Photo:
Trevor Page - Unloading at Quainton - 18th January 1985

In Quainton News No. 55 we reported the impending arrival of a prize from Egypt ...

Now we extend a very warm welcome to the Sentinel Trust's three-coach Sentinel railcar unit which arrived at Quainton Road and was offloaded in the up yard on 18th January. What a contrast : from the sun-parched sands of the Egyptian desert to the freezing cold snowy landscape of the Vale of Aylesbury. A warm welcome, indeed!

Even in its unrestored state, it is a worthy exhibit and the article by Mick Roberts, Treasure of Egypt, in the Steam Railway in April, has given the enthusiast fraternity an excellent insight into the appearance and form of the fascinating unit. It also gives many gripping details of the agonising and protracted negotiations to secure its release and return to the country of its birth. The article included interesting photographs of the three coaches in the hold of the Swedish freighter Vegaland and of the unloading on 17th January at Tilbury West Africa Terminal, from whence they were taken by low loaders to our Centre.

Further information on the units was given in Modern Transport on 2nd September 1950 the year the ten units were built to the design of Sentinel-Cammell; the motive power sections by Sentinels at Shrewsbury and the underframes, running gear and coach bodies at Metropolitan-Cammell Carriage and Wagon Company at Saltley. Birmingham. The units were given Egyptian State Railways Nos. 5201-10 (Sentinel Makers Nos. 9511-20) and worked until 1962. Miraculously four units have survived to the present day and our new arrival is 5208, with a driving trailer of 5209 and a centre coach.

Photo:
Trevor Page - Power Car / Centre Car Articulated Bogie showing the final drive gearbox

The three vehicles are together carried on four four-wheeled bogies. being articulated. The arrangement is particularly interesting, because the bogie between the power coach and the centre coach is one of the two power bogles. This is shown in the second of our pictures.

The power coach has a diver's cab with controls, a boiler compartment behind and a fifty-five seat third-class saloon with centre gangway; the centre coach is similarly a saloon with eighty-nine third-class seats; while the third vehicle has a driver's cab with remote controls, small postal and luggage compartments and a second-class saloon for forty-three passengers. All three coaches have toilets, those in the third-class vehicles being described as Egyptian type! Access between coaches is by corridor connections.

Under the power car are suspended two similar Sentinel horizontal six cylinder (6" x 7") single acting steam engines. One powers the outer axle of the leading bogie through a cardan shaft and a final drive unit. The other powers the remote axle of the articulated bogie through a similar shaft and final drive gearbox.

The railcar boiler is very interesting. It is oil-fired and uses Laidlaw Drew burners which fire into a brick combustion chamber flanked by two water drums of a three-drum water tube high pressure water tube boiler. The larger steam drum is above and is connected to the water drums by banks of steeply inclined tubes. Working pressure is 335psig. There is a superheater to give superheat of 650 to 700°F.

The coach bodies give a front view reminiscent of the erstwhile Midland Pullman, while the louvered sides with their drop light windows are more like the Jewel in the Crown carriages! They do differ, however, in their construction, because the railcars have bodies which form an integral structure with the riveted and fabricated underframes. The car sides and ends are of light steel framing panelled with 14 swg steel sheet riveted on. The Sentinel Trust are justifiably proud of their Egyptian acquisition and deserve our congratulations in succeeding against daunting odds in bringing to Quainton such a valuable prize. Already they are tidying up their unit; truly a Treasure of Egypt.

Notes:
The text in this Quainton Railway Society publication was written in 1986 and so does not reflect events in the 28+ years since publication. The text and photographs are repeated verbatim from the original publication, with only a few minor grammar changes but some clarifying notes are added if deemed necessary. The photos from the original publication are provided as scans in this internet version of this long out of print publication.

Reference:
The Egyptian Connection - Quainton News No. 56 - Spring 1985