Along with developing steam locomotives, Sentinel Waggon Works Ltd also produced steam railcars. These were convenient for lightly constructed railways as they were much lighter than conventional locomotive-hauled trains. Even compared to earlier steam railmotors, such as the GWR vertical-boilered examples, the Sentinel design of a lightweight water-tube boiler and a smaller geared steam motor was yet lighter. Sentinel's main market for their railcars was for export, although the LNER also operated a number of them.
In 1951 Egyptian National Railways bought some of the last constructed Sentinel steam railcars, built by Metropolitan-Cammell with Sentinel power bogies. These were ten three-carriage rakes articulated across four Jakobs bogies. One of these railcars is currently preserved in England today, by the Quainton Railway Society at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre.