Hornby Sentinel - including cranked version

[stu105e]

I hope they do the rod drive in either 040 or 060 form. They could sell it in many more liveries.

 

I work at Tata Steel, Skinningrove and we still use 2x 0-6-0 sentinels in all yellow, hired from LH group Sevices.

In 1963, British steel skinningrove as it was then bought 9 sentinels direct from shrewsbury, in one long line. they were all green, with red bufferbeams. Side rods were also red. Since then all the original sentinels have been scrapped, but several other sentinels have passed through. Others include 0-4-0 chain drives, 0-6-0 rod drives.

Over the ages the locos have been green, and BSC yellow and white. Hope Hornby do some of the british steel livery.

 

A flickr search of ''sentinel skinningrove'' will show some of these locos. (Please view my pics on there, as stu105e)

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/46120187@N08/        Link to my photostream with many pics of the more recent works locos; sents, and 0-6-0 yorkshires. 

 

It would be nice to be able to buy part finished locos from Hornby for us to paint in our own colours and then apply the decals if we so desire. Saves them producing as many colours as we all prefer, and keeps the cost down of production.

 

I will buy one of these once the initial rush has gone. It will nicly compliment my scratchbuilt GEC Stephenson as used by British steel Redcar. (Also pics of work in progress of this model on flickr stream)

 

Stu 

 

 

 

 

 

[Arthur]

Talking of BSC Sentinels, I've one in the shops at the moment;

 

 

I'll post some more photos when it's finished.

[stu105e]

I like that a lot. Is that a Hornby one? or another make. Where did you find the BSC logo. What shade of yellow. Ive not been able to colour match anything too yellow or too orange. that looks fab. Well done. 

[Arthur]

Yes, it's Hornby, originally a red Esso version. It was stripped down, primed with Tamiya white surface primer (a white primer is essential to get good coverage with yellow) and then sprayed with a Humbrol aerosol. Just a bright yellow, I'll check the reference tomorrow. I bought it for another project but it gave such a thin coat with good coverage that I used it for this. The decals are home made, printed onto Crafty Computer Paper clear decal sheet, and settled down with Solvaset. The logo was scanned from a BSC document and I work it all together with Serif PagePlus software.

[stu105e]

Nice.  Thank You. The colour will work on my BSC GEC Stephenson. Once i get the directional lights fixed in, and roof on that is. 

 

Stu  

[icphotos]

Lovely model Arthur, don't know why Hornby painted their Sentinels, should have left them with a coat of primer!

There are endless possibilities for liveries that should keep Hornby in business for next decade, or two.

[pauliebanger]

This thread is really inspirational. There's obviously a lot of pent-up requirements for small locos, particularly private owner/industrial types.

 

There are a few things that some of us would have prefered to have been executed differently, but overall I feel Hornby have produced a really good model which, demonstrably, provides a very convincing basis for us to customise quickly and effectively.

 

The brilliant thing is that everyone could have one, but there's no need for any two to look alike yet still remain prototypical.

 

So that's a thumbs-up for Hornby and thumbs-up for all of you converters.

 

I'm loving this thread, so keep your photo's coming in, please!

 

Kind regards,

 

Paul

[Ruston]

Look, I do O gauge! I don't do OO!

 

Oh sod it! I need one of these and a shunting plank to run it on. The fitting out of the shed for the new O gauge layout has stalled due to the cold and a spot of ill-health so a bit of back to basics OO with tension lock couplers and all can't do any harm, can it?

[Ruston]

One question before I take the plunge...

 

I've been knocking a track plan together and it involved Hornby R612 & R613 points (the tightest radius, I think). I presume these are insulfrog? How well does this model handle such points with such a short wheelbase and only 4 wheels?

[PaulRhB]

Why not use the Peco small electro frog to eliminate any worries?

[Butler Henderson]

There are endless possibilities for liveries that should keep Hornby in business for next decade, or two.

And therein lies one of the mysteries of Hornbys 2014 new releases, no further vrersions announced.You can see what will happen for 2015, more of these and the rod version as well and numerous people getting mixed up over which release is which version.

[Ruston]

Why not use the Peco small electro frog to eliminate any worries?

Doesn't fit my trackplan, I'm afraid. I've based it on the tightest and shortest points I can find and the Peco stuff is that bit longer than the Hornby stuff. Hopefully someone who has one of these locos can answer and tell me that they're fine, otherwise I'll have to rethink and do as you suggest.

 

Trackplan here - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/80845-proposed-layout-for-the-new-Hornby-sentinel/

Edited January 10, 2014 by Ruston

[Crantock]

I sinfully had a layout with 3 setrack points at key locations such that I could not get rid of without changing the whole geometry.  As the lesson sank in and every other point was switched to electrofrog I was left with these. I converted to electrofrog by soldering in replacements for the plastic bits.  Messy but doable.  

 

Otherwise use a reach wagon permanently coupled and with pickups.

[pauliebanger]

Doesn't fit my trackplan, I'm afraid. I've based it on the tightest and shortest points I can find and the Peco stuff is that bit longer than the Hornby stuff. Hopefully someone who has one of these locos can answer and tell me that they're fine, otherwise I'll have to rethink and do as you suggest.

