Fell Diesel

[Jeff Mennell]

I wonder if this would be a best seller in oo gauge?

 

[Postman Prat]

I'd be amazed if they sold more than half a dozen. It was as ugly as sin and was a rotten performer. Nothing to attract people (most people have never even heard of it)

[LCDR]

 A complete 'no-hoper', I have seen scratch built models, but it really was a 'white elephant' and few people ever saw it when it was still in existence.  It spent a lot of its time being repaired.

 

There is probably more chance of the GWR gas turbine than this one, even though these were pretty unreliable too.

[Jeff Mennell]

Ok, what about the 'Leader' class? Not quite as ugly? Would you have it on your wish list?

[LCDR]

 Even worse! One of the biggest mistakes ever made by the Southern Railway Management Board, why Bullied was ever allowed to spend money on this monstrosity I fail to understand.

 

It cooked firemen, and was a shy steamer, only one was ever steamed and made a handful of test runs. where many of its mechanical features were proved to be hopeless. These disasters also included chain driven valve gear, chain coupled wheels, sleeve valves, multiple small cylinders, uneven weight distribution, difficult water filling, the list went on and on.

 

36001 was the only one that was steamed, 36002 was almost finished, the last three 36003-5 were never finished and the remains were quietly scrapped.

 

Bullied left BR before the class were finally  tested, and went to the CIE as CME where he built another one, CC1, which burned turf. That one too was not a huge success.

[Postman Prat]

My word, Jeff. You're really digging up the obscure 'dogs' today      😆

[Jeff Mennell]

PP...........and the ?hits just keep on coming!!

 

It seems Leader was too complicated to be a success:-

 

https://youtu.be/ZtRcbsI5kY4

 

[2e0dtoeric]

Seems to be about as useful as Brunel's vacuum driven railway!

[Postman Prat]

 The Fell wasn't that good

[LCDR]

 There are quite a few useless locomotives to choose from if you want a few 'no-hopers' (some already mentioned).

Here are a few -

Novelty

Velocipede

GWR / Hawthorn "Thunderer"

Crampton Long Boiler single wheelers for the SER

Fowler's Ghost for the Metropolitan

Webb LNWR and Adams LSWR double singles

GER Decapod

Pagets 2-6-2 for the Midland Railway

The Kitston-Still Steam Electric

Fowler's Fury

Gresley's Water Tube Boiler W1

Stanier's Turbomotive

Bulleid's streamlined Schools

Churchward's Great Bear

Churchward's Manorbier Castle

Bulleid's Leader

The Fell Diesel

The GWR /BR gas turbines

GT3

The class 74 electro diesel

There will certainly be others.

[2e0dtoeric]

Waiting to see if the new Hitachi can cope with being soaked with salt-water on the Dawlish coast line! Have you noticed they only 'test' it on calm sunny days!

[LCDR]

 Very true. There have been some selective design faults only discovered after the vehicle has been in service in all conditions, Remember the "wrong kind of snow" which got into the traction motors of electric stock.

 

It isn't just locomotives. BR built a fleet of vans for carrying palletised goods in  the late 1950s which had doors in diagonal opposite corners. Within months these were derailing at speed, and the whole fleet was grounded.  With the arrangement of doors it was impossible to distribute the load and the uneven weight on the springs caused the whole wagon to bounce. Fork lifts were used to place the pallets in the van and these could only load into one end making one end heavier than the other.

 

The entire fleet was withdrawn with many ending up as stores at the end of goods yards, like this one -

 

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[Fazy]

The fell I would not think so. However with the new buld leader taking shape your might be in with a chance. 

[Jeff Mennell]

Oh yes I remember that........... wasn't it announced during early part of last April?

[Fazy]

Can't tell you when it was announced.  But there's a facebook page, with photos of work so far. 

[Jeff Mennell]

Oh yes I remember that........... wasn't it announced during early part of last April?

 

 

 Ist April if I recall.......... 😀

[Rule 1 Applies]

Can't tell you when it was announced.  But there's a facebook page

Always the most important part of any new-build fantasy...!

[The son of Triangman]

The GER deccapod wasn't a failure it achieved the goals required. It was built to show steam could accelerate as fast as electric on suburban services which it did. Thus saving the GER the cost of electrification.

[The son of Triangman]

The original form of the W1 wasn't great but as a test bed for developing the Kylchap blastpipe for later locos such as the A4's it was handy. In rebuilt form the loco was a great loco.

[LCDR]

 OK arguably successful as one-off experiments, but they were not perpetuated though, and ended up heavily rebuilt form. Success can also be measured in terms of practicality and I suspect the Great Eastern were eventually perfectly happy with the L77 (N7) fleet to whisk the good citizens of Essex in and out of Liverpool Street, at less cost and complexity. 

 

Water tube boilers never really caught on either, they were OK in power stations where they could be made big enough to do the job efficiently but on locomotives the Stephenson fire tube boiler held sway.  They could be pretty dangerous too. No doubt the rebuilt W1 was a great machine but came too late and was stifled by Hitler's War. It suffered also from the passing if its designer who was replaced by an engineer who valued simplicity over brilliance.  

 

Quite often  rebuilds surpassed the originals, cases in point were the Royal Scots, and the Merchant Navys, where a mediocre machine was improved to the point of superlative.  

 

As models 'one-offs' seem to do better as personal projects, rather than as mass produced items. A labour of love can produce a interesting talking point, and a challenge. I have seen quite a few hand built models, including the Fell, the W1 and GT3, which are great attention grabbers at exhibitions.

[LCDR]

 The early BR diesels and electrics were a very mixed bunch. They all appeared between 1947 and 1952.

The LMS 1600hp Co-Co 'twins' were quite well known despite there being only the two, and there is a RTR OO scale version sold by Hattons and Bachmann. Numbers 10000 and 10001

The three Bulleid/English Electric  1Co-Co1s 1750/2000 hp which were the precursors of the class 40s. and a model of which will be available in OO scale from Kernow soon. Numbers 10201 to 10203

These five were fairly successful and lasted until the early 1960s.

Then there was an 827hp Bo-Bo built by North British 10800 which was similar to the later D8400 series and which was later used by Brush electrical for a test unit.

Then there was the Fell 2D2 no 10100 which really wasn't all that successful. It spent a lot of time being mended and was finally scrapped in 1960 having been out of use for nearly two years.

and last but not least there was a peculiar 600 hp 0-6-0 designed by Bulleid for heavy shunting and trip work, and which spent most of its time around Norwood, being finally scrapped in 1959.

 

Turning to the electrics the EM1 Bo+Bo 26000- 57  and EM2 Co-Co  27000 - 6 classes were very successful, they were dedicated to use on the Manchester Sheffield and Wath route and the EM1s were in service right up until the line closed in 1983. The EM2s were sold to the Dutch railways and most were still in service in 1984.

The Southern built three  Co-Co units 20001 - 20003 which spent most of their lives on the Brighton line. Railwaymen occasionally referred to them as 'Hornbys'.They were scrapped in 1969.

The Great Western Gas turbines need a mention. An A1A-A1A 2450 hp machine appeared in 1950 18000 and a Co-Co 3000 hp machine 18100 in 1952. Very much an experiment they lasted until 1960 / 1963, although 18100 had been converted to AC electric only in 1958. The nickname "Kerosene Castle" was occasionally applied to them.