Newfoundland NG's Answer to the Galloping Geese

The locomotives and equipment of the 3' 6" gauge Newfoundland Railway were very North American in most respects. However it was still a British colony in the 1920s, and not even officially a part of Canada, so it did venture into the British market at times. In the early 1920s it procured five light self-propelled STEAM railcars for its lightly travelled branchline operations. When some of the branches were abandoned in the 1930s, these units were apparently used for St. John's commuter service. I have no record of when they were scrapped, but I would think they continued into the WWII period. Someone out there will know.

These photos are from the Andrew Merrilees Collection, Public Archives of Canada. The five units came in two types. Cars "A" and "B" (they apparently didn't have numbers) were built by Sentinel Waggon Ltd. on Cammil, Laird & Co bodies. According to the caption on the back of this print, they were delivered in 1923 and had chain drive, with controls at each end. Sentinel built steam waggons/lorries so these were among their first rail vehicles.




The first cars were apparently successful as cars "C", "D" and "E" appear larger and were built in 1928. The photo caption notes they had transmission drive.




Here's what looks like late 1930s shots in St. John's. The first shows the two versions almost side-by-side for a size comparison, while the second was almost certainly taken the same day. They look like they were interesting cars, and they were real steam, but I'd still prefer those Pacfics myself!






There's a lot about Sentinel on various webites, but here's a screen grab from Wikipedia to save you some time.




Cheers all,
Ralph