The EST and ETAT Mountains

== History ==
=== Origins ===
During the 20’s, the Compagnie des Chemins de fer de l’EST introduced new steel coaches to replace the wooden one. However this changes increased the weight of the trains, and new express locomotives were needed to pull those heavier trains. Even the new series of 40 Pacifics, the 11s class 31001 to 31040, arrived in 1921, struggled to ensure those trains. The EST wasn’t interested to produced a new Pacific class, and instead decided to have a new engine with a bigger wheel arrangement. The studies were led by Émile Duchâtel, the chief mechanical engineer of the railway, with the engineers Mestre and Léguille. They ended up with the construction of a 4-8-2 Mountain type prototype engine with a compound engine and a superheater, in the locomotive works of the company at Épernay.
This new engine, numbered 41001, leaved the Épernay on January 17th 1925, and became the first Mountain type locomotive of France and Europe, only a few weeks before the PLM’s Mountain. 41001 was assigned to the Paris-La Villette depot and was tested on the Paris-Strasbourg and Paris-Mulhouse main lines. After some tests along side with a Nord Pacific Engine, number 3.1214, in 1928, other changes were released: - Increase the boiler pressure from 16 to 17 bar. 
- Increase the low presion cylinders’ diameter from 610mm to 690mm. 
- Increase of section passage. 
- Improvement of steam pipes. 
- Replacement of the “Nord” cone chimney with a 3-jet trough type “PLM”.
These modifications have increased the power of the engine of 30%. 
In 1930, the tests were finished and the EST Railway ordered 40 other engines. 41001 was renumbered 241-001.
=== The 13s class of the EST ===
The new engines form the class 13s, and were numbered 241-002 to 241-041. The EST Mountains defers form the prototype, by the increase of the evaporation heating surface from 217.6 m² to 223.2 m², the increase of the boiler pressure from 17 to 20 bar, the increase of the axle load from 18.7 t to 19.7 t, the pistons rods of the high-pressure cylinders, the shipping system, the axle stand, the smoke chamber, and the position of the chimney were changed too.
Those 40 engines were delivered between May 1931 and February 1932, in two batches, each with 20 engines. The first batch was produced by Fives-Lille, and the second one by the Société Française de Construction Mécanique (SFCM). The class 13s engines were allocated to the depots of Paris-La Villette (12 engines), Chaumont (19 engines), and Troyes (9 engines).
The EST Mountains were used to pull the heaviest trains on the tree radials Paris-Nancy, Paris-Charleville and Paris-Basel. They were also used to ensure trains from Belfort to Delle, and from Chaumont to Laon.
If the engines were doing their jobs as it was expected, they were quickly overtaken with the arrivals of new engines, especially the Chapelon Pacifics. Due to poor studies. Some modifications were undertaken to improve the Mountains, such as replacing the 450mm high-pressure cylinders by smaller one in steel cast with a diameter of 425mm, putting modified inlet and outlet channels for the pistons-valves of the low-pressure cylinders, putting an ACFI preheater for 28 engines and a Worthington type for 3 other engines, exchanging the original firebox with a welded steel new one, and improving the rust. Thanks to those changes, the engines’ performances had been increased about 25%, and their coal consumption had been slightly reduced.
However at the beginning of their career, the Est Mountains will seen their image being damaged with a succession of three accidents, two on the EST and one on the ETAT: 
- On October 11th 1932, on the Paris-Basel line, an express pulled by the engine number 241-036 derailed at the station of Villepatour-Presle. Approximately 15 peoples were injured. 
- On December 23rd 1933, while pulling the Express n°25 bis Paris-Strasbourg the EST Mountain number 241-017 collided with the Express N°55 Paris-Nancy, near Lagny-Pomponne. The crash caused the death of 214 people and had injured 300 other people, this was the second deadliest rail accident in France. After being repaired, the engine n° 241-017 had been nicknamed la Charcutière de Lagny (Lagny’s pork butcher).
