Sentinel

Isn't that just the sweetest little thing?

It's a model of a Sentinel steam shunting locomotive.

In 1/76th scale, in case you were wondering, so it's no more than two or three inches long.

It's based on the London & North Eastern Railway's Class Y1 engines, which were first introduced in 1925.

They were intended for very light yard work (this was a time when practically every single item of produce or manufactured goods was moved by rail so every tiny village had its own freight services, all of which needed to be shunted).

Incredibly economical (they consumed just 15lbs of coal per mile), the first six were so useful that more were built.

After Nationalisation, the jobs for which they were useful rapidly declined, and many of the engines were sold to industry to operate private sidings in factories and mills.

The remainder were used mainly for engineering jobs, something they had done before Nationalisation -- here in 1938 an LNER-branded engine is repairing the sea walls on the Lowestoft-Yarmouth line of the old M&GN system:

These delightful models are due for release imminently.

I have no use for them whatsoever, but I am itching to buy one. Or more. They are, to me, just irresistibly cute.