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.
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. Production was geared up to complete four locomotives a month.
The Kilnhurst Works THR had acquired the site of the closed Kilnhurst Central station of the Great Central Railway for a new works with rail access and this new works met with immediate success. Orders were obtained for the rebuilding of steam locomotives as diesel hydraulic machines in addition to a considerable amount of work transferred from the Whiston works. In consequence work was put in hand to double the size of the workshop.
In 1960 THR began to build a number of diesel locomotives. Based on Sentinel steam locomotive chassis dimensions they were powered by Rolls-Royce engines and called Vanguards.
The agreement with F.C Hibberd expired at the end of March 1960 and was not renewed. This was mainly because Hibberds believed that THR would sell the locomotives they built themselves in preference to the 'Planet' locomotives. The sale of Planet locos had averaged around eight locos per year. 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.
New loco sales peaked in 1963 with 48 Sentinel locos and 12 Vanguards being delivered. Two locomotives, an 0-4-0 and an 0-6-0 were constantly employed on demonstration particularly in steel works.
THR becomes Rolls-Royce subsidiary In 1962, negotiations were started with Rolls-Royce Ltd to take a financial interest in THR. These negotiations were concluded in April 1963 with Rolls-Royce Ltd taking a 51% controlling interest and THR became a subsidiary of Rolls-Royce, Diesel Engine Division, Shrewsbury.
Also in the early 1960s, it became known that United Steel Companies (USC) were to close their wheel and axle works, 'Baker and Bessemer' at Kilnhurst, and discussions regarding this matter between THR and USC revealed that the Yorkshire Engine Company, YEC locomotive business might be disposed of. Rolls-Royce opened negotiations with United Steels which continued throughout 1964 and finally in 1965 Rolls-Royce acquired the stock and goodwill of YEC and all locomotive production at Meadow Hall ceased. Three diesel hydraulic locomotives in stock at YEC, together with a consignment of spare parts were transferred to THR. Rolls-Royce undertook to build any future YEC diesel electric locomotives that might be required. Three Janus locomotives for USC at Scunthorpe plus one smaller locomotive for GEC and a similar powered diesel-electric for Zambia. 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.
THR was able to make money by supplying parts for YEC locomotives and carrying out repairs and maintenance work. The THR service department now had two full-time representatives on the road selling parts and service agreements. 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.
Falling Sales The market for new locomotives in the UK showed a downturn since 1963 as far as the Sentinel was concerned. Unfortunately British Railways, started selling off redundant shunting and trip locomotives. This process was to continue for many years and damaged the sales of many locomotive builders. The new Sentinel 'Steelman' design of locomotive was all but killed off by these sales.
UK sales of Sentinel locos were now less than 10 per year, their only overseas success had been to license the build of 36 0-6-0 locomotives for the railways in Portugal in 1965/6. Other than the one loco for Zambia, no Yorkshire locomotives had been sold overseas despite many tenders.
On the other hand, THR was building around 15 new 0-6-0 "Vanguard" locos per year. 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 Rolls-Royce considered was to the detriment of Sentinel 0-6-0 and 0-8-0 sales. In addition a number of 0-6-0 "specials" had also been built by THR.
Rolls-Royce were not happy about the future of the locomotive business at Shrewsbury. They were geared for batch building and the days of bulk orders in the UK were virtually over. Serious talking now began to transfer the whole of the locomotive business to THR. Such transfer would also require capitalization by Rolls-Royce and many people needed convincing that it would be a worthwhile investment. With the matter in final stages of agreement came the financial crisis of Rolls-Royce Ltd in 1971.
THR experienced considerable difficulty with their suppliers during the coming months despite the public declarations by the newly formed Rolls-Royce Motors (of which the Diesel Division and THR were associated) that it was very much alive and well.
The dust having settled, in 1972 THR formally acquired the Rolls-Royce locomotive business and Rolls-Royce Motors increased its holding in the Company. Whilst only now was the transfer of the locomotive business formally concluded, in practice the last Sentinel locomotive was delivered in March 1971, with only three the previous year, and in the same two years the Company built and delivered both 0-4-0 and 0-6-0 Vanguard locos, including three 0-4-0 locos to Indonesia. These were the first Vanguard locos to be exported and were to the order of Shell Petroleum at The Hague.
In January 1975 Mr. T. A. Hill the founder of the Company and his co-founder and the Company Secretary Mr. A. Birks resigned and retired (but continued with a minority shareholding). A new board of directors was formed and for the first time Rolls-Royce appointed one of their own directors, Mr G. R. (Roy) Torrance, as non executive Company Chairman. It soon became clear that Rolls-Royce intended to play a closer role in determining the policies of the Company than they had done in the past.
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. Following a number of overseas tours by the Sales Director it was accepted that a potential market for our class of equipment existed in a number of countries in Africa and the Far East and it was agreed that the Company would engage a full-time overseas representative with suitable experience and management potential to promote overseas sales, and to develop an export department.