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48ton 0-6-0DH "Tom"

An addition to Andrew's collection during 2010 is a Sentinel 0-6-0DH, works number 10180 of 1964.

The Sentinel diesel hydraulic range started following the takeover of Sentinel (Shrewsbury) Ltd by Rolls-Royce in 1956. First product was a 4w 34ton loco that was developed 1958-9 and given works number 10001. Its chassis was basically that of the 200hp Sentinel steam loco, even to a 3" thick cross stretcher in the frame would have supported the boiler. (Sentinel 10003 is now part of the National Collection). The second model was the 48ton 0-6-0, and the first of these, 10032, was actually built on a Sentinel steam loco chassis, returned for the purpose by Dorman Long. A historical result of this is that all Sentinel 0-6-0s drove on the middle axle, which squeezed the 8-cylinder power unit to the forward half of the loco, preventing a front cross-walkway or "proper" prop-shaft. All other manufacturers 0-6-0s drove on the rear axle.

By 1964 Sentinel had added 0-4-0 and 0-8-0 models and won a Capital Goods Design Award, and went on in 1967 to add a shaft-drive 6w "Steelman", which was comparable with the best in European practice at the time. But sales of Steelman were hit by the sales of BR Class 14s and the general contraction in the industrial locomotive industry following the Beeching closure programme, and planned smaller 2 and 3 axle Steelman designs never reached fruition under R-R auspices. R-R Sentinel locomotive production ceased at Shrewsbury in 1971.

The rod coupled 0-6-0 remained a stalwart product, and although almost all were built with Rolls-Royce C8SFL engines (the last few were provided with C8TFL, i.e. turbocharged as opposed to supercharged) today some of the remaining locos have been repowered with Perkins 2006, Cummins NT855 and others. A batch of licence-build locos were also assembled at 5'6" gauge for Portuguese railways.

10180 was built for the NCB, (delivered 27th February 1964) and worked for most of its life at Cadeby Main Colliery near Conisborough (where it was named "Ken No.67"). In June 1975, when due for an overhaul, it was taken to Hunslet in Leeds for a "strip, exam and quote". Quite why it went to Leeds rather than Thomas Hills' works at Kilnhurst is unclear, but after receiving the quote, the technical specification of the work was taken to TH for a comparison costing. TH pointed out, for example, that Hunslet proposed to true up  crankpins by turning undersize which was regarded as bad practice on a Sentinel, and the upshot was that the loco was removed in December 1975, in pieces, for the overhaul to be carried out at Kilnhurst, returning to Cadeby on completion in June 1976. When Cadeby was being run down preparatory to closure, it transferred to Maltby colliery (8th May 1987) from there passing first into preservation with the South Yorkshire Railway at Meadowhall. The SYR later metamorphosed into the Heritage Shunters Trust at Rowsley, but 10180 moved to Rutland Railway Museum, where a long and extensive restoration programme has been in hand. For personal reasons the owner was finding it difficult to maintain progress, and when Andrew was offered it, he moved quickly to secure it for the collection, where it fills one of the major gaps in the industrial loco story.

On the 18th August 2010 it was moved from Rutland Railway Museum to its new home on the Telford Steam Railway - coincidentally on the birthday of the loco's namesake. By very late 2010 work commenced lifting the Rolls-Royce C8SFL engine out so that the converter could be installed and the old engine mountings changed. It is hoped that the loco will be running during 2011.

(Historical notes on 10180 in part from "A Railway History of Denaby & Cadeby Collieries" by A J Booth, IRS Publications 1990 with additional information from Bob Darvill of the IRS.)