Once, Twice, 5 times the Deltics!

For quite a few years the East Lancashire Railway (ELR) did not have a Deltic locomotive, that was until Martin Walker brought in 55022 to be based at the ELR as a home to operate onto the mainline from.  Around 18 months ago he also purchased 55016 off Harry Needle and the ELR had 2!

Some (in fact most!) of the voulunteers in the diesel group thought this was well enough...     ...until someone suggested a theme day for them!

This weekend sees the event of the year for all Deltic fans, and yesterday saw the arrival of 5 of these noisy machines to the railway.  Luckily only 16 was running (and only on one engine!) so the noise was kept to a minimum but I am sure this weekend everyone in the vicinity of Bury will know the sound (or is that howl?) of Napier.

D9016 (55016) arrives into Bolton St Station

All 5 Deltics will run on both days as well as D335 (class 40 40135) which will be running a shuttle service.  Full timetable and details can be found here.