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Fell 10100 4-8-4DM (later 4-4-4-4DM)

The Fell diesel mechanical was an interesting prototype diesel locomotive, built as an attempt to prove the viability of a mechanically driven mainline locomotive. Built in 1951 at Derby Works, it had no less than six engines with four of them powering the locomotive through a very complicated gearbox driving the two inner axles. Two Paxman engines were located in each nose section. The other two engines in the main body drove the superchargers. Originally built as a 4-8-4, problems were experienced with the gearbox fighting the centre coupling rods. These rods were subsequently removed and it became a 4-4-4-4. Constantly in the works receiving modifications, no two pictures seem to show the same detail as bits were constantly being added, removed or plated over. Originally in black and silver livery, it received a repaint into green shortly before a fire caused by the steam heating boiler finally put it out of action in 1958.

A1 Models produced an etched brass kit many years ago. I bought one and built it, as illustrated, in the later BR Lined Green livery as a 4-4-4-4. It's not the best performer in this configuration and I do need to have a look at the power train.

Another etched brass kit has been produced by Judith Edge Models in 2019. It looks very good and I did consider building this kit as a black 4-4-4-4.

KR Models announced at the 2019 Warley Show that they were intending to produce an RTR version. This duly appeared in September 2022 and I had pre-ordered a black liveried version. I had high hopes for this model as well as saving me time in building the Judith Edge kit. Well, oh dear, oh dear! Not quite what I was hoping for. The paint finish although good, is a little too glossy for me. The main problem is that one side is different to the other. They should be pretty much the same in main features. One side seems to represent the locomotive early in its life whereas the other side seems to represent it more or less in its final condition. This is most noticeable by the number of grilles of the nose. It originally had two each side, but this was increased to four later on. One side of the model is the two grille version whereas the other side is the four grille version. This makes a difference to where the numbers were placed. They were originally on the nose, but when the extra grilles were added, the numbers were moved to behind the cabs. The centre windows were removed and replaced with grilles at some stage, certainly by the time it had acquired the extra nose grilles, but the model has windows both sides. Extra air intakes were added to the cab roof taking it from two to four intakes. The model has four intakes representing it in its later life.

There should be two silencers and exhausts mounted in the middle of the main roof section. The model only has one on one side. The boiler fillers are not represented and some of the body side roof access steps are missing. The frame detail is a little lacking and no attempt has been made to represent the bifurcated driving wheels and their quill drives. However, you cannot really see this anyway. One thing KR Models did get right is the difference in size of the fly cranks, the inner two are slightly larger than the outer two!

Lighting seems to be an issue again, as with their previous GT3 model. To paraphrase Eric Morecambe, it's all the right lights, but not necessarily in the right order! I shall have an investigate and see what can be done to correct this.

My model seems to run okay so far, but there have been issues with others with wheels slipping on axles and consequently bending the connecting rods.

I will fit a dcc decoder to the model, but I am not particularly happy with the model. It was not what I was expecting or hoping for. I realise it is difficult to model a prototype that had constant body work alterations, but I feel it would have been better to model it later in its life and have it right for one period. I am seriously thinking about building the Judith Edge kit to get an accurate model of the Fell.