EST (Cf Paris - Strasbourg) 4-2-0 No. 80 'Le Continent'
Mulhouse, France 		Location: Cité du Train
Status: Display
Related Notes
Photo Copyright © Patrick Giraud
Here are the notes for EST (Cf Paris - Strasbourg) No. 80 'Le Continent', a 4-2-0 located in Mulhouse, France. If you have additional information about this locomotive, and would like to share it, click the Add Note button.
Posted: Mar 11, 2022 @ 08:03:56 by Dale W Fickés
The late P Ransome-Wallis has this as J F Cail No. 187 (NOT 189) of 1852 named “LE CONTINENT” and built for the Paris - Strasbourg Railway which became the Est two years later, in 1854.It was withdrawn in 1914 and, after WW1, was restored externally and displayed at Paris Gare de l’Est until 1946, when it was taken to Épernay to be fully restored.
Posted: Dec 1, 2006 @ 05:12:34 by Steve Frost
Thomas Russell Crampton worked under Daniel Gooch on the Great Western Railway in England and in 1842 patented a design for a high speed express loco. He was concerned to have a low centre of gravity, so the design featured a low slung boiler. However, large driving wheels were the order of the day in the 1840's, and the problem was one of locating the driving axle whilst keeping an adequate boiler mounted low down. He solved this by placing the driving axle behind the firebox and using outside cylinders set well back from the smokebox. To control the loco on the track the leading four wheels were rigid in the chassis, producing the 4-2-0 wheel arrangement. It was in Europe, and France in particular, that the Crampton was most used. It never took off in the UK. Train travel was so associated with the design that people spoke of 'Prendre le Crampton' when catching a train. They were indeed speedy - one Crampton holding the world speed record in 1890 at 144 km/h. Access was good with outside machinery, but as train weights increased, the disadvantage of the single driver became more and more apparent. The loco has steamed infrequently and may still be in working order.