Springburn Virtual Museum

Railway industry

Royal train, climbing the Rimutaka Incline, New Zealand, 1930s

Some engines built for foreign markets had very different specifications from those built for British use. Some burned wood instead of coal, some had different gauges (the distance between the rails) from the British standard gauge of four feet eight-and-a-half inches, and some had to solve problems of wheels slipping on steep mountain inclines.

This engine used John Barraclough Fell's patented centre-rail system, whereby a pair of horizontal driving wheels applied traction forces to a centre rail, a significant advance over previous designs of centre rail use.

Engines numbers 203, 199 and 201 are here shown pulling the Royal train up the famous Rimutaka Incline in New Zealand. H199 is preserved in Featherston, New Zealand, and is believed to be the only Fell locomotive remaining.

Source: Glasgow City Archives