Narrow Gauge Sentinel Railcar Preservation Trust

Unless I've misunderstood earlier posts it was the Sri Lankan Sentinel which is 2'6" gauge and whose proposed home was the W&LLR. The JER car is/was standard gauge - it was the Jersey Railway, which also had Sentinel railcars that was 3'6"gauge. I don't recollect a 'home' for it being proposed nor have there been any recent reports on its restoration in Romania.
Ray.

 

Sensibly the W&LLR would be the home for the Sri Lankan unit(s) The JER as you say is/was standard gauge originally, but the unit in question (Brittany, or Dom) was sold to the Jersey Railway and re-gauged to 3'6". It was the only loco to return from Jersey and was returned to standard gauge and had another working life as a shunting engine in Chatham Dockyard, Cohens at Brick lane and various quarries around Sussex, before going firstly to Rolvenden and later Quainton Road

 

After my last post and thinking about the loading gauge issue I decided to have a 'dig' in my copy of 'Pickled Passengers'. The works drawing of the first ever Sentinel railcar, the Jersey Rly 'Pioneer' gives its width as 8'6" which is strange as the first LNER ones were only 8' (later ones were 9'). When I actually measured the drawing the width scaled out at 7'6" which seems more logical. As Clinker says Jersey Eastern nos 4&5 were later regauged to 3'6' when they went to the Jersey Rly on closure of the JER. Unfortunately there is no info in the NGRS book to say whether the bodies of these ex s.g. were wider than the original n.g. ones. Opinion seems divided on whether Brittany's engine unit a.k.a. 'Dom' actually went to Quainton Rd. It's engine/crankcase certainly went into S 6515 there and the remains were cut up in an Aylesbury scrapyard.
Ray.

 

Any more news?

 

I just had another look at the Facebook page, a bit of recent activity from February 15.

https://en-gb.facebook.com/groups/Sentinelrailcar/

Some (rather sad) photos under the post from Asanka Ranawickrema, and under the post from Colin Hamling a response with a bit of better news:

“They are not going to be scrapped in the near future. 331 is being prepped to move to the new national railway museum and 332 has been brought down to it to go under the shelter until our negotiations are complete. Which will hopefully be soon.”

 

T'was indeed the only 3'-6" gauge loco to return to the UK, although amazingly enough, ex-JR 2-4-0t La Moye (always on the heavy side for Jersey rails, so sold in 1928) still survives, in South Africa. At least four of the JR's five SG locos made it off the island, three coming back to the UK for further service and one to ..... Tunisia.



Ex-JR No.5 La Moye (Barclay 1907), clearly much loved, in South Africa
(Image courtesy Mike Morant's wonderful collection at https://mikemorant.smugmug.com)

 

Having a bit of thinking time and just wondered whether anything has happened regarding these?

 

Just seen this thread. Dom and Gervase (an 0-4-0 Manning Wardle rebuilt as a Sentinel, and subsequently restored by Mike Hart) both came to Rolvenden in about 1964. Dom was in a decrepit state mechanically, and the railcar body had been replaced with a simple metal superstructure, but did see some use as a brake van. It left (for Quainton Rd m, I was told at the time ) about 10 years later

 

It does seem to have gone rather quiet.

 

I'm not sure of the connection to the Sri Lankan railcars?

 

There isn’t - just adding to an earlier comment!
Other than one going to a museum, I haven’t heard any update on the Sri Lanka cars for some time

 

I thought we were talking about the Jersey railcar.

 

According to a recent post on the Facebook page, 331 has gone to the Sri Lankan National Railway Museum and 332 has also been requested for the museum.

333 is in theory available, but is heavily stripped

 

Dom was subsequently scrapped. I can't remember the issue but it was reported in Railway World during the 1970s.

Sent from my SM-A125F using Tapatalk

 

Similarly reported on the new website of the Chatham Dockyard Railway, where it once worked. The same site also makes reference to the potential replica of the Jersey Eastern railcar, bodywork of which was commenced in Romania some years ago but little or no news since.

https://newsite.dockyardrailway.co.uk/?page_id=52