Hornby 6w Sentinel

[luke_stevens]

1 hour ago, andythenorth said:

 

I almost bought another one to double-head which would probably improve performance a lot, but...fool me twice etc. 

 

If you do, it would probably worth wiring them together to get better pick up and performance

 

Luke

[Ruston]

My own DCC sound installation in progress.

 

I have used a Zimo MS500, with Paul Chetter's Sentinel sound project, from Digitrains. The speaker is a 15x11x5mm ESU and the Stay Alive is a Lais DCC 870001. The speaker will fit in the fuel tank area. Nothing has had to be chopped, except for putting a small hole in the driver's desk for the speaker wires, and the same in the back of the cab. The fuel tank needed some of the screw moulding to be ground out but if you use a smaller speaker that won't be necessary. Grinding it out doesn't affect the fuel tank being screwed to the running plate as the screw is only about 3mm long.

 

 

 

Edited March 5, 2022 by Ruston

[03060]

Having seen Dave's new addition at Charlie Strong's I promptly nipped down to my local model shop (Frizinghall M&R) and bought the DC green version, although whilst it was being tested for me in the shop it quickly developed a bit of a lurch in one direction only, having already seen this thread I suggested a quick look at the pick ups but they seemed fine (to better eyes than mine) so after a little head scratching the shop assistant applied a small dab of oil to each axle / bearing point and on retest the problem had disappeared and his sale was 'back on.' I'll take it down to the Leeds MRS club on Weds and give it a few laps of the large 00 layout to run it in a bit. 

 

Thought this may be of interest to others in case they experience the same with theirs.

 

Regards,

Ian.

Edited March 5, 2022 by 03060
Correction.

[Ruston]

 

Edited April 13, 2022 by Ruston

[clarkea1]

Can anyone tell me how much clearance there is between the wheels and outside frames on these?  Trying to assess the prospects of an easy EM gauge conversion, without having to fork out for one if it's not feasible (I have a plan B if the Hornby conversion isn't viable).

 

Thanks

 

Alastair

[luke_stevens]

22 minutes ago, clarkea1 said:

Can anyone tell me how much clearance there is between the wheels and outside frames on these?  Trying to assess the prospects of an easy EM gauge conversion, without having to fork out for one if it's not feasible (I have a plan B if the Hornby conversion isn't viable).

 

Thanks

 

Alastair

 

Wheel face to wheel face is about 19.2mm, inside of frame to inside frame is about 21.5mm, but there is thickness to the frame which could be filled out so it should be ok for EM

 

Luke

 

 

[clarkea1]

On 14/03/2022 at 20:37, luke_stevens said:

 

Wheel face to wheel face is about 19.2mm, inside of frame to inside frame is about 21.5mm, but there is thickness to the frame which could be filled out so it should be ok for EM

 

Luke

 

 

 

Thanks Luke - much appreciated! 

[Hroth]

Got the MSC one (R30084) this morning.

 

I don't think I'm going to DCC it, but it's a lovely little mover (touch wood!), the pickups look fine. Slow running is good. Straight out of the box, using nothing more exotic than a standard Hornby trainset controller, it crawled along 40cm of track in 95 seconds, which means it would be equivalent to approximately 1.4 miles an hour...

 

It'll do!

 

 

 

[Wagonmaster]

I have been after a 0-6-0DH Sentinel for sometime, but have held off the old Knightwing kit and Judith Edge kit in the hope Hornby would produce one, which they have.

 

However, needless to say, they haven't made the version I was after. I have ordered the green Stanton one in the hope of re-painting it to represent one of the London Transport locos. I remember seeing these at Lillie Bridge and Neasden. They were an odd shade of green, so does anyone have a suggestion as to what colour to use?

 

I'm probably going to need some 'Sentinel' and 'powered by Rolls Royce' transfers. Are these available?

 

Has anyone else tried this yet?

 

 

 

[Moxy]

19 minutes ago, Wagonmaster said:

I have been after a 0-6-0DH Sentinel for sometime, but have held off the old Knightwing kit and Judith Edge kit in the hope Hornby would produce one, which they have.

 

However, needless to say, they haven't made the version I was after. I have ordered the green Stanton one in the hope of re-painting it to represent one of the London Transport locos. I remember seeing these at Lillie Bridge and Neasden. They were an odd shade of green, so does anyone have a suggestion as to what colour to use?

 

I'm probably going to need some 'Sentinel' and 'powered by Rolls Royce' transfers. Are these available?

 

Has anyone else tried this yet?

 

 

 

 

Can't help with the shade of green I'm afraid, but Sentinel transfers are available from Railtec

 

https://www.railtec-models.com/showitem.php?id=1355

 

Plus the Sentinel swords are available as etched NS from Judith Edge Kits

 

https://ukmodelshops.co.uk/catalogue/judithedge.html

 

Hope this helps

 

Moxy

[montyburns56]

I'm just speculating here, but perhaps they used the same shade as the London Bus Company?

 

 

[Wagonmaster]

33 minutes ago, montyburns56 said:

I'm just speculating here, but perhaps they used the same shade as the London Bus Company?

 

 

Now I did wonder that myself, but my memory says it's a lighter shade. I did read somewhere that they were refurbished and sold to LT by Thomas Hill who just painted them green. All LT did apparently, was to add their gold underlined logo and numbers. How true that is I don't know.

[stewartingram]

There was one preserved on the Nene Valley, I don't know if it is still there?

