BUCKINGHAMSHIRE Railway Centre-based Sentinel 4wVBT No. 11 (9366/1946) made its
long-awaited return to public service on February 11.
The former Tottenham Gas Works locomotive, which last steamed in 1983, has been the subject of a fast-track overhaul led by Michael Patterson, who co-owns the loco with Keith Lobley.
The work has included a full re-tube and the fitting of vacuum brakes, and at one stage it had been hoped to have the Sentinel in traffic by September 2014.
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Ultimately, No. 11, now carrying the name Cynthia, passed its steam test in October 2017.
No. 11 was built in 1945, but it was the following January before the Sentinel was delivered to Tottenham Gas Works, where it worked regularly until the
early-1960s.
Dieselisation resulted in it being set aside as ‘spare’, with withdrawal finally taking place in 1968.
Two years later, No. 11 was brought to Quainton Road and was back in steam by mid-1971.
After more than a decade in service the loco was laid aside awaiting overhaul, which did not begin for another 30 years until the loco changed hands.
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