In September the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust (IGMT) launched a recruitment drive to find new volunteers to help them complete the second phase of the project to conserve two Sentinel locomotives at Coalbrookdale. IGMT found them through a range of outlets, including the Shropshire Star, the Telford Journal, and BBC Radio Shropshire, and they started work omn 18 October.
The two Sentinel Shunting Locomotives (left), which date from the 1860s, are historically important parts of the Trust’s collection. They were used by the Coalbrookdale Company on their internal railway system. In the 1920s, to reduce running and material costs, the Sentinel Waggon Works Ltd. modernised and converted locomotives from a boiler and cylinder system to a boiler with chain drive to both axles, and the locomotives within this project are the oldest locomotive conversions by Sentinel that are known to have been preserved. They are now on permanent display beneath the arches of the viaduct that passes through Coalbrookdale for museum visitors and passersby to see.
In 2023 the Trust secured funding from the Association for Industrial Archaeology to carry out work to conserve the engines, whose condition had deteriorated over time due to weather conditions. While the engines will not run again, the aim of the project is to stabilise their condition and conserve them so they can continue to be enjoyed by future visitors to the Ironbridge Gorge and its museums.
Under the guidance of Trevor Barraclough, the team began work on this second phase in October 2024. The work will involve wet and dry cleaning; priming bare iron; painting; and if appropriate carrying out some minor repairs. Volunteers also regularly receive questions from members of the public interested in their work and will be asked to take photographs to help record the progress of the project. The hope is to complete the project by Christmas, but this is dependent on the weather.
Industrial Heritage Networks 