10100 Fell loco

Judging by its history, the fact that the concept never developed, and the challenges facing other new build and pioneer diesel restoration schemes, I doubt very much that there’s much chance of seeing a Fell in action, or even a stuffed and mounted replica.


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Why? It was very complex, and not very good. A kind of diesel equivalent of the Leader. Admittedly, it did work in traffic, which the Leader didn't, but it was a similarly technical dead end.

 

Best buy the model if you want to see it running...

https://krmodels.net/shop/the-fell-oo-gauge/

 

Now, I would say that the Fell was more of a "Near miss" than a failure. The concept was actually good - only run the engines required for a particular power setting, thus keeping the running engines at high load, which is where they are most economical.

There's a working model of its gearbox in The Works at the NRM - a fascinating piece of engineering.

Mark

 

I was told earthmovers adapted this gearbox. Which nearly got saved for the Science Museum

 

The Fell reminds me of the locomotive described in Alexei Sayle's book Train To Hell, in which the diesel engine had been replaced with twenty Vauxhall Cresta engines and gearboxes...

 

twenty of the 3.3 six cylinder would probably do