British Rail Class 23 Baby Deltic

By Yi -
This week we will feature the little brother of the famous British Rail Class 55 "Deltic" locomotive. Dubbed the "Baby Deltic", the Class 23 is just about half of everything the Class 55 offers.

 Equipped with a 9 cylinder Napier Deltic engine, the 4-axle unit produces 1,100 horsepower and has a top speed of 75 mph. Locomotive builder English Electric produced a total of 10 units in 1959. The Baby Deltic started life on the slower suburban passenger services. Like the Deltic, the Baby Deltic also suffered its share of reliability problems, but according to sources (i.e. Wikipedia, LOL), the problems have mostly been worked out through the 1960s.


Sadly, no Class 23 has been preserved. However a replica is being built by Project Baby Deltic as we speak. More pictures are available on Napier Chronicles.

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