231 B Western

The 231 B was a small series of locomotive with vapor of the State railway.

This series of fifty engines was built in 1910. After a few difficult years, the engines became series 231 of the SNCF. The series was numbered 231-011 to 231-060 by the State railway and 231 B 1 to 231 B 60 by the SNCF. The 231 B was inspired by two other engines; the boiler was inspired by the boilers of Pacific 2900 and the wheels of the 230 J. They were coupled with tenders of 22 m ³ of capacity and were very sober of apparance.

These engines had a tendency to to run off the line and forced the State railway to change the front bogies. Two of these accidents occurred to Perray and Bernay on September 10th, 1910.

After a temporary use at the head of the goods trains limited to 60 km/h, the engines were réautorisées to tractor draw trains travellers in 1912.

As from 1912, the 231 B had their deposits with the Batignolles and Vaugirard and tractor drew the express trains in direction of the Havre, Cherbourg, Mans, Thouars and the Deauville Express train .

Around 1922, half of the series was transferred to Dieppe, which gave their nickname of Dieppoises . The machines also tractor drew the express train of Gare Saint-Lazare with Dieppe by Pontoise. As from 1929, the series dealt with the express trains between Dieppe and Mans and the Handle-Ocean , between Dieppe and Bordeaux.

Several engines were equipped with deflectors of smoke into 1931 just as of radiators ACFI. The series of engine was renumbered 231 B 1 to 231 B 60 in 1938.

Around 1945, a project aiming at increasing their power with 1700 HP in order to create the series 231 L failed and the engines circulated until 1956.

See too

Locomotive with vapor Frenchwomen

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231 B Western

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