Owner John Dodwell recorded Sandbach as built in 1946 at Yarwoods as a 25 ft maintenance-fleet tug for the LMS Railway when that company owned the Cheshire Canals, later lengthened by Yarwoods to 35 ft. Home base in the archive notes is Stourbridge Basin.
Bolinder 1052 power
Sandbach carries a twin-cylinder Bolinder built in 1953, recorded as No. 1381-1066, with a Bolinder gearbox (2:1 reduction) and a 22-inch propeller described as original Bolinder equipment. Performance notes on the old page list roughly 23 hp at 1,500 rpm for the water-cooled twin. The engine previously served in Cactus with Malcolm Braine and spent years as a trip-boat plant at Great Haywood.
Together with Bekita and Newcastle, Sandbach shows how the 1051/1052 four-stroke family spans leisure cruisers, traditional narrowboats, and workboat tugs — not a single canal stereotype.