Nord 4-4-0 Locomotives in France

Class 2.101 (Locobase 3162)

Data from Reder (1974, pl 246) and a RREJ November 1889 report on French Exposition.

The RREJ article notes that the cylinders were inside driving crank axles and the slide-valve chests were outside. Like the other Nord trial horses, this design had a Belpaire firebox. It also had a combustion chamber that contributed 2.8 sq m (30.2 sq ft) to the firebox heating surface.

Had this engine shown better riding qualities, it might have blocked the development of the soon-to-be-famous de Glehn compound locomotives. Showing a long stride and capable of pulling 16-17 cars (282-293 tons) at 56 mph, it demonstrated more than adequate power. But so rigid was the bogie mounting that the stresses normally taken up by a freer-moving leading truck were transmitted to the frame, resulting in cracks after only 39,800 miles of use.

Class 2.121 (Locobase 3886)

Data from Harry Clifton Reagan, "Locomotives: Simple, Compound, and Electric" (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1907), pp 285-289. Corrected and supplemented by the French-language Pullin, Locomotives Compound a Quatre Cylindres et a Grande Vitesse du Chemin de Fer du Nord, Revue Generale des Chemins de Fer et des Tramways, volume 21 (Fevrier 1898), pp. 66-, M Grille, Les Chemins de Fer de L'Exposition de Chicago (Paris: E Bernard et Cie, 1894), pp. 12-14. See also Maurice Demoulin, Traite Pratique de la Machine Locomotive (Paris: Libraire Polytechnique, Baudry et Cie, 1898), pp. 67-68.

These were the first two locomotives of a set designed by English-born Alfred de Glehn and Nord's chief engineer Gaston du Bosquet. The compound 4-4-0s were an immediate success when they entered service.

These first two were fitted with smoothbore fire tubes, by far the more common type of tube.

According to Reagan:"Among the excellent points shown by these engines have been quickness in starting and in reaching full speed from a stop; great stability at high speeds, and an economy in fuel as compared with other engines doing the same work."

Unlike the earlier 701s, these had coupled axles, HP cylinders outside driving the second axle and LP cylinders inside driving the first, and a better volume ratio between high and low-pressure cylinders. These first two proved the point of the design, riding smoothly thanks to a bogie design that provided some lateral play to the central pivot, and showing good power. Like all of this series of de Glehns, these engines had Belpaire fireboxes.

Reagan fleshes out the use to which this class was put:

"In service these engines are employed on the fast express-trains between Paris, Amiens, and Lille, where a high speed is required, with trains varying in weight from no to 200 tons, exclusive of the weight of engine and tender. The average speed of these trains is from 45 to 50 miles an hour. With a train of 140 tons, one of them has made the run from Paris to Amiens, 81 miles, in 90 minutes, or at the rate of 54 miles an hour; and with a train of 200 tons it has made the run from Paris to St. Quentin, 95 miles, in two hours, or at the rate of 47 miles an hour. In their regular work they are frequently called on for exceptional speed where it is necessary to make up time on account of delays on connecting lines or other causes."

"Among these exceptional performances," Reagan continues,"are included a run at the rate of 43.5 miles an hour up a long grade of 0.8 per cent., the train weighing 140 tons, or 220 tons with engine and tender; a run at 46.6 miles an hour up a grade of 0.5 per cent, with a train of 225 tons, or 305 tons, including engine and tender; a run at 55.9 miles an hour on a level with a train of 210 tons, or 290 tons, including engine and tender."

Later locomotives adopted the Serve tubes and first appeared in the same year; those are described in Locobase 11354.

In 1903, the Nord-Belge Railway purchased four of the class--2.121-2.123 and 2.126--from the Nord and numbered them 307-310.

Class 2.123 (Locobase 11354)

Data from Harry Clifton Reagan, "Locomotives: Simple, Compound, and Electric" (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1907), pp 285-289. Corrected and supplemented by the French-language M Grille, Les Chemins de Fer de L'Exposition de Chicago (Paris: E Bernard et Cie, 1894), pp. 12-14. See also Maurice Demoulin, Traite Pratique de la Machine Locomotive (Paris: Libraire Polytechnique, Baudry et Cie, 1898), pp. 67-68.

These formed the first production batch of locomotives of a set designed by English-born Alfred de Glehn and Nord's chief engineer Gaston du Bosquet. The compound 4-4-0s were an immediate success when they entered service.

They differed from the first two shown in Locobase 3886 in their use of Serve internally finned tubes. The heating surface shown in the specifications above include the company's calculation of the additional surface area offered by the fins in the much larger-diameter tubes. Calculated from the water side, as in British and North American practice, the tube heating surface area was 80.62 sq m

Class 2.138 (Locobase 3887)

Data taken from table published in Railroad Gazette (28 September 1900), which was compiled through direct communications with the various designers.