=== The class 241-001 to 241-049 of the État ===
During the same time, the Administration des chemins de fer de l’ ÉTAT suffered also about a lose of powerful steam locomotives with the arrivals of new steel box coaches, especially for the big express between Paris and Cherbourg and Paris and Le Havre. In 1929, Raoul Dautry, the director of the Railway, interested by the 241-001 of the Est, did tests with the Mountain on the Paris-Cherbourg and Paris-Le Havre main lines. And in 1931, the État ordered 49 engines. The engines were delivered in three batches: 
- The first batch of 29 Mountains was produced by Fives-Lille between May and June 1931. 
- The second batch of 10 engines was produced by the SFCM between August 1931 and July 1932. 
- The third batch of 10 engines was produced by the Société Batignolles-Châtillon between December 1934 and June 1935.
The new engines formed the ÉTAT class 241-001 to 241-049. The 39 first engines were allocated at the end of 1932 to the depots of Paris-Batignolles (29 engines), Caen (4 engines), and Montrouge (6 engines). The État Mountains were used to run Express on Paris-Cherbourg, Paris-Le Havre, Paris-Deauville and Paris-Rennes lines. 
But like their sisters on the EST, an accident will ruin there image. In October 1933, on the Paris-Cherbourg line, the Express 345 pulled by the Mountain number 241-022, derailed on a curve and finished its run in a river, between Conches-en-Ouche and La Bonneville-sur-Iton, near Saint-Élier, at nearly 10 a.m. From the accident of Saint-Élier 37 people died while approximately 100 other people were injured. The incident had pushed the railway to limited the speed of the Mountain engines to 90 km/h. And the fastest trains were given to the Pacifics engines n°501 to 783. This limitation will be applied until that the problems of the truck recall, the inadequate rigidity of the chassis and the wrong curve marking of the four driving wheels were resolved. Then the limited speed went up from 90 to 105 km/h on January 1934, and then to 110 km/h.
In January 1934, 16 locomotives from Paris-Batignolles were transferred to Montrouge, with 20 engines in total. And the Laval depot gained a set of 15 engines. The last tenth locomotives were delivered with an ACFI preheater, a mechanical lubrication, high pressure cylinders made of cast steel and other updates. Those engines were temporally allocated to Paris-Batignolles, until all Mountains, as well those from Caen, were all assignated to the depots of Laval, Montrouge and Rennes, to ensure passenger services in Brittany, in May 1936.
=== The 1-241-A (former Est) and 3-241-A (former ÉTAT) of the SNCF ===
With the creation of the SNCF on January the 1st 1938, the 90 Mountains from both former ÉTAT and former EST were incorporated into the SNCF’s inventories and received the numbers 1-241-A-1 to 41 (for the engine on the eastern region) and 3-241-A-1 to 49 (for the engine on the western region). With the electrification of the Paris-Le Mans line in May 1937, ten Mountains from western region had been allocated to the eastern region. They were allocated to the depots of Paris-La Villette and Chaumont. The remaining engines on the western region have been allocated to the depots of Rennes (16 engines), Le Mans (8 engines) and Brest (3 engines). 
In 1939 during World War II, the Mountains of the eastern region have been moved to prevent from material destruction with the risk of a possible movement of the zone of combat. After the end of the Western campaign, the 241-A where used on the Paris-Langres, Paris-Novéante, Le Mans-Brest and Rennes-Auray lines. During the occupation, the Germans occupiers used them for holiday trains, troop transports, freight transport, and were used for the construction of the Atlantic wall. During this time, the western 241-A, were driving trains to Quimper, because the ban on using the Blavet bridge in Hennebont was not observed. As they were compound engines with complex composites, the Germans were not very interested on them. However that doesn’t prevent them to send a total of nine engines in Germany, those engines were number 3-241-A-1, 15, 19, 21, 22, 27 and 48 from the western region, and the engines number 1-241.A.4 and 9 from the eastern region. The missing Mountain from the western region were replaced by engines from the eastern region, they were based at Montrouge and were operated trains from Paris to Le Mans and Granville. Between 1942 and 1946, ten former État Mountains were muted to the eastern region and were fitted with the same features, they will be later renumbered 1-241-A-42 to 51 after those modifications. Starting at 1941, every engines were equipped with the Traitement-Intégral-Armand (T.I.A), a water treatment product to prevent against formation of limestone in the engine parts. When the war end up in 1945, only three engines have been removed from SNCF inventories. The engines 1-241-A-12 and 20 have been badly damaged by the bombings and were not repairable, while the engine 1-241-A-4 never returned to France, being located east of the iron curtain, and being recovered by the Deutsche Reichsbahn. From 1944, 15 engines were based at Bar-le-Duc, halfway between Paris and Strasbourg from where they ran Express to Metz and Saarbrücken, in Germany. Following in 1950 by six other engines, while Belfort gave up all its engines as well as Chaumont because of its bombed shed and because of the Chaumont viaduct, destroyed during the war. However Chaumont could have again some 241-A after the reparations of the viaduct.
