TWO locomotives owned by a Huddersfield businessman attracted railway enthusiasts to town yesterday.
Yorkshire-owned heritage Deltic locomotive, 55 022 Royal Scots Grey hauled four of the surviving Deltic locomotives from the Shildon National Railway Museum in Darlington to the East Lancashire Railway for the special Deltic Gathering event.
They passed through Huddersfield Railway Station, the hometown of their owner, Martin Walker, managing director of Huddersfield-based scuba diving equipment firm Beaver Sports Ltd.
He owns the 55 022 Royal Scots Grey, which is the only Deltic capable of mainline service as it is equipped with the necessary equipment, and the D9016 Gordon Highlander.
The fleet of 22 classic 1961 locomotives were built to haul express services on the prestige inter-city route between King’s Cross and Edinburgh. By the early 1980s the Deltic Class 55 locomotives were being phased out by the new Inter-City 125 trains and by the beginning of 1982 the retirement was complete.
Out of the 22 locomotives built only six survived from the scrap yard.
Mr Walkers owns two, the National Railway Museum in York owns one, the 55 002 King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, which is undergoing extensive renovation work to get it back to working order.