A follow-on batch of locomotives that repeated the successful 1892 deGlehn compounds (Locobase 3886) with a higher boiler pressure and only a minor increase in weight. Like all of this series of de Glehns (see Locobases 3888-3889, e.g.), these engines had Belpaire fireboxes. They were described by Demoulina as easily pulling 150-tonne trains at 85 km/h (53 mph) and 200-tonne trains at 75 km/h (47 mph) on a maximum 0.6% grade.

Class 2.158 (Locobase 3888)

Data taken 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; and from "New Compound Express Engines - North of France Railway," Locomotive Engineering, Vol. X, No. 3 (March 1897), pp.227-228.

Alfred deGlehn installed a larger, higher-pitched boiler on this trio of compounds while keeping the same power dimensions as the 2.138s (Locobase 3887); like all of this series of de Glehns, these engines had Belpaire fireboxes. Sinclair pointed out that this class retained the same cylinder volume while sporting a slightly larger grate and considerably more tube heating surface. Thus the tractive effort was the same, but these engines had much deeper reserves during heavy use.

Sinclair noted a particular economy in the way this design was enhanced: "Notwithstanding this increase of boiler capacity, which contributes so largely to the splendid steaming qualities of these engines on long, rising gradients, the dead weight of the engine, empty, has only been augmented by 2.3 tons; and on this score, these Northern engines still remain remarkably light, relatively to their maximum power."

The American writer tossed a further bouquet to the French designer: "Although the new engines have only been in service for a few months, and therefore still under trial, the results appear to be highly satisfactory, and reflect to the initiative ability of M. du Bousquet, for maintaining his motive power upon a level with the most approved practice of the day. On curves, the movement of the tender is said to be remarkably easy ..."

See Locobase 3889 for the next set of engines in this line

Class 2.161 (Locobase 3889)

Data taken from table published in Railroad Gazette (28 September 1900), which was compiled through direct communications with the various designers.

A tweak here or there on the boiler size and deGlehn could turn out his final batch of 8-wheel, 4-cylinder compounds while keeping the same power dimensions as the 2.138s and 2.158 (Locobases 3887-3888). Like all of this series of de Glehns, these engines had Belpaire fireboxes.

Class 2.311 / 220 TA (Locobase 10383)

Data from "Suburban Tank Engine, Northern Railway of France," The Locomotive Magazine, Vol IX (3 October 1903)., p.203.

Dowdy little light Eight-wheelers that were originally intended to work on the light-railway tramways in the Nord's territory, the engines proved so capable that they put in service pulling 18-20 car trains in Parisian banlieue service. They had a decent amount of direct heating surface in the Belpaire firebox and offered a lot of adhesion weight. A tall dome sat over the trailing axle of the bogie ahead of the square sandbox.

At some point, the class acquired the nickname "Ravachol". He was an anarchist convicted of staging three dynamite bombings in 1891-1892. Arrested in 1892, he was ultimately condemned to die under the guillotine blade for 3 murders, two of which he may have had nothing to do with). How the name came to be applied to this set of tank engines isn't clear to Locobase, although perhaps the Ravachols served the working-class riders who might have shared Ravachol's disdain for French legal institutions.

Class Outrance (Locobase 3052)

Built at Belfort, these engines gained their name from the strong, double-frame construction that allowed them to be driven "all-out" (a la outrance).

They were not attractive to those fond of clean outlines -- the cranks were fitted outside of the frames, pipes of all descriptions draped over the engine, hiding a brutishly square Belpaire firebox, thimble-shaped dome, square sand-box, square regulator forward with outside steam pipe, and thick, outside-sprung bogie. The bogie cross stretcher, which slid radially, had two ball-and-socket joints to take the load. The actual pivot joining the bogie to the frame was fixed. Reder (1974) and Tufnell (1986) both comment that there must have been a problem with the design as 12 1885 locomotives were completed as 2-4-0s.

Note that the firebox heating surface shown in Locobase 6883 for the 1878 Paris Exposition engine was 9.37 sq m (100.82 sq ft). Locobase suspects that this was the FHS for all Outrances with the same grate area.

Class Outrance - 1878 exhibit (Locobase 6883)

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).

See Locobase 3052 for the full description of the Outrance series. Locobase notes that the locomotive in the present entry -- which was exhibited at the 1878 Paris Exposition -- differs from the 1873 engines in having a larger boiler. It's also possible that the difference is due to a mistake in both Reder (1974) and Tufnell (1982), but Reder in particular seems to have been quite consistent and accurate in his tables.