Thomas Hill (manufacturer)

By 1950 the Sentinel locomotive franchise was considered by TH(SEV) to be the most important part of their business and whilst sales had been were rather slow to start, future prospects were good.

To avoid confusing railway customers, in 1953 the Company changed its name again, this time to Thomas Hill (Rotherham) Limited, THR.

[1] In order to better entertain and impress the more senior executive from major commercial undertakings offices were taken at Effingham Chambers in the centre of Rotherham and occupied by the middle of 1953.

The prototype Sentinel operating on the S & M met with general approval from prospective customers and before the end of the year 17 locomotives had been sold and delivered.

However, during 1960 THR completed four major steam to diesel conversions at Kilnhurst and seven in 1961 plus one new Vanguard loco, more than equating the lost Planet turnover.

Rolls-Royce insisted at that time in dealing with any export enquiries direct, a process that did not work and no further YEC design locomotives were built.

The sudden addition of around 700 locomotives to the potential market in the UK provided a great boost, although frustrated for some years by a policy laid down by Rolls-Royce that THR must supply diesel engine spares only for Sentinel and Vanguard locos and refer all Yorkshire locomotive users to Cripps (the Rolls-Royce main distributor) for engine parts.

With the formation of the new board of Directors (including Derek Harper (Managing) and Thomas W Hill (Engineering and son of Thomas A Hill)) and the appointment for the first time of a Sales Director (John Capes), the Company took the decision to actively seek overseas business, whereas in the past it had tended to "look the other way", except for such business which might be negotiated within the UK., and a budget, albeit a very limited one, was allocated to overseas sales promotion.

It was now 15 or 16 years since the start of production of Sentinel and Vanguard locomotives, and major overhaul or complete refurbishment was required on many of the early machines.

Capital expenditure was being restricted by many companies but particularly by the British Steel Corporation and the National Coal Board, so the marketing department concentrated on these customers offering a complete service for refurbishing to "as new" standards.

This business proved very lucrative and extended the life of Sentinel and Vanguard locomotives ensuring a continuing demand for the spares.

Local steelworks in particular had Sentinel locos which urgently required rebuilding and the company was in danger of losing some, if not all, of this work to its competitors unless a reasonable turn round period could be offered.

THR had a good relationship with most of these people having previously supplied locomotives to Shell, BP, Lindsey Oil Refinery etc.

This time Shell was asking for much more to satisfy the new more stringent OCCMA standards, and also a battery electric starter system which would have to carry a Buxton Approval Certificate.

THR was now well established as a leading manufacturer of locomotives in its own right, and its parent company, whilst important, was certainly not paramount to its continued success, as it may have been almost 20 years earlier when Rolls-Royce took over.

The company had been very proud in being selected by a very substantial American corporation who wished to build our products under licence and it came as a very big disappointment when toward the end of 1983 Varlen announced their intention to withdraw from the agreement.

The President of Varlen, the instigator of the proposals to build new locos, and the motivator throughout, retired suddenly due to ill health.

Efforts were still being made to by the Company to obtain overseas business and many tenders were submitted, mainly for bogie type diesel electric machines which still required design and development.

One of these engines, 103c "Megan" and another quite similar (111c) can be found at the Foxfield Railway These locos were allocated works numbers with a 'c' suffix ('c' for conversion).

This arrangement had been agreed by Rolls-Royce in respect of the 0-4-0s but THR were selling 0-4-0s in tandem and even "tridem" which RR considered was to the detriment of Sentinel 0-6-0 and 0-8-0 sales.

A considerable effort had been made during the previous two years to convince the MOD of the advantages of the Vanguard design well in advance of their enquiry in the hopes of influencing their specification.

Problems began in 1974 with a number of failures resulting in all Titan locos being out of service producing a lack of confidence by BSC which threatened cancellation of the outstanding order.

The ability of the locomotives to perform their duties very satisfactorily, and the determined efforts to overcome the problems made by the Company, restored confidence and the order stood.

In 1976 a Heads of Agreement was signed with the National Coal Board to design and develop a narrow gauge battery electric underground personnel carrier.

The vehicle was to seat 4/6 people and was intended primarily for the colliery manager or other officials to use on their daily inspection visits underground.

Such a vehicle to carry six people was designed and built and, after some considerable delay in approvals by mines inspectorate etc., the prototype termed UPC (Underground Personnel Carrier) was put into service at Bates Colliery in 1977.

From the point of view of the initial requirement it was a complete success, but areas for improvement were recognised and incorporated in the 10 production models planned.

It was not until December 1979 that the first actual production UPC was sold, ex stock, to Thoresby Colliery in the North Notts Area The second UPC was used to a greater extent as a general-purpose vehicle which quickly set the pace for further development and little more than two years later, a 24-seater version based on two of the original units with one cab removed and an 18-seat gondola between them, was delivered to Thoresby Colliery.

This unit train as it was called, operated well, but again the NCB came up with a number of minor changes and additions which they would like to have made on any future models, which would have had a longer gondola to seat 24.

Meantime TH offered a 4 wheel version of the Steelman loco on foreign and domestic enquiries – eventually winning an order for 9 for the MoD in 1986-7.