Mike Baker 1935 - 2025
We were deeply saddened to hear of the death last week of Mike Baker, after a short illness.
Born in Hounslow in 1935, Mike joined Napier at their Acton works and soon began to work with Deltic engines – something he did for his entire working life. The word ‘expert’ is rather too freely applied these days but for Mike it was an epithet well-earned. His involvement with Deltics cannot be over-stated. As well as travelling most of the world to provide service support to the Royal Navy, other navies and users of static Deltic engines, Mike was heavily involved with both types of rail-traction Deltic, working regularly and frequently with BR on them providing guidance, advice and technical riding services on behalf of his employer. The Class 55 Technical Working Group meeting minutes contained many comments suggesting that ‘Mr Baker of Messrs Paxman will ride the loco and identify the fault’, and so he did.
He was – so far as we know – the last person to work on D5901 before the RTC disposed of it having been called in to rectify the effects of an exhaust fire, recounting that, “We put it on a load bank and blew all the shit out of it!”
In later years Mike became a regular recipient of calls from ‘new’ users of Deltic as the locos re-entered periods of intensive use on their second mainline career. He was instrumental in arranging for the Baby Deltic Project to store our recently acquired engine at MAN (as Paxman had become), Colchester and was a constant source of advice and encouragement during the rebuild of the engine.
Mike retired in the mid-2000’s after continuing his involvement with the 9-cylinder Deltic for the Royal Navy’s new overhauler; Roll-Royce Specialist Engines.
The Deltic world is poorer for his loss and we salute his massive contribution. Thank you.
Outside of work Mike was a dedicated family man and it is to his family that we offer our most sincere condolences for their loss.
The Baby Deltic Project
D5910 lottery - contribute towards the loco re-creation
and enter a prize draw to win £250!
We've launched a lottery to raise funds to towards the re-creation of a Baby Deltic. Tickets are £10 per month and each month there will be a chance to win £250. Details are below, please consider entering the lottery to help speed the project along.
Existing standing order donors will automatically be entered into the lottery - please contact us if you do not wish to be entered automatically.
As the lottery progresses details of prizes and the funds raised will be published on the dedicated lottery page, see the link in the header above.
To buy a ticket to enter the Baby Deltic Lottery.
Set up a standing order to the Baby Deltic Project for £10 a month, see our bank details below.
Read the lottery rules below.
Click the button at the end of the rules to email us and tell us that you want to buy a ticket.
We will email you back to confirm your entry.
Thank you for supporting the Baby Deltic Project - good luck!
Bank Details: The Baby Deltic Project, HSBC Commercial Bank plc.
Sort code 40 19 15
Account number 72535408
Lottery rules.
1. The lottery is run by the Baby Deltic Project (BDP) with the intent to raise funds towards the recreation of a Baby Deltic locomotive.
2. The lottery is to be known as ‘The 5910 Lottery’ – reflecting the number of the recreated loco. The lottery is licenced with South Derbyshire District Council as required by the Gambling Act, 2005.
3. There are a maximum of 59 tickets available at £10 each. If the lottery is over-subscribed a waiting list will be held. The ticket number of each entry is automatically generated by the BDP and cannot be changed.
4. Entry is by starting and maintaining a standing order of £10 per month to the Baby Deltic Project. There is no limit to the number of tickets a person may buy, each ticket is £10. Entries may only be purchased via the BDP website and must include a notification to the BDP of the acceptance of these rules and also include an email address or telephone number. Payment for the ticket must be made at the latest by 18h00 on the Friday preceding the draw.
5. Notification of entry, including the number of the ticket number will be by email within two days of purchase.
6. Each £10 entry goes into the monthly lottery fund, there will be one prize per month and this will be 50% of the lottery fund, capped at a maximum of £250.
7. The winning entry will be determined as the number drawn as the bonus ball in the UK National Lottery (“Lotto”) draw on the last Saturday of each month. The first draw will be 22 February 2025.
8. The winner will be notified by email (or by telephone) by the Monday after the draw, the prize will be paid by electronic fund transfer to the winners bank account.
9. In the event that no ticket matches the winning number the prize fund will rollover to the next draw. In the event that no ticket matches the winning number again, the prize fund will all go to the BDP and the fund will restart as described in 6 above.
10. Existing standing order donors (as at 1 February 2025) will automatically hold one entry to the lottery, unless they opt-out for any reason. Opt-out may be notified by any reasonable contact method.
11. The success of the lottery will be reviewed in September 2025 and thereafter every 12-months, the BDP reserves the right to suspend or cancel the lottery in the event that it is not deemed a success. Any person who holds an entry at this point will be offered the chance to cancel their standing order payment to the BDP.
12. Other than by using the bonus ball as described in 7 above, there is no connection with the UK National Lottery (“Lotto”).
What's the latest on the project?Click this button
Remember that the ONLY place to get regular, accurate, unfettered news about the Baby Deltic Project is this website. Wherever else you see news - however it is presented - unless it's come from us then it's not likely to be accurate, also, bear in mind that a lot of websites are affiliated to Amazon, and other similar advert heavy providers and that by using them you provide income to them and not to the societies and groups they purport to support.
Click the link above for accuracy.......
Press and other similar enquires
For press or other similar enquiries - we will shortly be launching a press release page, the navigation to this will be in the website header. The contact button above does work and should be used in the meantime.