Among all of the S.N.C.F.steam engines that have survived, there are nine of the "Pacific" class remaining. A Pacific has the following axle arrangement: 2 carrying axles at the front, 3 driven axles and one carrying axle at the rear. Of these prestigious high-speed engines, which pulled express and high-speed trains from the nineteen twenties to the nineteen sixties, the 231 G 558 is one of the only ones in working order. Built in 1922 in Nantes by Batignolles-Châtillon, it was one of a series of 283 numbered units run on the State network: 231 501 to 783. In 1936, to deal with the traction problems posed by the advent of passenger coaches made entirely of metal, which were heavier, the State network modified 31 of its Pacifics by making changes including to the steam distribution. These engines were fitted with a distribution system with valves on the high-pressure (HP) and low-pressure cylinders (LP), following the principles applied to the locomotives of the Paris Orléans Company (PO) by André Chapelon and used by Lenz-Dabeg. They were then listed under the D.D. (Double Dabeg) type, which became type G when S.N.C.F. was founded on 1 January 1938. Assigned to various depots (Thouars, Caen, Le Havre and Nantes-Blottereau), in its successive residences it provided high-speed services on the Paris-Bordeaux route via Chartres, Niort and Saintes; Paris-Cherbourg; Paris-Le Havre; and finally Nantes-Le Croisic, where it pulled its last train on 29 September 1968 before being parked at Angers. Relit in 1969, it was taken to Dieppe where for a few months it was used as a static boiler for heating heavy fuel oil for car ferries. S.N.C.F. tried in vain to sell it in 1971. On the initiative of a chief motive power engineer at the Sotteville depot, it was moved there in 1972 and after long negotiations was sold for the symbolic sum of one franc to the S.N.C.F. Western Network's Chief Motive Power Engineers' Club on 4 November 1977. Following this it was shown static at various events. |
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