Middleton’s LNER Sentinel steams again after 24 years
UNIQUE surviving LNER Y1 class Sentinel No. 68153 has returned to steam at the Middleton Railway after almost a quarter of a century.
The 1933-built former BR Departmental locomotive was in action at the Leeds line for a 30742 Charters event on September 3, running alongside NER H class 0-4-0T No. 1310 in one of the latter's last steamings before its own 10-yearly overhaul.
The Sentinel, which last steamed in 1997, was able to haul demonstration goods trains for the assembled photographers but cannot enter full service until a problem with its vacuum brake system is resolved.
Its steam brake allowed it to safely work the loose-coupled goods trains but for reasons the railway has so far been unable to trace, it cannot create more than 15 inches of vacuum – some way short of the regulation 21 inches needed to control passenger stock.
“It steams ok but it's fighting us all the way,” said Ian Smith, vicepresident of the Middleton Railway Trust, which owns the locomotive. “It's getting there, but we're still testing it and dealing with the snags.”
Its pairing with the LMS brake van during the charter, he added, was reminiscent of the railway's first regular passenger trains. “Standing on the balcony behind it took me back 50 years,” he said.
Although the line ran its first passenger trains during the Leeds University rag week in 1960 – thus becoming the world's first volunteeroperated, standard-gauge preserved railway – only occasional special trains ran between then and July 1969. This was when the Sentinel and LMS brake van formed the first regular workings over the private freight line.
The overhaul, which is the Sentinel's second in preservation, has included the replacement of the inner firebox with a nearly-new spare item; construction of a new outer firebox wrapper, after the original was condemned; a new superheater; and replacement of a cracked cylinder block.
A new set of cylinders was obtained from the Bo'ness & Kinneil Railway in exchange for the loan of No. 68153's injectors as patterns to have new ones cast for their Sentinels.
“With a good condition inner firebox, it's going to last for years,” said Ian.
Recent priority
Work on No. 68153 commenced in the early 2000s, although it has only become a priority in recent years as other engines in the Middleton's fleet approached the end of their 10-year boiler certificates.
Stalwart Manning Wardle 0-6-0ST No. 1601 of 1903 Matthew Murray, for instance, has just been withdrawn after failing with injector problems. “It only had five weeks left on the ticket, so there was no point repairing it,” explained Ian.
The H class reaches the end of its boiler certificate early next year, while Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0ST Slough Estates No. 3 (No. 1544 of 1924) was withdrawn at the beginning of this year. Taking their place in the operating fleet are No. 68153, Hawthorn Leslie 0-4-0ST Swanscombe No. 6 (which, as reported last issue, has just returned to steam) and Manning Wardle 0-6-0ST No. 1210 of 1890 Sir Berkeley. The latter is expected to steam next year, with the frames rewheeled and the boiler tubes delivered. It is to be restored as close as possible to the lined green livery of its first employers, railway contractor Logan & Hemingway, for whom it worked on the construction of Nottingham Victoria station.
Slough Estates No. 3 will be next in the queue for overhaul, said Ian, along with Hunslet 0-4-0ST NCB No. 11 (Works No. 1493 of 1925), which last steamed at the Battlefield Line around 25 to 30 years ago.