Model Rail Sentinel

[tetsudofan]

.....mine just been delivered by Royal Mail.

 

Hope for the future that Model Rail will do some of the Sentinels that were working on the harbour and sleeper works at Lowestoft - where I first saw them!!

 

Keith

[Ed-farms]

Mine has also arrived, what a little beauty she is - my 3rd Sentinel and looking forward to running her.

[halfwit]

'Isebrook' arrived today.

Here's a couple of pics for those interested;

 

 

 

I wonder if any Sentinals were fitted with large dumb buffers?

[Tim Hale]

Is the item lurking in the background of any interest to me? Lovely Sentinel- I wish that I had a use for one.......Tim

[halfwit]

Is the item lurking in the background of any interest to me? Lovely Sentinel- I wish that I had a use for one.......Tim

Yes it is, more work done on it today. I'm sure that you could justify a Sentinel, just right as a back up loco for a small Southern layout.

[Tim Hale]

I'm sure that you could justify a Sentinel, just right as a back up loco for a small Southern layout.

 

The back-up loco is Rupert the Ruston.

 

Tim

[Turin 60]

Have been running in my new Sentinel this weekend and have had only a quick look at the "works", now in due course it will be converted to EM gauge courtesy of those nice people at Ultrascale and I've read the instructions on how to do that. I'm wondering though how to get at the screws that hold the coupler units on? I can see them underneath but can't get straight onto them as the "motorised chassie" gets in the way, so I'm guessing that it's got to come out somehow. Has anyone out there done this, any help would be gratefully recieved.

 

John.

[davknigh]

John,

 

The coupling on one end (can't remember which) will yield to a very fine cross point/Phillips screwdriver, the other end on my one came out with the assistance of an Xuron side cutter . I may take the rest out at a later date should I decide to disembowel the creature for maintenance purposes but it doesn't show unless you turn the engine upside down. Mine went to P4 with Ultrascales and ran even better than originally. Sweet wheels!

 

HTH

 

David

[buffalo]

See the first few posts on page 15 of this thread.

 

Nick

[big jim]

bryan at howes was telling me he has fitted sound to a sentinal, a V4 micro all fitted into the cab

 

he has done some pics but not a video as yet unfortunatly

[Turin 60]

John,

 

The coupling on one end (can't remember which) will yield to a very fine cross point/Phillips screwdriver, the other end on my one came out with the assistance of an Xuron side cutter . I may take the rest out at a later date should I decide to disembowel the creature for maintenance purposes but it doesn't show unless you turn the engine upside down. Mine went to P4 with Ultrascales and ran even better than originally. Sweet wheels!

 

HTH

 

David

Thanks for that David, I'll worry about the coupling mounts when it gets re-gauged!

 

John.

[Turin 60]

See the first few posts on page 15 of this thread.

 

Nick

Thanks for that Nick, looked back and found all I needed to know.

 

John.

Edited December 14, 2011 by Turin 60

[Ed-farms]

bryan at howes was telling me he has fitted sound to a sentinal, a V4 micro all fitted into the cab

 

he has done some pics but not a video as yet unfortunatly

 

So can we expect a Sentinel sound file set soon? Fingers crossed as I would love to put one in No;54

[big jim]

 

 

So can we expect a Sentinel sound file set soon? Fingers crossed as I would love to put one in No;54

 

Already done, ill get in touch with bryan and get some more info on it

[big jim]

here we go, direct from bryan......

 

The Sentinel Loksound Micro sound fit fit actually took me 10 minutes once I had chopped the 6 pin lead and wired it to an 8 pin one.  I didnt have an 8 pin one to hand, ESU now do the micro with a 6 or 8 pin so that makes the fitting very easy.

 

All I had to do, was to cut back the plastic sleeving where the wires are joined to the decoder, this allows the decoder length to be a push fit along the back windows, The oblong speaker fitted nicely up against the front windows set in a bit of blacktak facing downwards and the 8 pin plug inserted into the socket.

