Image ID: 16380

DP2 Locomotive at Retford Railway Station, 1964

Courtesy of John A Thickitt

Railway Station
Retford
England

The DP2 was an experimental locomotive built by English Electric and the only one of its kind. The locomotive had a 'type four' power rating. DP2 did not carry the standard diesel livery of two-tone green, being painted bronze, only relieved by canary-yellow panels at each end. The latter were a safety feature, to aid visibility for those on the track. During the period summer 1964 to at least summer 1965, DP2 was often rostered to haul Pullman trains' between London and Sheffield. However, it shared this duty with other diesel locomotives'. Once during the period June to August 1965, English Electric Company technicians' were noted attending to the locomotive at King's Cross. It is pictured here at platform two of Retford Station. It is hauling the 'down' (to Sheffield) 'Sheffield Pullman' Express (this was the return working of the morning 'Master Cutler'. On reaching Sheffield, the 'Sheffield Pullman' would make another journey to Kings Cross and return around teatime, as the Master Cutler, i.e. Retford, had two return Pullman services between Sheffield and Kings Cross. Over time there was some variation in the Pullman Cars provided for this train. On this occasion the names and numbers of the set were Hawk, Eagle, 350, 68 and 335. The alpha-numeric characters on the front of the locomotive formed the Train Reporting Code. This can be interpreted as: '1' an express passenger train; 'G' the train's destination, in this case the lines of the former Great Central Railway in Sheffield (this train terminated at Victoria Station). '60' as there was more than one train running over this route, this is the number allocated to this train.

Date: 07/08/1964

Organisation Reference: NCCN002992

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