This steam locomotive was built by Sentinel Waggon Works Ltd at their site at Shrewsbury, Shropshire, and outshopped and delivered to Somerdale on the 23rd August 1928. The locomotive was built for J. S. Fry & Sons Ltd (the chocolate makers) for use at their factory in Somerdale adjacent to Keynsham Railway station. 

The locomotive is of standard gauge and unlike many other locomotives it has a vertical boiler. It transported goods and products around the site on the 2 ½ miles of track as well as transferring goods to the mainline for distribution around the country via Keynsham. The decision was made to purchase such an unusual locomotive because they had a fleet of Sentinel Steam wagons on site, so the routine maintenance was already in place.  Two drivers were in fact transferred from driving the steam wagons to drive the new loco when it arrived: Bill Payne and Gladstone Graham Hendy.  

The locomotive spent its entire life at the chocolate factory before being withdrawn in 1956 when the company purchased a Hudswell Clarke Diesel 0-4-0 shunting engine (its works no was D1009). The Sentinel was kept until 1964 when it was sold for scrap to Grove Road Scrap Fishponds Bristol for £60. 

It was thought that the locomotive had been scrapped upon withdrawal but it was recently tracked down by a former Fry’s employee, Eric Miles. It turns out that in 1971 the loco was sold to a Mr Gardener who lived at Tunley near Radstock. 

A few years later the loco was sold to Mr Finbow who lived at Bacton Suffolk. When he died it was sold to Mr Woods who lived at Wix nr Colchester, whom moved the loco to his private garden in Essex.

In 2009 Eric Miles arranged the purchase of the Sentinel, with sponsorship from the Somerdale management who paid all the costs of the crane to lift the Sentinel out of the Nisson Hut in Mr Woods garden and the transport it back to Bitton Station on Sunday 5th September 2010. This was after a short visit to its old stomping ground - the now closed Cadbury’s chocolate factory.

It is now under the ownership of the Avon Valley Railway Heritage Trust where a small dedicated team have fully restored the loco into operational condition and was then showcased at its own "chocolate weekend" at Easter 2019. 

To find out more about the Fry's Sentinel and its life at the Fry’s Chocolate Factory, please have a look at our series called "The Somerdale Sentinel Story" as linked below: