Its one of the most unusual prototype diesels built for British Railways, and now you can buy a ready-to-run ‘OO’ gauge version. MIKE WILD inspects KR Models all-new model of the unique Fell 2-D-2 diesel locomotive with an exclusive video demonstration of its sound functions.
ON FIRST GLANCE you could be forgiven for thinking that this couldn’t be a real locomotive, but it was. And even though its outward appearance was unlike anything else, inside it was even more unorthodox as it had six separate diesel engines to deliver 2,000hp at a time when diesel locomotive technology was in its infancy.
The real Fell diesel locomotive was created between Fell Developments and LMS Chief Locomotive Engineer Henry Ivatt at the end of the 1940s with construction carried out at Derby Works. It was designed to work around the big challenge of the era for diesel traction: weight. The design called for six separate diesel engines (two auxiliary and four for traction) which was intended to reduce the overall weight by using smaller engines, but also deliver a high power output, which it did. At the time of its introduction in 1951 the Fell 2-D-2 was the most powerful diesel locomotive to operate on the British railway network delivering 2,000h…
