mineral traffic on narrow gauge 0-4-0 Locomotives in France

Class Type 50 (Locobase 11167)

Data from "Locomotive Engines at the Paris Exhibition", The Artizan, Vol II, 4th Series, #2 (11 February 1868), p. 28 and "Sir David Campbell on Railway Apparatus", Reports on the Paris Universal Exhibition 1867, Volume IV (London: George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode, 1868), pp. 497. See also "Locomotives", Type 50, , Usines du Creusot-Schneider et Cie (Creusot: A Temporal, 1875), n.a.; and Charles Alfred Opperman, Traite Complet des Chemins de Fer Economiques D' Interet Local (Paris: Imprimerie Pillet Fils Aine, 1873), pp. 150-152

Campbell described this little tank as "beautifully finished" and noted that it could negotiate curves as tight as 16 yards radius and scale grades of 1 in 16 (6 1/4%). Altogether, he added, "it is a very handy little engine." Indeed, its proportions suggest a free-steaming locomotive with good traction.

Schneider's 1875 catalogue entry noted that the Type 50 could run on several rail gauges including 740 mm, 1,000, 1010, 1050, 1080 1100, and, suprisingly, 1674. Yet neither the 800 mm gauge shown in the Schneider production list nor the 850 mm gauge described at the Paris exhibition appeared on that list.

Schneider listed the following companies that had taken delivery of this design:

Mines de Blanzy, Montceau-les-Mines 800 mm 8 engines

787-788, 859-860, 1056, 1078, 1479, 1714

Petin Gaudet (Sardinia's San Leone railway),

740 mm 4 engines (1-4) 917-917, 938, 1081

Douchy-les-Mines 1080 mm 1 engine 886

Merle et Cie 1050 mm 1 engine 1192

Compagnie des mines, fonderies et forges d'Alais

800 mm 2 engines 1370, 1560

L Favre, Geneva 1435 mm 1 engine 1050