 

[RANGERS]

3 hours ago, Wagonmaster said:

I have been after a 0-6-0DH Sentinel for sometime, but have held off the old Knightwing kit and Judith Edge kit in the hope Hornby would produce one, which they have.

 

However, needless to say, they haven't made the version I was after. I have ordered the green Stanton one in the hope of re-painting it to represent one of the London Transport locos. I remember seeing these at Lillie Bridge and Neasden. They were an odd shade of green, so does anyone have a suggestion as to what colour to use?

 

I'm probably going to need some 'Sentinel' and 'powered by Rolls Royce' transfers. Are these available?

 

Has anyone else tried this yet?

 

 

 

At least one of those came from the S&L fleet at Corby and were supplied in the standard green they used for minerals locos (similar to BR loco Green).

 

Being an S&L operated loco (not NCB as some sources claim), the Hornby Stanton loco is in the same shade of Green, complete with the horizontal lining which the LT locos carried. The difference in shades is almost certainly due to fading. 

[Max Legroom]

Here are a couple of pix of my PBA 39 with a few modifications. The small lamps have been sliced off, overhead warning flashes added to the inside of the windscreens, and a non-working orange beacon added (a US HO part). A bit of light weathering and three-link couplings complete things.

 

[SteveyDee68]

On 17/04/2022 at 19:34, Wagonmaster said:

However, needless to say, they haven't made the version I was after. I have ordered the green Stanton one in the hope of re-painting it to represent one of the London Transport locos.

According to several emails I have had these past couple of days, apparently Hornby have now released the LT version, complete with square buffers! Hopefully the right shade of green.

 

However, the photo accompanying the email showing the Potter livery shows a loco with a much higher bonnet end than the (generic) Hornby version - maybe Planet Industrials @James Hilton might do one of their clever detailing kits for it?

 

Steve S

(currently half way across France on my way back to Blighty!)

[SteveyDee68]

It’s a long journey, the signal is patchy, but I finally got hold of a couple of images to illustrate what I meant from the Hattons email I received a couple of days ago…

So having arrived at Calais, perhaps they will now post??

 

Prototype 

 

Model

 

Definitely an extra “lump” at the end of the long bonnet!!

 

Steve S

(Reporting from RAINY Calais!!)

[HExpressD]

6 hours ago, SteveyDee68 said:

It’s a long journey, the signal is patchy, but I finally got hold of a couple of images to illustrate what I meant from the Hattons email I received a couple of days ago…

So having arrived at Calais, perhaps they will now post??

 

Prototype 

 

 

Model

 

Definitely an extra “lump” at the end of the long bonnet!!

 

Steve S

(Reporting from RAINY Calais!!)

Seems like a Hattons problem, the Hornby Sentinel is 'Pride of the Fens' not 'Derwent'.

 

Definitely no lump here:

 

 

 

Edited July 28, 2023 by HExpressD
Link

[montyburns56]

I came across these nice pictures of the MSC version while I was looking for something else.

 

 

[SteveyDee68]

On 28/07/2023 at 08:24, HExpressD said:

Seems like a Hattons problem, the Hornby Sentinel is 'Pride of the Fens' not 'Derwent'.

 

Definitely no lump here:

 

 

 

For some reason I missed this explanatory post from @HExpressD! But now - yes! I see it! Hattons used a prototype photo of a different yellow six wheel Sentinel rather than do their homework properly! Feels like they should receive some (belated) teacher feedback …

 

Hattons - see me - must do better

 

Steve S

Edited December 28, 2023 by SteveyDee68
Spellunk mistook

[RThompson]

On 17/04/2022 at 19:42, Wagonmaster said:

Now I did wonder that myself, but my memory says it's a lighter shade. I did read somewhere that they were refurbished and sold to LT by Thomas Hill who just painted them green. All LT did apparently, was to add their gold underlined logo and numbers. How true that is I don't know.

 

Lincoln Green is the official LT term.

 

However a lot of the preserved Green line buses are different shades anyway.

 

Good thing my Greenline RMC is red 😀

[Wagonmaster]

18 hours ago, RThompson said:

 

Lincoln Green is the official LT term.

 

However a lot of the preserved Green line buses are different shades anyway.

 

Good thing my Greenline RMC is red 😀

Thanks for that. Yes, I realise the bus green is Lincoln Green, but I still feel LT's Sentinels were a different shade. I still tend to go with the theory that they were the colour Thomas Hill painted them. Unless someone can come up with definitive proof of course!

 

However, I have one now, rather than repainting one and it does look nice, especially with its match truck DT81.

[Nova Scotian]

Ordered one of these in the Hornby sale around Christmas, tonight I got to start giving it a run.

 

First impressions were pretty good. Yes there are plastic handrails, but they're okay. No lights, but at this price that's fine.

 

Out of the box it ran pretty well. It has a slight tight/binding spot on every revolution, only noticeable when creeping so slowly you can see the cogging. I need to get some rollers to give it a proper running in, and give it a dab of oil. It's good decent pulling/pushing power, it's quiet, gearing is decent.

 

If I hadn't then run the planet industrials shunter immediately after I'd have been even happier. Still, for what I paid for it it does what I want, namely:

1. It looks the part - it looks like the PBA Sentinel. It has presence

2. It shunts, starts, stops well - push and pull

3. It handles points well, surprisingly well given wheelbase. (waiting for some unifrog I'm just running insulfrog on a test layout)

 

If Hornby could spring the front axle too and find room for a flywheel I think it'd a winner. I'm surprised some of these are still sitting around on sale, they're currently half the price of some other shunters and they're definitely more than half as good.