Sentinels – the THREE AMIGOS

Sentinel Chain-Drive Locomotives

Sentinel Chain-Drive Locomotives

Our Sentinel chain-drive locomotives are designed around the compact, wonderfully functional industrial machines that worked in quarries, factories, docks, mines and private railway systems. They were practical locomotives built to work rather than to look elegant, and that rugged mechanical appearance is a large part of their appeal.

We currently produce three main body styles: Cabless, Basic Cab and Full Cab. Each version is also available with different treatments of the chain-drive mechanism, allowing you to choose between the more mechanical appearance of visible exposed chains or the cleaner, more enclosed appearance of protective chain covers.

This means that two models using the same basic locomotive can have a surprisingly different character depending on the cab arrangement and whether the drive is shown exposed or protected.

Cabless Sentinel

The Cabless Sentinel is the most stripped-back and industrial version in the range.

With no enclosed driving cab, the locomotive has the appearance of a machine built with the absolute minimum necessary to move wagons around a quarry, works or industrial site. The open design leaves much of the locomotive’s mechanical character visible and makes it particularly well suited to heavily industrial layouts.

The cabless model can be produced with the chain drive exposed, giving a particularly mechanical appearance with the chains clearly visible along the side of the locomotive. This version is ideal for anyone who wants the drive mechanism to become a major feature of the model.

Alternatively, the model can be fitted with chain covers, protecting and partially concealing the drive mechanism. This gives the same basic locomotive a slightly more finished and purposeful appearance while retaining its unmistakably industrial character.

The two versions can also be used together very effectively, suggesting locomotives that have been modified, rebuilt or maintained differently during their working lives.

Basic Cab Sentinel

The Basic Cab Sentinel sits between the completely open cabless machine and the more substantial full-cab locomotive.

A simple cab provides the driver with some protection while leaving much of the locomotive open and visible. It retains the rugged appearance of a small industrial machine while giving the locomotive a slightly more developed silhouette.

As with the cabless version, the Basic Cab Sentinel can be produced with either visible chain drive or protective chain covers.

With the chains exposed, the locomotive has a particularly busy mechanical appearance. The drive becomes one of the most distinctive details on the model and provides excellent opportunities for metallic finishes, grease, oil staining and heavy industrial weathering.

With the covers fitted, the same locomotive looks slightly more enclosed and workmanlike. The drive is still very much part of the machine, but the protective housings give the locomotive a cleaner and more substantial appearance.

For many layouts, the Basic Cab version is probably the most versatile of the three because it looks equally convincing working in a quarry, engineering works, dockyard, factory or general industrial setting.

Full Cab Sentinel

The Full Cab Sentinel is the most enclosed and substantial version of the range.

The additional cab structure changes the silhouette considerably and gives the locomotive more of the appearance of a conventional railway locomotive while still retaining the compact proportions and industrial ancestry of the Sentinel design.

The Full Cab version is also available with either exposed chain drive or chain covers.

Choosing the exposed chains gives an interesting contrast between the more complete cab and the visibly mechanical running gear below. It creates a locomotive that looks developed enough to provide the driver with proper protection while still displaying the machinery that makes the locomotive work.

The covered-chain version gives the cleanest and most enclosed appearance of the range. With the full cab and protective drive covers fitted, the locomotive looks particularly convincing as a regularly maintained works engine or as the principal locomotive on a small industrial railway.

Visible Chains or Chain Covers?

One of the features we particularly wanted to retain in the Shoreleave Sentinel range was the ability to choose how much of the chain-drive mechanism is visible.

The exposed-chain versions put the machinery on display. These are ideal if you want a locomotive with lots of visible mechanical detail and are particularly effective when weathered with oily steel, grease, dirt and worn paint.

The covered-chain versions have a slightly more restrained appearance. The protective housings simplify the sides of the locomotive and can make the model look more substantial, better maintained or more heavily adapted for regular working conditions.

Neither is intended to represent a “better” version than the other. They simply give the modeller another way of changing the personality of the locomotive.

Combined with the three different cab arrangements, the chain options make it possible to create a surprisingly varied fleet from the same Sentinel family.

A completely cabless locomotive with exposed chains can look like a brutally simple quarry workhorse, while a full-cab locomotive with covered chains can appear to be a much more developed and carefully maintained machine.

That variation is exactly what we like about them.

They can all clearly belong to the same family of locomotives without every example on the layout looking identical.

Kerr Stuart