Sentinel

A little project I've been working on in secret for a while: My first attempt at a scratch built locomotive.

I'd been wanting to add another Kato powered engine to fleet for a while now to go alongside the railcar and Glyn Valley tram. They're not everyone's cup of tea, but there's no doubt they're reliable. Thus if I was at an exhibition and other engines were acting up I know I could at least have a few options for alternate motive power.

Another 'want' was for it not to be the somewhat cliched 'Toby' lookalike (Though I will probably get round to making one of those someday) The result therefore was an engine based on a type built by the Sentinel Waggon Works.

This particular example was made by roughly scaling down some measurements for a 7mm scale version in Chris Ford's book (Going on the maths of divide by seven, times by 4) and then using photographs in both the same book and the original locos appearance in the April 2017 edition of Railway Modeller on the layout Morton Stanley to roughly eyeball where all the additional details should sit.

The majority of the loco was made from 40thou plastic sheet, with detailing to the body side using 40x20 thou strip. Doors were chained drilled out after the frames were in position.

For once I remember to take a few photos whilst building, I'm getting better at remembering! Handrails were added to give it a bit of detailing the original version didn't have and ordinary card was used to create the motion covers on the tram skirts, these gained 20x10thou 'hinges' after this image was taken. The tank filler, and later the funnel, were both made from the leftover sprue of the Bagnall Wagon seen last week!

Although the engine does run on a Kato-109, it's been cut down slightly (It's amazing how much 'dead' space there is at the ends) mean it's slightly shorter and squatter than the 3D printed clip on kits that are on the market, helping to disguise it's motive power somewhat. As a little sidenote, I decided to paint this one using Tamiya 'Flat Green', it's surprisingly closer to a 'Sherwood Green' than I'd realised. I think I'm also just getting unintentionally lucky when it comes to weathering...

And finally, it only seemed right that the first scratch-built engine's first train should be the first scratch-built wagon, even if it only could shuttle up and down a few inches on The Garden Railway!