Thomas Hill (Rotherham) Limited was a company which repaired and sold steam road vehicles, diesel and electric road vehicles and railway locomotives. It later made its name building and rebuilding diesel locomotives.
History
The Company was founded by Mr. Thomas A. Hill in 1937 with small premises at Whiston, near Rotherham, and was principally concerned with repair and maintenance of steam road vehicles, and in particular Sentinel steam waggons which were popular in the area. The Company also became involved in battery electric vehicles built by Douglas (Kingswood) Limited, and was incorporated in 1942 as Thomas Hill (Steam and Electric Vehicles) Limited, TH(SEV).
Around this time the Sentinel company was developing a diesel-engined road vehicle fitted with a Sentinel horizontal diesel engine. This innovative vehicle attracted the attention of TH(SEV) and in 1946 an agency agreement were signed between the two companies. In 1946 the Company changed its name to Thomas Hill (Commercial Vehicles) Limited.
In 1947 Sentinel Waggon Works Ltd offered TH(SEV) to extend the agreement for diesel vehicles to include their range of steam locomotives and an agency was accepted by TH(SEV) for sales and servicing.
TH (SEV) were now engaged in sales and servicing of Sentinel diesel road vehicles, Sentinel steam road vehicles and Sentinel steam rail locomotives.
None of these vehicles where wholly conventional in their design and this presented a challenge to the salesman. Managers and engineer buying vehicles tended to be conservative and not only did they have to be convinced that this was the better way to do it but also that it was worth paying more money for the Sentinel products. It became clear that the best way to convince buyers was to demonstrate the appropriate vehicle in the buyer's own works carrying out the actual duties required. This became the general sales strategy for many years, and involved moving locomotives from site to site in the United Kingdom. The locomotives travelled on British Railways and under their own power where possible. The demonstrations created considerable interest, two locomotives, one 100 hp and one 200 hp were continuously employed moving from one site to another, particularly within the National Coal Board and Steel Works.
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.
In 1952 18 locomotives were delivered, 12 being to the National Coal Board.
In 1953 the locomotive agreement was due for renewal. This was renewed but the diesel road vehicle agency was relinquished, with all efforts concentrated on the steam locomotive and battery electric vehicles.
To avoid confusing railway customers, in 1953 the Company changed its name again, this time to Thomas Hill (Rotherham) Limited, THR. 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.
Diesel locomotives
Sales of Sentinel steam locos continued to grow peaking at 20 locomotives delivered in 1956. Despite the good sales turnover, THR was, by now, experiencing sales resistance to the steam locomotive and in conjunction with Sentinel (Shrewsbury) Ltd had developed an oil fired system for the 200 hp loco, ten of which were supplied to steel works in 1956.
The move to diesel locomotives started in 1956 with a temporary verbal agreement to sell 'Planet' locomotives built by F. C. Hibberd, on a commission basis to any non Hibberd customer. A new Planet loco was sold within a few weeks, the co-operation developed leading to a formal agreement was signed in April 1957.
The take over of Sentinel (Shrewsbury) Ltd by Rolls-Royce in 1956 for the manufacture of the Rolls-Royce diesel engines put the future locomotive production of any sort at Shrewsbury in doubt. Rolls-Royce had agreed to complete the steam locos on order, and four steam receiver locos ordered by Dorman Long in 1956, but only after much discuss did Rolls-Royce decide in 1957 to design and build a diesel locomotive of similar weight and power to the 200 hp steam locomotive. THR would assist in the design and development of these diesel machines and become the sole distributor.
In 1958 the last two Sentinel steam locos were delivered. The prototype Sentinel diesel loco was now in build and was to commence trials on the S & M Railway early 1959.