Paris-Orleans 2-8-2 Locomotives in France

Class 5301/141 TA (Locobase 7944)

Data from "Paris-Orleans Railway" Locomotive Magazine Volume XVIII (15 April 1912), pp.71-72. Encyclopidie "Trains de lTgende" - Editions Atlas, as reproduced on the French locomotive website [], last accessed 16 November 2006 and []; and "Notes on Recent French Tank Engines", Railway Engineer, Volume 33, No 7 (July 1912), p. 212.

One can see strong purpose in this E. Solacroup design, which featured a long boiler topped by three evenly spaced domes of equal size ahead of a Belpaire firebox. The coal bunker behind the cab is likely the source of the nickname "cul de bateau" or "boat-tail". To handle tight curves, the Bissel trucks ahead and behind the drivers were combined with the nearest driving axles in a "Zara truck" (see Locobase 2475 for a full description). The Bissels enjoyed 80 mm (3.15") of lateral play while the driving boxes allowed 17 mm.

And indeed the PO needed a powerful engine to handle the growing suburban and freight traffic in several parts of its realm. During a 1910 visit to Switzerland, the Est's Paul Conte was particularly taken with the Thunerseebahn's simple-expansion, superheated 2-8-2.

Not blessed with an enormous boiler, the design's good points included a satisfactory factor of adhesion and an impressive amount of tractive effort.

With such power, the 5300s in freight service could scale a 2 1/2% grade at 20 km/h (12 1/2 mph) pulling 285 tons and 0.4% grade at 60 km/h (37 mph) pulling 1,000 tons. On the flat, the engines were rated at 1,500 tons at their maximum speed of 70 km/h (43 1/2 mph). With 5 passenger coaches weighing a total of 200 tons in tow, they took the 2 1/2% grade at 40 km/h (25 mph) while negotiating curves as tight as 40 m (131 ft) in radius.

The 5300s were, in two words, enormously successful.

They were delivered in several batches by several builders over several years as follows:

5301-5320 1911-1912 SLM Winterthur

5321-5340 1913 Fives-Lille

5341-5360 1912-1914 SLM Winterthur

5361-5380 1914-1915 Batignolles-ChGtillon

5381-5410 1917-1918 North British; see Locobase 20080

5411-5460 1921-1923 Fives-Lille

5461-5490 1921-1922 Schneider Creusot

Of the total, 38 were sent in 1924 to staff up the new French North African railways CF du Maroc and CF Tanger-Fez

In 1926, the original blast nozzle, a movable cone, was replaced by the Kylchap nozzle, a substitution that increased the locomotive's power.

Class 5381/141 TA (Locobase 20080)

Data from "British-built Tank Locomotives for the Paris-Orleans Railway", Engineer, Volume CXXIII [123] (9 March 1917), p. 229. See also "New Locomotives for the Paris-Orleans Railway: Constructed by the North British Locomotive Co, Ltd," Locomotive Magazine, Volume XXIII, No 296 (16 April 1917), pp.63-64.

Locobase 7944 shows data that accompanied a 1912 Locomotive Magazine report on the first of this 190-locomotive class, which was delivered by SLM. All of the locomotives in this class were produced in either France or Switzerland except for the thirty shown in this entry.

In most respects quite similar to the Continental products, the NBLC engines featured the same Belpaire firebox and burly profile. But the heating surface data was different enough for Locobase to create this separate entry. Locobase cannot say if the data

Class 5691/141 TB (Locobase 15590)

Data from diagram UG Type 160, Societe Alsacienne de Construction Mecaniques from SACM locomotive book supplied by Dany Machi up at [] as

Diagrammes des machines SACM construites a GRAFENSTADEN (October 2007); and "SNCF class 141TB" in Wikipedia at []; last accessed 8 April 2022. Batignolles works numbers 1989-2063 and SACM works numbers were 7132-7181 in 1921-1922.

External tube and flue diameters were 50 and 133 mm, respectively. Large Belpaire firebox behind a boiler with three equal sized, equidistant domes (sand-steam-sand). They were built as suburban-service locomotives and gained a reputation as strong engines that performed well.

Class 5811/4-141B (Locobase 15925)

Data from "American-Built 'Mikado' Locomotive: Paris-Orleans Railway", The Locomotive, Volume XXV [25] (15 October 1919), p. 165. See also Loic Fieux, "3-141A et 4-141 B Les Alco a Fleur de PO", Loco-Revue n'650 (Septembre 2001), pp. 36-39. Works numbers were 57214-57263, 57727-57776, 58505-58554 in 1918.

This set of American-designed Mikados was appreciably bigger than any of the other simple-expansion 2-8-2s that would serve France for decades--except for the larger and decades more advanced, American-built 141Rs delivered 25 years and one big war later (see Locobase 428).

It's not clear to Locobase why this class seems to have toiled in relative obscurity, especially given the number in service. The entire set of engines operated throughout World War II.

The P-O merged with the Midi in 1934 becoming the P-O-Midi (like the Burlington Northern merging decades later with the Santa Fe and being known as BNSF).