Paris a Versailles 2-2-2 Locomotives in France

Class Ajax (Locobase 20011)

Data from E Flachat and J Petiet, Guide du Mechanicien-Conducteur de Machine Locomotives ...(Paris: Mathias, Libraire, 1840), passim, basic data in Tables B & C, pp. 218-219. See also Roland Arzul's summary of early Paris-Versailles locomotives at [], last accessed 13 September 2015.

The other locomotive in this pair was named Atlas.

Class Alcide (Locobase 20018)

Data from E Flachat and J Petiet, Guide du Mechanicien-Conducteur de Machine Locomotives ...(Paris: Mathias, Libraire, 1840), passim, basic data in Tables B & C, pp. 218-219. See also Roland Arzul's summary of early Paris-Versailles locomotives at [], last accessed 13 September 2015.

The other locomotive in this pair was L'Hirondelle. When shown at an 1839 Exposition,the two engines were acclaimed for their good draft, adequate heating surface area, and relatively tall drivers.

Class Alsace (Locobase 20017)

Data from E Flachat and J Petiet, Guide du Mechanicien-Conducteur de Machine Locomotives ...(Paris: Mathias, Libraire, 1840), passim, basic data in Tables B & C, pp. 218-219. See also Roland Arzul's summary of early Paris-Versailles locomotives at [], last accessed 13 September 2015.

The other locomotive in this pair was Le Rhin.

Class Aquilon (Locobase 20012)

Data from E Flachat and J Petiet, Guide du Mechanicien-Conducteur de Machine Locomotives ...(Paris: Mathias, Libraire, 1840), passim, basic data in Tables B & C, pp. 218-219. See also Roland Arzul's summary of early Paris-Versailles locomotives at [], last accessed 13 September 2015.

Rothwell supplied these six locomotives from 1837 to 1839. In addition to Aquilon, their names were Bucephale, Vulcain, Pegas, Le Cyclope, and Phebus.

Class Atalante (Locobase 20008)

Data from E Flachat and J Petiet, Guide du Mechanicien-Conducteur de Machine Locomotives ...(Paris: Mathias, Libraire, 1840), passim, basic data in Tables B & C, pp. 218-219. ' and Roland Arzul's summary of early Paris-Versailles locomotives at [], last accessed 13 September 2015. (Thanks to Teemu Koivumaki for his 5 April 2021 email questioning the date of the first Schneider locomotives.) Works numbers were 1-6 in 1838.

This sextet represents Schneider's early efforts at Le Creusot. In addition to the Atalante, the P-V named Creusot, Eclair, Fleche, France, and Gironde.

The Gironde was rebuilt at the Paris-Versailles shops and subjected to meticulous testing in 1845; see Locobase 11336.

Class Exposition (Locobase 20013)

Data from E Flachat and J Petiet, Guide du Mechanicien-Conducteur de Machine Locomotives ...(Paris: Mathias, Libraire, 1840), passim, basic data in Tables B & C, pp. 218-219. See also Roland Arzul's summary of early Paris-Versailles locomotives at [], last accessed 13 September 2015.

Schneider delivered two locomotives to the P-V from this batch. Exposition and Schneider had a relatively high count of tubes, although each was relatively small in diameter. Their driver diameters marked them as relatively fast passenger engines.

Class Gironde - 1845 (Locobase 11336)

Data from MM Gouin and Le Chatelier (R Lloyd translation), Experiments on Locomotive Engines (London: John Weale, Architectural Library, 1847), pp. 5-8 inter alia.

Gouin and Le Chatelier chose this locomotive to conduct an exhaustive series of tests to "...study, experimentally, all of the conditions of the employment of steam in locomotive engines." Their test subject was one of the Atalante class that had been rebuilt at the Paris-Versailles shops. One significant change was to increase the pistons' diameters by 50.8 mm (2").