 

Trackplan here - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/80845-proposed-layout-for-the-new-Hornby-sentinel/

 

This is a very short wheelbase loco with very small wheels. In the poor quality video I posted earlier, the loco managed to push 9 wagons quite slowly including crossing a set of points. But these were electrofrog points. I don't have any insulfrog to compare, but I would think you may be pushing things to, if not beyond, the limit for reliability.

 

A tethered wagon with rail pick-ups would improve things, but that's probably not a solution many would be happy with.

 

Paul

[bigherb]

One question before I take the plunge...

 

I've been knocking a track plan together and it involved Hornby R612 & R613 points (the tightest radius, I think). I presume these are insulfrog? How well does this model handle such points with such a short wheelbase and only 4 wheels?

I found an old Hornby R8073 setrack point not sure how old it is or if the newer Hornby track is any different and how much it differs from the older R612/3 points . The Sentinel will traverse over it but not at dead slow speed and the heavy motor end drops into the frog. If you need a points that radius then I think the Peco equivalent might be better but couldn't find one of those.

I compressed the video to MP4 makes it a bit jerky, It's not the model which runs very smoothly.

 

[Ruston]

Thanks for that. I've adapted the trackplan for Peco track now and have bought a loco today.

 

I'm trying to work out how the couplings come out to replace one end with the blanking plate. How do you get the air reservoir off the engine end to get to the coupling?

[Arthur]

Dave, pm sent but the air reservoir just pulls off, it has four round locating pips which push into matching holes, no glue is used, well certainly not on mine.

[Butler Henderson]

The coupling should just pull out of the NEM mount without having to remove the air reservoir. On mine I have fitted kadee 19s and trimmed the bufferbeam add on plates to fit around it, the air reservoir is a useful gluing point for that end, at the other I have tacked ut to the kadee/nem mount. Obviously means no horizontal movement but with the swivel head on the kadee and 2ft radius min curves it should be okay.

[RJL]

I've just been doing the review for the March copy of the mag.

 

Ess2s.jpg

 

Has anyone looked at the instruction leaflet and the class notes slip of paper closely?   

 

Sent3s.jpg

 

Hope that they produce a rod driven one later mind you at this rate we won't see that variant until 2016 ( I'd order one mind)

[Leadmill]

How easy is the model to disassemble for painting etc? I haven't much experience in taking loco's apart and I don't want to break it. I want to respray main body to resemble something a bit like this.

Or this

[Arthur]

Easy enough. You need to remove the coupling pockets, they prise out. There are two screws recessed into the chassis block, one fore and one aft. Remove them, the small bonnet just lifts off, the cab and long bonnet needs to be raised and tilted forward to disengage it from the lugs above the buffer beam. The ends of the handrails need to be released from the sides of the buffer beams, they just pull out.

 

The side panels are more difficult, they have two locating lugs but they're glued in. You need to work on them, carefully, with a scalpel to loosen them before prising them out. They will release but take it slowly.

[Intercity125]

One question before I take the plunge...

 

I've been knocking a track plan together and it involved Hornby R612 & R613 points (the tightest radius, I think). I presume these are insulfrog? How well does this model handle such points with such a short wheelbase and only 4 wheels?

Hi Ruston,

 

Speaking from experience I would avoid using insulfrog points at all costs. Firstly, they won't suit short wheelbase locos like the Sentinel, and secondly there is a slight dip where the insulfrog plastic is making the loco and wagons jump slightly as they go over it. With live frog pointwork you get smoother running and there is no dip in the pointwork meaning loco and stock run smoothly over it.

 

My test track is second radius with live frog pointwork and the Sentinel runs beautifully despite the baseboard being slightly uneven (warped MDF surface even with softwood timber framing).

 

Regards,

 

Paul

[Intercity125]

I found an old Hornby R8073 setrack point not sure how old it is or if the newer Hornby track is any different and how much it differs from the older R612/3 points . The Sentinel will traverse over it but not at dead slow speed and the heavy motor end drops into the frog. If you need a points that radius then I think the Peco equivalent might be better but couldn't find one of those.

I compressed the video to MP4 makes it a bit jerky, It's not the model which runs very smoothly.

 

Thanks bigherb for posting the video showing the use of insulfrog type pointwork. I'm not a fan of insulfrog (as per my previous posting) and strongly recommend live frog pointwork for smooth electrical continuity and even running over the frog.

[bigherb]

How easy is the model to disassemble for painting etc? I haven't much experience in taking loco's apart and I don't want to break it. I want to respray main body to resemble something a bit like this.

 

Be careful of the light pods on the ends of the footplate they are very delicate I damaged one whilst prising out a rather well glued in hand rail.

[Arthur]

A thought about re-assembly. If you do take out the side panels you will probably find that they don't fit back quite so well. That's because of the dried glue left behind. Clear out the slots in the footplate with the tip of a scalpel blade and clean up the lugs on the bottom of the side sheets with a needle file.