In the west, the SNCF decided to muted every 241-A on the eastern region and replaced them with the new 141-P and 141-R. Between October 1946 and March 1947, the West region gave 14 locomotives to Chaumont and Strasbourg, so that Le Mans doesn’t have anymore 241-A, while Chaumont again owned 21 locomotives. During 1948, 15 more locomotives from the east followed, so that Rennes no longer housed 241-A. In the same time, Strasbourg received 21 engines, replacing the 1-231-B class. At the beginning the 29 engines muted to the eastern region received temporally the numbers between 1-241-A-301 and 339. It was only after receiving the same features as the Mountains from the former EST, they received the numbers 1-241-A-52 to 80. The last 241-A from the western region were withdrawn from Laval in April 1949 and leaved for the eastern region, and received the numbers 1-241-A-81 to 90.
From 1951, the arrival of the new 141-P class, and the ex-PLM Pacifics, classes 231-G and K, marked the beginning of the end for the Mountains of the eastern region, as those classes were cheaper for maintenance. Between 1952 and 1956, 15 engines were parked and were only heated during periods of high traffic. But the engines that are in a worse condition were excluded. The electrification of the Valenciennes-Thionville line in the early 1950s, electrical operation was gradually expanded in the Alsace-Mosel area, so that from December 1956 the services of the 241 As from Bar-le-Duc to Metz and Saarbrücken ended, and the locomotives from Chaumont only ran to Strasbourg. With the electrification progressing in the eastern region, some engines were muted at Noisy-le-sec and Paris-La Villette depots. The eletrification of the Strasbourg-Basel line, the services of the 241-A ended up. In 1958, the 241-A of Chaumont were withdrawn and replaced by the engines from Bar-le-Duc and Paris-La Villette. In total between 1958 and 1961, 45 engines were withdrawn from services.
In the early 1960s, Chaumont still housed 20 locomotives that were used during weekend traffic peaks and in case of failure of the new A1AA1A 68000 and A1AA1A 68500 diesel locomotives. In 1964, only six of the 20 locomotives were still in regular service, in January 1965 there were only five, the 241.A.65 was the last locomotive to be dismantled on February 18, 1965.
== The Case of the engine Mountain 241.A.4 ==
Former engine from the Est Railway, and carrying formerly the number 241.004, the engine had been taken by the Germans during their retreat. As the engine finished in East Germany at the very beginning of the Cold War, she was never never returned to France. The Mountain was used by the Deutsche Reichsbahn to test pulverized coal-fired boiler under the direction of Hans Wendler. After completion, the experimental program was started at the vehicle test facility in Halle. The initial tests showed that the locomotive did not meet the desired expectations. In particular, performance and fuel savings were far below expectations. A major cause was the reduction of the boiler pressure from 20 bar to 16 bar due to legal regulations. The FVA hall also limited the maximum speed to 110 km/h, as they feared derailments. 
After the tests were completed, the engine was incorporated into the inventory of the DR, and received the number 08 1001. The locomotive was used from December 1953, at the Dresden-Altstadt depot and in the express trains services Dresden-Berlin. 1955 the locomotive was decommissioned after only 34,000 km of mileage and two years later retired and scrapped.
It was the only mountain engine owned by a German railway.
== Preserved engines ==
Two Mountain engines from the former EST and ÉTAT have been preserved:
- the 241-A-1, the class’ prototype, built in 1925, had been withdrawn in 1959. She had been chosen to represent his series at the Cité du Train at Mulhouse. 
- The 241-A-65, former ÉTAT 241-001, had finished her career on February 1965, and was by extension the last engine of the class being withdrawn. She is currently preserved by the 241-A-65 association, in Switzerland.
Category:French steam locomotives
Category:German locomotives