They took diagrams of steam pressure in full size, drawn after the locomotive had reached a steady rate of speed, pulling ordinary passenger trains as well as quarry trains from Nanterre and St Cloud.

Their calculations showed that the Gironde was developing a maximum of 180 hp with useful "moving" pressures of 33-49 psi. More important, the two well-known engineers documented energy losses in all parts of the system. Their description of events inside and around the cylinder (e.g., the resistance of compression on the other side of the piston to the expansiveness of the steam entering it) and all of the other contributors to resistance (everything from axle-bearing friction to air resistance and gravity) may represent one of the first determined efforts to record such information.

Class La Gauloise (Locobase 11337)

Data from Alexandre Louis Deghilage, Origine de la Locomotive (Paris: Imprierie A Broise et Courtier, 1886), p.37 and from Felix Mathias, Etudes sur Machines Locomotives de Sharp et Roberts Comparees a Celles d'Autres Constructeurs ...(Paris, Librairie Scientifique-Industrielle de L. Mathias, 1844). See also E Flachat and J Petiet, Guide du Mechanicien-Conducteur de Machine Locomotives ...(Paris: Mathias, Libraire, 1840), passim, basic data in Tables B & C, pp. 218-219.

Like many locomotives in this early period, this was a small and underpowered engine. It had small slide valves over the cylinders. The other locomotive of the pair was named La Dorade.

Class Stephenson (Locobase 20010)

Data from E Flachat and J Petiet, Guide du Mechanicien-Conducteur de Machine Locomotives ...(Paris: Mathias, Libraire, 1840), passim, basic data in Tables B & C, pp. 218-219. See also Roland Arzul's summary of early Paris-Versailles locomotives at [], last accessed 13 September 2015.

Compared to other late '30s locomotives supplied to the P-V, the Stephenson had fewer firetubes of a larger diameter. The firebox was commensurately larger.

Class Versailles (Locobase 20016)

Data from E Flachat and J Petiet, Guide du Mechanicien-Conducteur de Machine Locomotives ...(Paris: Mathias, Libraire, 1840), passim, basic data in Tables B & C, pp. 218-219. See also Roland Arzul's summary of early Paris-Versailles locomotives at [], last accessed 13 September 2015 and "Powerful railway engine," Niles National Register, 1 December 1838, p. 224. (Many thanks to Ray Burynski for his 25 June 2020 email asking about this locomotive and to Wes Barris of steamlocomotive.com for correcting the builder's name.)

This appears to be the locomotive mentioned in the Niles National Register story cited above. Describing it as "the largest locomotive engine ever made in Leeds", the Register reported that it had been test-run at 60 mph on the Leeds & Selby while trailing one carriage and its tender and 20 mph hauling 140 tons. It was then sent to the Paris & Versailles railway.

Reprints or translations (e.g., into French and German) of the same article appeared in several journals at around the same time. All repeated the original appraisal that this was indeed a large locomotive.

Class Vesta (Locobase 20015)

Data from E Flachat and J Petiet, Guide du Mechanicien-Conducteur de Machine Locomotives ...(Paris: Mathias, Libraire, 1840), passim, basic data in Tables B & C, pp. 218-219. See also Roland Arzul's summary of early Paris-Versailles locomotives at [], last accessed 13 September 2015.

Compared to other late '30s locomotives supplied to the P-V, the Stephenson had fewer firetubes of a larger diameter. The firebox was commensurately larger.

Class Vesuve (Locobase 20014)

Data from E Flachat and J Petiet, Guide du Mechanicien-Conducteur de Machine Locomotives ...(Paris: Mathias, Libraire, 1840), passim, basic data in Tables B & C, pp. 218-219. See also Roland Arzul's summary of early Paris-Versailles locomotives at [], last accessed 13 September 2015.

Somewhat larger than the two Sharp, Roberts locomotives delivered in 1838, this sextet's other locomotives were named Etincelle, Gazelle, Sharp, Sphinx, and Tamise.