, 55019 was later towed to Doncaster Works and placed in the scrapline. It had run 3.25 million miles.