Elsass-Lothringen 4-6-0 Locomotives in Germany

Class S4 / P7 / 230C (Locobase 7911)

Christian Lindecke's German locomotive website [], accessed 25 October 2006 for data, supplemented by diagram Loco: 128, Societe Alsacienne de Constructions Mecaniques from locomotive book supplied by Dany Machi up at [] as

Diagrammes des machines SACM construites a GRAFENSTADEN (October 2007).

If the Prussians were less than pleased with their de Glehn compound Ten-wheelers (Locobase 6458), the EL betrayed a greater susceptibility to Gallic influence. Admittedly, de Glehn was actually English-born and the Belpaire boiler was invented by a Belgian, but the inspiration for this design came from the Nord Atlantic on display at the 1900 Paris Exposition.

Noted on the Elsass free website -- [], accessed 25 October 2006 -- as very beautiful (tres belle, perhaps "very handsome"?) and long-lived, the EL P7s had much more going for them than their Prussian counterparts. The boiler was bigger and pressed to over 225 psi, the drivers stood tall enough to move express trains at the designed maximum of 100 km/h (62 mph). Like other French engines of the day, these were fitted with Serve tubes sporting interior ribs.

They radiated throughout the provinces and, after their return to France with Alsace-Lorraine in 1919, carried on for decades more. When the SNCF was formed in 1939, 23 out of the original 30 remained in service.

Both France and Luxemburg operated this class into the postwar era with SNCF retiring its last in 1949 and CFL in 1953.

Class S9 - Henschel (Locobase 8956)

Data from Albert H Bone, "Some Recent Designs of Locomotives for Service on Continental Railways", Cassier's Magazine, 1910, pp. 561-609.

The marked difference between Bone's data and that of the Wikipedia entry shown in Locobase 7915 corresponds to the use of smaller-diameter, smoothbore tubes in the former and the larger, Serve internally ribbed tubes in the latter.

The high drivers marked the class as express engines. They were taken into the French network after that country regained Alsace-Lorraine in 1919. When the SNCF formed in 1938, the S9s were redesignated 230D. Some of these operated into the 1950s.

Class S9 / 230D (Locobase 7915)

Data from The Locomotive Magazine, Vol XIV (15 July 1908), p. 124. See also [] and, especially, diagram Loco 142, Societe Alsacienne de Constructions Mecaniques from locomotive book supplied by Dany Machi up at [] as Diagrammes des machines SACM construites a GRAFENSTADEN (October 2007).

Wikipedia says these were follow-ons to the successful batch of S7s (Locobase 7911) delivered four years earlier. A little heavier and standing on taller drivers, this class was otherwise identical to S7s and shared the de Glehn compound system and the Belpaire boiler. Grafenstaden supplied 50 engines, Henschel 15; Grafenstaden's had the Serve tubes (which had internal ribs). Henschel's tube interiors were smooth and narrower in the bore. These latter are found on Locobase 8956.

The high drivers marked the class as express engines and these locomotives connected the Swiss frontier town of Basle with Luxembourg, Strasbourg, and Weissenburg.

They were taken into the French network after that country regained Alsace-Lorraine in 1919. When the SNCF formed in 1938, the S9s were redesignated 230D. Some of these operated into the 1950s.