 

I left the wires the full length to facilitate plugging the connector in , the wires can probably be hidden a little better but I was not interested in the cosmetic side only to see if the fit was possible.Sound gets out through the two open windows

 

 

 

 

I have done a semi generic sound based on what I have seen and heard on youtube, Howes heard it and They are happy to put it on the website. if it generates enough interest I will record the one at Quainton next year and do a pukker version

[Ed-farms]

I have done a semi generic sound based on what I have seen and heard on youtube, Howes heard it and They are happy to put it on the website. if it generates enough interest I will record the one at Quainton next year and do a pukker version

 

Out of curiosity what would Howes policy be on this? If I bought the semi generic and then they did a "Pukker" Version would I have to pay for a reblow as I was aware of the newer version or would they reblow it for free? I can see it been a catch 22 situation where people will wait for the pukker version but it will not come cause the semi generic will not sell enough.

[big jim]

 In response to the catch 22 question, I am hopefully seeing Jim this week and will give him the Sentinel so he can have a play with it over the Holiday and maybe make a short video clip of it for people to decide if they are interested, by that time  Howes will have it  listed it on their website. if there is sufficient interest shown that warrants I do a Pukka version later on I am more than happy to reblow a previously purchased  generic version FOC. Obviously it goes without saying that Howes would have to charge for the return postage. Hope that answers the question.

  Bryan

[Ed-farms]

Thanks Jim for posting that on Bryan's behalf, may have to get myself one for one of my models (no;54 sounding into Leeds Weeklyn Hill at Leeds Middleton Railway in July )

[big jim]

sound chipped sentinel video here...

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/49493-howes-dcc-sound-fitted-model-rail-sentinel/

[tetsudofan]

Departmental #54 was sighted at Nuernberg Winkelhof today:

 

 

on the German Railway Society stand at the Tonbridge MRC show

 

Keith

[Ed-farms]

Wonder how many coal and water stops it took for the engine to get from Leeds to Nuernberg Winkelhof?

[brian777999]

I received my LMS Sentinel loco yesterday. It runs beautifully but I have two questions :

 

1. Why can't all model locos have such good low speed control ? Is it the motor that determines this ?

 

2. I was surprised to see the exposed gears on the axles underneath the loco where they can pick up all sorts of dirt, fluff etc. Surely it would have been better to have them covered ? This guard/cover could have been held in place by two screws and easily removed for lubricating the mechanism.

[neal]

The two questions you ask are interlinked.

 

To achieve the beautiful low speed running that this fantastic model has, requires low gearing. With limited space this has led to a relatively large gear on the axles.

 

In turn, a cover added over the gear on each axle would be prominent and visually detracting.

 

I guess Dapol could have reduced the final gear size to allow it to be covered, however this would have compromised the running properties.

 

It is not the only model with open gears (although this is less common on new models). In this instance I think it is a reasonable compromise.

 

I guess you could add a cover (perhaps in very thin vac-form plastic/plastcard), however I would suggest regular checking and cleaning would prevent problems.

 

N

Edited October 11, 2012 by neal

[Bernard Lamb]

I received my LMS Sentinel loco yesterday. It runs beautifully but I have two questions :

 

1. Why can't all model locos have such good low speed control ? Is it the motor that determines this ?

 

I think the clue lies in the title, Model Rail Sentinel.

Produced for a different market from that aimed at by Hornbach.

Produced to a spec rather than a price, to meet the expectation of said market.

Bernard

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

I received my LMS Sentinel loco yesterday. ...Why can't all model locos have such good low speed control ? Is it the motor that determines this ?...

What are you comparing it to? If you have any of Bachmann's class 03 and 08 or Hornby's class 08 models, which all have fairly high ratio reduction gearing (I don't know how Heljan's class 14 stacks up, never tried one) you will find that these slow speed shunting types with relatively small wheels offer fine low speed control.

 

There's a compromise involved since the gear ratio is fixed: maximum speed is also relatively low. This is quite correct for shunting locos of this type, but not so appropriate for line locos which are generally supplied to run fast enough to replicate scale maximum speed. A little slow speed smoothness is sacrificed by employing a lower reduction ratio to obtain the higher speed. One easy way around this is the use of a feedback type controller, which keeps the motor turning smoothly at low revs; particularly well demonstrated by DCC decoders which can be 'tuned' very closely to suit motor characteristics.