SENTINEL: THE ENTHUSIASTS
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MAYBE MALCOLM ROGERS ENJOYS the leisurely pace of a Sentinel because it's so for removE from his daily work designing and installing remote cameras that track at high speed, oft following Olympic and Commonwealth Games athletes around the race track. "On a stea lorry you can see over a hedgerow," he smiles. "It slows your life down. You can't make if engine go any faster; you have to work with the machinery." Rogers turned his attentions steam wagons when as a youth he was refused a motorcycle. Attracted by the magic of stear he spent many of his teenage holidays showing them to visitors at the Lambeth County Show.
"I originally didn't like Sentinels," he recalls. "They had no visible moving parts or polishE brass—but they did have speed over the traction engine. They can move at 30mph."
It was at a Lambeth County Show that he met established enthusiast Edgar Shone, landlord fi The Crown pub in Cricklewood, North London. Shone already owned seven wagons and showE them at rallies. Rogers was about to embark on the restoration of a Super Sentinel for Shone whE he negotiated to buy it in 1985. Rogers kept the vehicle, registration PG2414, under a railway arc in Herne Hill, South London for some 10 years; following his move to Kent two years ago it lives the bottom of his garden. Although PG2414 has been in bits for the past 20 years, when Commercial Motor spoke Rogers in October he was confident that it would be up and running by Christmas. "I want to dri■ ton Boxing Day. That'll be my Christmas present," he says. Rogers' Sentinel was built in 1929. Until it was bought by Shone in 1961 worked in Liverpool Docks for the United Africa Company, which is no part of Lever Brothers. It was built with solid tyres but was returned I Sentinel in 1 932 to be given "pump-ups"and steam brakes. For th next 16 years Shone rallied it at shows around the country. As a tribute to his old friend, Rogers intends to livery PG241 with the fictitious company name Crown Steam Haulage. "Edge who owned the lorries, used to tax and insure them and providin you were competent and paid for your coal, you could take thei wherever you wanted," says Rogers. "He shored them." For further details on Sentinels or this year's run canto, Malcolm Rogers on 01932 572687.