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The East 4400
Many locomotive have passed by the Trieux line.
The 141 TB 424 from the 4401 to 4512 series of the Est Railway network (rename 141 TB 401 to 512 when the SNCF was created in 1938).
This locomotives were buildt from 1911 to 1917 mainly for the Paris suburbs.
This is able to go in both ways at the speed of 90 km/h.
During the Great War, the 4400 have help the battle front, for example in the Verdun battle.
The 424 have been mainly assign to the Noisy le Sec, La Villette et Nogent Vincennes depot. Some others 141 TB was assign at Lérouville, to push the commercial train on the Loxéville ramp, that was also his case.
We also find them at Nancy to help for the maneuver.
After the last war, some of them were moved to the old netword of the Alsace Lorraine (a region of France).
In 1958, some of them were modified to go back and forth: the engine pus the train, driver being alone inside while the mecanic was in the locomotive.
This new change permit to gain time during the peak traffic in the train station of Est Paris.
Most of the locomotive end their career when the East Paris line were electified.
Meanwhile 20 of them, 424 include, keep doing the line of Vincennes until 1969.
They were assign to the Nogent Vincennes depot, this is nowadays the Halle de Baltard.
Finally some of them, move to the CFTA depot of Provins were used to carrier cereal until 1972.
Beside of the 424, the 407 is also still able to move after his renew by the AJECTA in the Paris region.
When the engine come to Brittany, the two locomotive were reunited in the Longueville depot in Seine-et-Marne (French departement).
After it was restore by the Chaumont depot in 1972, the TB was waiting the expansion of a museum.
But, the Strasbourg SNCF region wanted to have a steam engine during their celebration, so they ask to the museum to get one.
The 141 TB 424 has been proposed because of his great global condition.
After his reintroduction in 1992 for some special train during 10 years, the engine have been totaly restored during the boiler test.
So that's a 100 years old locomotive who make the daily journey beetween Paimpol and Pontrieux.
Sources : Christian Fonnet , manager of the information at AHICF (Association pour l'histoire des chemins de fer).
