My first motorbikes were all small capacity two-strokes and the simplicity of these engines lent themselves well to the task. Simple because they had no moving valves and lubrication was taken care of by combining oil with petrol (either pre-mix or injected) but burning the oil did make them a bit smoky with a tell-tale blue haze following you around. It's for reasons of limiting emissions that two-strokes of all sizes have now been all but eliminated from the new market.
Going up in size just a little we find that small capacity motorcycles were not the only uses for two-strokes as Napier built a 'Deltic' configuration two-stroke diesel engine for both marine and railway use and, the subject of this picture, is the Class 55 'Deltic' railway engine. Just in case an 18 cylinder, 36 piston, 1,650 hp, supercharged engine was found wanting two were fitted.
Six made it into preservation and D9009 'Alycidon' came to town yesterday hauling the Torbay & Dart Explorer. It took me by surprise on the way down; I was sat in the garden when I was hit by this cacophony of noise that I thought was a helicopter flying at cliff-top height - then this rattled into view. "Bloody hell, it's a Deltic!" I shouted to my wife (why she wasn't as excited as I was I really don't know
).
On the return I was more prepared and managed to grab this shot of it climbing the bank out of Paignton just passing us at Hollicombe:
IMG_7331 by John Leah, on Flickr
It took a while for the blue smoke to clear but it was worth it to see, and hear, a Deltic in action and in anger for the first time. True it's not steam but a fine second
Cheers,
John
Going up in size just a little we find that small capacity motorcycles were not the only uses for two-strokes as Napier built a 'Deltic' configuration two-stroke diesel engine for both marine and railway use and, the subject of this picture, is the Class 55 'Deltic' railway engine. Just in case an 18 cylinder, 36 piston, 1,650 hp, supercharged engine was found wanting two were fitted.
Six made it into preservation and D9009 'Alycidon' came to town yesterday hauling the Torbay & Dart Explorer. It took me by surprise on the way down; I was sat in the garden when I was hit by this cacophony of noise that I thought was a helicopter flying at cliff-top height - then this rattled into view. "Bloody hell, it's a Deltic!" I shouted to my wife (why she wasn't as excited as I was I really don't know
).On the return I was more prepared and managed to grab this shot of it climbing the bank out of Paignton just passing us at Hollicombe:
IMG_7331 by John Leah, on FlickrIt took a while for the blue smoke to clear but it was worth it to see, and hear, a Deltic in action and in anger for the first time. True it's not steam but a fine second
Cheers,
John
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