This triangle-shaped diesel engine with 38 pistons is one of the weirdest ever made

This triangle-shaped diesel engine with 38 pistons is one of the weirdest ever, maybe.

The Napier Deltic diesel triangle-18 is a truly bizarre creation, with no cylinder heads, and three crankshafts which each contains 12 pistons.

It’s also shaped like a pizza slice, but that’s hardly the strangest thing about this piece of tech.

But oddities aside, the question remains – how did this quirky triangle-shaped diesel engine come to be?

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The backstory to the triangle-shaped diesel engine with 38 pistons

The story of the Napier Deltic begins back during World War II, when England’s torpedo boats ran on gasoline.

The big disadvantage to this was that gasoline isn’t great in an environment where open flames and sparks are bound to occur, AKA, a war zone.

The British Admiralty wanted a high-speed diesel as a safer alternative.

This is where German engine manufacturer Junkers comes into the picture.

The company’s Jumo 204 engines used two banks of six cylinders with 12 pistons.

Fortunately for the British, an English company had licensed the design back in 1933.

Napier had created its own version called the Culverin.

In 1934, the British Air Ministry had contracted the company to create seven 720hp Culverins for testing, but things didn’t go any further.

Eight years later, Napier was purchased by English Electric.

The following year, the British Admiralty wanted to find a manufacturer for its high-speed diesel.

Although Napier didn’t get the engine finished in wartime, the Admiralty still wanted it and awarded Napier a development contract in 1946.

Was the Napier Deltic ever rolled out?

The Napier Deltic diesel triangle-18 was finished in March 1950, after a lot of hard work.

It stood at 11 feet long, six feet wide, and seven feet tall, and weighed in at 88.3 liters and 8,7250lbs.

As you might imagine, this was never going to power cars – the size alone would rule that out.

Not that it’s as big as the world’s biggest, which is as tall as a four-story building.

But its destined place was in trains and boats.

It served this purpose from 1955 onwards, where it was capable of 5,000 hours of power before requiring an overhaul.

At one point, the engine also found its way into the New York City Fire Department.

Whilst it was undoubtedly powerful, it required careful maintenance.

It wouldn’t be around forever, though, and by 1978, high-speed rail was proving to be a threat, Jalopnik reported.

In January 1982, the Deltic made its final journey from King’s Cross in London to Edinburgh.

Of the 22 Deltic locomotives made, six have survived to this day.

Three remain with the Deltic Preservation Society.

RIP to the Napier Deltic, truly a case of ‘Gone but not forgotten’.

We love seeing historic engines being given their due, like the rear engine of the Sunbeam 1000hp Mystery.

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