0-6-0 Steam Locomotives in France

Class 1011 / 030 TA (Locobase 6049)

Data from I N Jevica's [] (visited 29 May 2004). Corrected and supplemented by August Perdonnet et Camille Polonceau, Nouveau Portefeuille de L'Ingenieur des Chemins de Fer, Tome Second (Paris: Librairie Scientifique, Industrielle et Agricole, 1866), pp. 534-535. See also Maurice Demoulin, Traite Pratique de la Machine Locomotive (Paris: Libraire Polytechnique, Baudry et Cie, 1898), p.150-151 and diagram Nr. 43, Societe Alsacienne de Constructions Mecaniques from SACM locomotive book supplied by Dany Machi up at [] as

Diagrammes des machines SACM construites a GRAFENSTADEN (October 2007).

This class was a big hit with the Ouest and the railway bought 100 more as follows:

Number Year Numbers

4 1861 1011-1014

10 1866-1867 1015-1024

14 1873-1874 1025-1038

76 1877-1885 1039-1114

The illustration shows a burly little switcher with the coal heaped foward of the windscreen, over the firebox and between the tanks. The firebox hung behind the last coupled axle. A large cyindrical steam dome sat over the front axle and a smaller sand dome over the second axle. Outside cylinders drove on the last axle; the slide valves were acuated by inside motion, probably Stephenson link.

Jevica also notes that when Etat took over the Ouest, the class was renumbered 30-601 to 30-704. Perhaps it's not altogether surprising, given the French railways' proclivity to retain all the locomotives they could, that at the startup of the SNCF in 1938, 98 locomotive s remained to be designated TA 601-698.

Class 1541 (Locobase 9955)

Data from Edouard Sauvage, "Compound Locomotives in France", Proceedings - Institution of Mechanical Engineers (London: Published by the Institution, 1904):pt.1-2 (March 1904), p. 352

There were two versions of the non-compound Eight-wheelers tested by the Ouest. This variant had the typical smoothside tubes found in most steam locomotives. The other version had Serve finned tubes; see Locobase 9954.

In either form, it seems to Locobase that comparing the performances of compound locomotives only a few years old with these much older engines suggests his putting his thumb on the scale.

Class 3531 / 030 TB (Locobase 5409)

Data from [] and RREJ February 1890, which notes that it was displayed by its builder at the 1889 Paris Exhibition. See also Roland Arzul's French locomotive website -- [], accessed 27 October 2006; and Encyclopedie "Trains de legende" - Editions Atlas, reproduced on [] (accessed 21 November 2006).

In use for several years before on steep grades (e.g., 3 1/2% on the Paris-St.Germain route (via Pecq) or 1 1/2% on the Paris-Germain via Marly). According toTrains de legende, these "Boers" had a longer wheelbase to accommodate the larger firebox that rode between the rear two axles. Roland Arzul said they derived from earlier versions but provided much more shelter over the footplate to the point of a "true cab". The design also served as a model for the Ceinture.

Arzul added that they were classed by the Ouest in 1909 as 30.101-172, a numbering which the SNCF retained as part of its 030 TB designation.

Class 49 / 030 C (Locobase 6951)

Data from Titre Exposition universelle internationale de 1878 a Paris. Rapports du jury internationale..Volume Groupe VI - Classe 64. Rapport sur le materiel des chemins de fer. p. 50 (cnum.cnam.fr/CGI/fpage.cgi?8XAE277-11.1/54/100/312/0/0 (accessed 1 September 2005).

Locobase 6050 tells about this numerous class, which first entered service in 1867. The jury adds that their relatively tall drivers would allow them to pull passenger trains at 35-40 km/h.

Class Boers (Locobase 2137)

Later also purchased for the Paris Circle Line (Ceinture) in 1899.

Class Bourbonais (Locobase 20495)

Data from "030 Ouest 1904 à 2244" in Wikipedia at [], last accessed 26 January 2026. See also G F Tyas, "Old Goods Engines of the Western Railway of France", Locomotive Magazine, Volume XXII [22] (15 February 1916), p. 21.

Tyas descibed this as a Bourbonais type design brought out in 1866 and supplied to the Ouest from several builders. The high evaporative heating surface area to grate area is particularly noticeable, as is the power provided by two relatively large cylinders.

Wikipedia delivers the exact order of the 19 batches produced for the Ouest between 1867 and 1884. Builders included Batignolles, Claparede, Fives-Lille, Forges et chantiers de l'Océan, Franco-Belge, SACM, Schneider et Cie, Wiener-Neustadt, Locobase quotes the sequence, which doesn't follow a strict date order as it appears in road number order, here:

no 1904-1910 livrées par la compagnie de Fives-Lille en 1873

no 1911-1920 livrées par les Forges et chantiers de l'Océan en 1873

no 1921-1950 livrées par la SACM en 1872

no 1951-1974 livrées par Schneider et Cie en 1867

no 1975-1977 livrées par Fives-Lille en 1874

no 1978-1987 livrées par les Forges et chantiers de l'Océan en 1873

no 1988-2012 livrées par Claparède

no 2013-2022 livrées par la SACM en 1875

no 2023-2046 livrées par Fives-Lille en 1876

no 2047-2066 livrées par Schneider et Cie en 1878

no 2067-2091 livrées par la SACM en 1878

no 2092-2099 livrées par la SACM en 1880

no 2102-2126 livrées par la Société de construction des Batignolles en 1879

no 2127-2140 livrées par la Société de construction des Batignolles en 1880

no 2141-2160 livrées par la SACM en 1880

no 2161-2170 livrées par la Société de construction des Batignolles en 1881

no 2171-2220 livrées par Wiener Neustädter Lokomotivfabrik en 1882

no 2221-2238 livrées par la SACM en 1883

no 2239-2244 livrées par la société Franco-Belge en 1884

When the Etat took in the Ouest locomotives, they assigned class IDs 030-531 a 860. The SNCF reclassified them 030 C 531 a 860.

Class Mammoth/030 C (Locobase 6050)

Data from I N Jevica's [] (visited 29 May 2004); and G F Tyas, "Old Goods Engines of the Western Railway of France", Locomotive Magazine, Volume XXII [22] (15 February 1916), p. 21

Obviously a valued design for the Ouest, as it was in production in considerable numbers for fifteen years. The locomotive had considerably more spacing between the first and second axles than between the second and third. The big cylindrical dome sat over the lead axle with external steam pipes snaking down to the cylinders, which drove the second axle. The two arms mounted on an eccentric outside the frame was a link motion similar to the Stephenson type.

Class Type 64/(Ouest) (Locobase 9144)

Data from A. Sampite, Les Chemins de Fer a Faible Trafic en France (Paris: Baudry et Cie, 1888), p. 49. See also [] for a history of these Freycinet Plan railways; and Karl Baedeker, "Northern France from Belgium and the English Channel to the Loire ..., Handbook for Travelers (2d edition) (London: Dulau and Co, 1894).

This network near Rouen in Normandy included several lignes d'Interet Local and they procured two main types of small, six-coupled tanks. This is the Creusot version.

The Pont de l'Arche ran 54 km (33.5 miles) from a point just south of Rouen east-southeast in the direction of Paris, which lay about 70 km (44 miles) further southeast.. The widely used travel guide published by Karl Baedeker described the railway as "travers[ing] a monotonous district, with several textile factories."