John Barraclough Fell

Who was John Barraclough Fell?

John Barraclough Fell, was a British railway engineer and inventor of the Fell mountain railway system.

Fell spent the early part of his life in London, living with his parents. About 1835 he moved with them to the Lake District. In 1840, he married a 25-year-old woman named Martha in Kirkstall, England. In this area he worked on the first of several railways he would help construct: the Furness and Whitehaven Railway.

He continued working professionally on railways while living in Italy in the 1850s. Fell helped construct several early Italian lines, including the Central of Italy, the Meremma, and the Genoa and Voltre. He frequently crossed Mont Cenis, between Italy and France by road, and this reportedly inspired him to create his Fell Centre-Rail System.

The Fell Centre-Rail System tackled the problem of trains climbing and descending steep grades, which was often necessary until improvements in tunneling were developed. In Fell's system, a third rail was run between the two rails of the train tracks, and was gripped on its sides by additional drive wheels on a specially designed locomotive as well as the brake pads of a special brake van. Back in England, a patent was issued to Fell for the idea in 1863. Fell conducted experiments with his idea in 1864-65 on the Whaley Bridge Incline of the Cromford and High Peak Railway located in Derbyshire.