Sentinel Man

Received my first two Sentinels (GWR & LNER 150) yesterday. The detail below the footplate is quite awesome. Not only are the sandbox delivery pipes there, but also the support angles that hold them in the correct position. The brake rigging is also as per prototype, although you have to turn it upside down to appreciate this. There are a few compromises above the footplate, notably the roof details and the wooden covering over the water tank. The latter is a preservation addition to ISEBROOK. In service most of them ran with coal heaped over the water tank, so easy to disguise this point. As others have commented the slow running is excellent. Thanks to Model Rail for a superb RTR Sentinel! Given the success that this model is bound to be perhaps MR could consider a RTR Sentinel railcar? The LNER shaft driven car would probably be the easiest to tool and could be finished in CLC colours as well. The earlier chain driven articulated version for the LNER/LMS and Channel Islands had variations in the layout of the passenger section and, to a lesser extent, to the power unit bodywork and would need a good deal of compromise to cover all versions. SENTINEL MAN

Although we have yet see the production models "in the flesh" it looks to me to be a very accurate representation of the prototype. Model Rail are to be congratulated on making this model available and I feel sure it will be a commercial success. So far as compromises are concerned, they are bound to be necessary but, based on what we have seen so far, there do not seem to be too many. The biggest compromise evident to date is in the case of the GWR version liveried as 13. The photographs of this model show it fitted with the oval "double chimney" , same as the LNER/BR versions. GWR 13 always had a single chimney with a distinctive spark arrester mounted on the roof. This fitment was developed from the pattern used on Sentinel's road steam vehicles and was also fitted to some of the locomotives sold for industrial use. Whilst on chimneys it might be worth mentioning that Sentinel 6515, which was the locomotive scanned for this project, had a cast brass capped oval double chimney fitted from its rebuild in 1927 right through to preservation. SENTINEL MAN

Any variation on this model will be most welcome! Please be aware though that the locomotives supplied to Irish Free State were 1' 1 1/2" longer in the frames (and body) than the UK Main Line examples and the wheelbase was set at 8'0" rather than 7'0" used on the LNER/LMSR/GWR examples. The buffers on the Irish locomotives were packed out with spacers around 1930 and this would have increased the overall length a little more. The few Sentinel locomotives of this design supplied new for industrial use in the UK also had various wheelbases of 6' 0", 7' 0" and 8'0". I hope to see more variations of this model, certainly my most eagerly awaited model of all time! Somebody must surely produce a RTR Sentinel railcar soon (please?) SENTINEL MAN

TheLMS had four to the same basic design as the LNER Y3. Externally it would look the same as the ModelRail version with ventilation grills on the side and front.The gearcases mounted midships under the frame would not be present as the ModelRail version is of a Y-1, but a small compromise. Running numbers were 7160-7163, then 7180-7183 and BR 47180-47183. The LMS specified their own boiler fittings in the interests of standardisation, but not visible on the model.