Dapol Sentinels Y1/Y3

The Sentinel company produced a highly successful line of steam road lorries using an efficient vertical boiler, compact engine unit and geared drive. These standard parts were adapted to produce a railway shunting locomotive with the boiler mounted in the cab and engine unit mounted above the frames, enclosed and well protected from grit and dirt. The locomotive was cleverly designed to be able to fit on wagon turntables and was surprisingly powerful, quite capable of shunting small yards, industrial sites, docks and engineering depots. A Sentinel could be operated by one man and dual gear options were available for faster 'mainline' running (up to 36mph), the LNER training travelling shunters to act as 'secondman' on running lines. The GWR, LMS and LNER all tested Sentinels for light shunting duties in small goods yards, engineering depots and branch line duties. The LMS purchasing four dual geared locos and the LNER a total of 56, a mix of single gear 'shunting only' class Y1 and dual geared class Y3 locomotives.