Sandstone Heritage Trust - News

HTN 110 - Sentinel S4 nearly ready to steam

15th June 2006

Sandstone Sentinel S4, which was acquired as a result of an agreement between the Sandstone Heritage Trust and the James Hall Museum of Transport in Johannesburg is now nearly complete. It was acquired 6 years ago and went into the steam restoration queue. The job was allocated to Keith Stevens, a stalwart supporter of ours who has done much good work on traction engines, locomotives and other items. This was a tricky job.

This steam truck had not run for nearly 50 years and required an immense amount of ingenuity and engineering skill. Keith's great asset is that he is able to tackle boiler work, woodwork, chassis work - in fact everything that has
to be done.

As the pictures clearly show this long labour of love, which has taken nearly two years, is nearly complete.
The Sandstone Heritage Trust has been fortunate in receiving a lot of support from the Sentinel Drivers Club in the UK and in particular from George Timcke (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) who has been invaluable in assisting us in acquiring parts and in providing in-depth technical support information.

George has offered to come down to South Africa to run a driver's course for the S4. Tentative plans are in place for this steam truck to drive under its own steam from Howick in Natal to the Sandstone Heritage Trust in the
Eastern Free State, a distance of some 350-kms.

As always the pictures tell the story...