The 141-r in the eastern and northern regions of France

Auteur : Clive Lamming

Due to a severe shortage of locomotives, the Est region will be the first to be equipped with 141-R locomotives, all of which will be used for freight transport. Châlons is the first French depot to receive 141-Rs, which will be used on lines 1 and 10 of the network, running between Vaires-Triage, Pantin, Nancy, Blainville, Metz, Reims and Culmont-Chalindrey.

Shortly afterwards, the Blainville depot will provide direct freight trains (Régime Accéléré or RA, and also Régime Ordinaire RO) to Hausbergen, Conflans and Metz, where they will be re-sorted. The Blainville depot will also supply 141-Rs for the Dijon line via Toul, Neufchâteau and Culmont-Chalindrey. Due to a shortage of Pacific locomotives, and pending the delivery of new 141-Ps that are currently under construction, the Eastern region is making exceptions by assigning 141-Rs to Lyon-Dijon passenger trains up to Reims at least. The Mulhouse-Nord depot also assigned 141-Rs to Régime Ordinaire (RO) freight trains to Basle, Belfiort, Culmont-Chalindrey, Dijon and Hausbergen.

An impressive view of the Longueau facilities in the North region, in the 1960s. Adjacent to the two sorting yards, the depot is on the right. Far to the right, we can see the first houses of the “railway city” and their gardens. © IXO Collections SAS - Tous droits réservés. Crédits photo © Collection Trainsconsultant-Lamming

THE 141-R IN THE NORTHERN REGION

No doubt about it, in the Northern region, the brave Americans will be ‘ coal-burning’ in every sense of the word, because a huge coal traffic awaits them in a France that is still completely ignorant of ‘atomics’ and produces its electricity from thermal power plants. Most of their work would be between the coal-mining areas and the Paris region, via the railway line serving Montdidier, Verberie and Ormoy-Villers.

Locomotives from the Longueau, Béthune, Somain and Lille-Délivrance depots were spotted at the marshalling yard at Le Bourget, or passing through Valenton along the Grande Ceinture, while locomotives from the Le Bourget depot ‘went up north’ or hauled long-distance express trains from Juvisy or La Chapelle (Paris). The 141-Rs from Tergnier used to operate on the famous Belgium line, passing through Creil, Jeumont and Feignies, but also frequented the main Amiens-Laon-Reims line, and could be seen at Busigny, Cambrai, Somain and Valenciennes.

The 141-R No. 186 at work in the North region. The composition of the freight train, with its archaic wagons dating from the old companies, shows the urgency of their replacement which will not take place for around twenty years. © IXO Collections SAS - Tous droits réservés. Crédits photo © Collection Trainsconsultant-Lamming

Little by little, the Northern region returned to its large and powerful type 150-B and 150-P ‘charbonnières’, while the Eastern region returned to its large type 151 tender locomotives, either returned from Germany, refurbished or built. The renovation of the fleet of freight wagons remains urgent, but will be delayed. Many of the wagons in these trains are of an outdated type, with their brake callipers dating from a completely different era.

The Longueau site in 1966 according to a period document from the SNCF. The complexity and immensity of these marshalling yards remains unimaginable when we see what they have become today; most of them have simply disappeared. .© IXO Collections SAS - Tous droits réservés. Crédits photo © Collection Trainsconsultant-Lamming

The map of the large marshalling yards of the SNCF's "RO" (ordinary regime) in 1960. The truck, which found its oil and tires again after the war, has not yet killed the freight traffic of the national rail network. © IXO Collections SAS - Tous droits réservés. Crédits photo © Collection Trainsconsultant-Lamming

The marshalling yard and workshops at Tergnier, another of the major railway junctions served by the 141-Rs. © IXO Collections SAS - Tous droits réservés. Crédits photo © Collection Trainsconsultant-Lamming

ELSEWHERE, AT THE SAME TIME

THE PACIFIC LMS ‘DUCHESS

These brilliant, powerful Pacific ‘Duchess’ locomotives were the pinnacle of British steam locomotive design in the late 1930s. They were the fastest express passenger locomotives ever used in Britain.

Bearing the famous signature of William Stanier, with their blood-red colouring enhanced by yellow and black stripes, these machines easily beat records for their power and speed, even exceeding, with their voracious appetite for coal, what could be loaded by teams of three men, including two overstretched drivers.

The competition, down to the second, between the trains of the London Midland & Scottish Rly and the London & North Eastern Rly. Here the LMS 230s lose face against the LNER 231s, in both travel directions. The fight reached its peak in the late 1930s, when the LMS finally committed its 231 “Duchess”. © IXO Collections SAS - Tous droits réservés. Crédits photo © Collection Trainsconsultant-Lamming

SCOTLAND: THE FIERCEST COMPETITION

The London, Midland & Scottish Railway and the London & North Eastern Railway are two competing networks operating on the London-Scotland route. The two companies are bitter rivals: if one brings out a new Pacific, the other does the same. The performances of the trains between London and Edinburgh are compared to the minute, and every day it's a race to see who can set the fastest time, a feat that is often published in the press! The English, who are big fans of betting, enjoy it to the full... The ‘Duchesses’ surpass everything that exists in terms of high-speed locomotives: they can pull trains weighing more than 600 tonnes at more than 100 km/h, travel at more than 160 km/h in front of trains weighing 300 to 400 tonnes and, in one example, even reach 182 km/h during tests.

AN ERA

Major competitors of the "R", and much faster, the type 231K locomotives triumph with passenger services also in the North network. Here the No. 231K8 crossing Étaples at 120 km/h in 1972. © IXO Collections SAS - Tous droits réservés. Crédits photo © Collection Trainsconsultant-Lamming