Sentinel steam wagons return to a famous site!

David Warren reports on the day that the Sentinel steam wagons rolled back the years on site at which they were built, back in the 1930s.

On Saturday, August 27th, the day preceding the Shrewsbury Steam Rally at Onslow Park, five Sentinels visited the still existing Sentinel Waggon Works Ltd site in Shrewsbury.

It was in November 1956 that the Sentinel Waggon Works was sold to Rolls-Royce and it was here, in 1971, that the last industrial Sentinel diesel rail locomotive left the works. From then on the works would concentrated on Rolls-Royce Eagle diesel engine manufacture of which, in some cases, the designs were good and others not so good. Perkins of Peterborough purchased the Rolls-Royce diesel engine division in 1990 which, in turn, became owned by Caterpillar Inc in 1997.

Part of the old works was demolished to make way for a new supermarket in the early 1990s, while other parts were sold to Doncaster Engineering. Then, it was in 2017 that local company Morris Lubricants purchased the site. For some of the Sentinels, this was the very first time they had been back to where they’d been built, so it was a poignant occasion for many.

 

This event report comes from the latest issue of Old Glory, and you can get a money-saving subscription to this magazine simply by clicking HERE