Midi 4-4-0 Locomotives in France

Class 1751 (Locobase 3893)

Data from Edouard Sauvage, "Four-Cylinder Compound Locomotives in France", Railroad Gazette, Volume XXXII [32], No.39 (28 September 1900), pp.629-631 using information compiled through direct communications with the various designers; Henri De Parville (ed), La Nature (Vol 28, 1900), pp 281-282; "Recent French Locomotives," The Locomotive & Railway Carriage & Wagon Review, Vol IV (February 1899), p. 18; and Maurice Demoulin, Traite Pratique de la Machine Locomotive (Paris: Libraire Polytechnique, Baudry et Cie, 1898), pp. 94-95.

This was the Eight-wheeler on which the 4-6-0 shown in Locobase 6807 was based. Like the 1301s, the design used du Bousquet's particular variant of the de Glehn system in which the LP cylinders drove the first coupled axle and the HP cylinders turned the second coupled axle. Large-diameter boiler tubes were of the Serve design with internal fins. The illustration shows the Belpaire firebox and dome over the leading driving axle.

According to the author of the Recent French Locomotives, these engines proved the superiority of the four-cylinder compound "clearly" when compared to the Est's own Flaman-designed 801 class (Locobase 3056). The comparison included not only fuel economy at equal power, but "...specifically with very heavy and fast express trains, which were hauled more easily and quickly than by the other locomotives."

When the 1760 was run the Schaerbeck-Ostend and Schaerbeck-Ans sections of the Belgian State Railways, it pulled 230 tons of trains over the 57.8 miles of the latter section in about 56 minutes. This was a performance that up to that time had not been "...approached by any engine of the Belgian State."

Class 1775 (Locobase 10190)

Data from "Four-Cylinder Compound Locomotive, DC de F du Midi", Locomotive Magazine, Volume VI [6] (July 1901), p. 116. Works numbers were 5101-5110 in 1901

A photograph from Wikimedia shows the 1777's running gear in all its distinctiveness. Inside cylinders driving the lead axle aren't visible, but the valve gear and cylinders for the outside LP cylinders sit under the running board in line with the dome. Valve gear and long piston rod extend back to the rear drivers under the Belpaire firebox.