Corpet Louvet 030T

Et le voici!

That's it...

Shouldn't be too difficult to fabicate in thin brass or tin.

If you have a good pic of the front or rear of the cab I would be grateful.


I can't remember what they're celebrating exactly but it's to do with the railways and tranports going on for about a month. I had some paperwork here but it's gone so I am waiting for confirmation.
I was a approached by a representative last year from the conseil regional who was looking for layouts to appear a week at a time. Dates to be advised but end of May or Jearly June for my slot.

The one in the book pic is in fact the same loco - No.23 - as in the St Martin pic, so that's the front taken care of (it was obviously some kind of loco publicity seeker) I will scour my collection for a rear view...

What about the cab on No.x3 or 3x in the picture below 'Ars en Ré' (great name for place) That, as with many Corpets is decidedly different and has circular spectacles.

I'm being a bit lazy really as I'm sure I must have some pics in odd books of old Corpet Louvets.

What would be a good reference thing is to try and catalogue the different styles of 030 Corpet tanks.

There are no specific books I know on the subject.

Thats a damn good idea Carl! At a guess how many different types do you think there are?

Mikey

BTWthe industrial railway archives at http://www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/27/CL_1.htm has pictures of many different corpets (but not all)

Mikey

The IRS is a good reference source.

I reckon there could be over a hundred different varations produced by Corpet plus local modifications.

There was even a tender version produced for Martinique but I can't find any pics at the moment.
Plus there were the 2 celebrated English bastards.
German versions and many other African and far eastern colonial exports.

http://www.tramdelain.fr/ligne_villefranche__jassans_.htm

On this link you could see the pictures with the church posted earlier "Tramway de l'ain" by mikeyh.

There's a lot more of those nice pictures.

I have ripped off poor Henri Domengie one more time. This is what he says about EC (Charente Inferieure) motive power (my free translation):

"All the rolling stock was 2.10 metres wide. Locomotives of series 1-2 and 21-33 had a basic cab in the characteristic "swallow-tail" shape. The first two machines, in service on the Ile de Re, revealed themselves to be too light and they were sold after World War I, to be replaced by machines in the 21-33 series, of which five were already in service on the Ile d'Oleron. The other machines had a classic cab - all were Corpet Louvet 060s, divided into three groups:
51-55 (later 151-155), the heaviest, recognisable by the rectangular shape of their cab windows
34-48, which were only used on the mainland lines
89-90, identical to those serving on the Charente network."

The EC's lines covered Charente and Charente Inferieure; Domengie says that although wagons were used in common, locos stayed with one of the two networks.

This is No.2 (sold after WW1)



and this is no 53:



So it seems that locos that ran on Re had oval cab windows and a swallow tail cab. The loco at Ars could well be camera hogging 23 again. The loco in the Jarnac pic seems to have a cab like 53.

Going by the numerous pics in the book Phil they werent all swallowtails. Its the latest addition to my book collection and what a wonderful reference source it is

Mikey

Would it be fair to assume that the open backed Corpets nearly always travelled in the forwards direction to avoid rainfall ingress travelling in reverse ?

Mikey's right. I've just looked at my own pics again. 23 at St Martin has square cab windows and the loco at Ars has oval ones. Doh. Cancel my last pronouncement. Workshop modifications? Domengie wrong? On Re, he has pics of 23 (the card reproduced above): 27 (square windows and swallow tail cab) and No 1 (too light and sold later).

This is getting a bit obsessive, but I have just looked at all my cards and booklets of Re. All pics are reproductions so detail can be bit difficult.

All the locos have swallow tail cabs.

I apologise to No 23 for calling it a camera hog.

From all sources where cab fronts can be seen there are pics as follows: 1 (round), 22 (square), 23 (sq), 26 (sq), 27 (sq); 31 (sq); 33 (round). So the Ars pic cd. be 33.

Paul, I have some track plans: there were turntables at the ends of the Re line and in principle, locos there and on the mainland always went forwards; this does not explain why the loco in Jarnac is going backwards. All cab backs were open, and the Jarnac loco does look like it had some kind of rolled up curtain on top. It is difficult to see how any such protection could have been done on the locos with swallow-rail cabs.

philkelly wrote:

This is getting a bit obsessive

No not at all.

You've completely lost me though with the swallow cab numbers and windows stuff but keep the postcards and history coming.

The IRS link has some nice pics of swallow cabbed Corpets.
And according to the IRS Corpet Louvet produced over 1200 metre gauge locomotives, mostly 030T.

I think I cataloguing every cab variant and number may prove a tad difficult.

I found the below description on the 'net with no acknowledgement as to authorship. so as its for reseasrch purposes only!;
Locomotives
The locomotives built by Corpet-Louvet had four different names on the worksplates.

Anjubault
Works numbers 1 to 121 carried Anjubault worksplates. The first three locomotives were built for the Compagnie d'Orsay and were named L'Yvette, L'Orge and Le Florian. They were all standard gauge. Almost all Anjubault locomotives were four coupled locomotives, but works number 4 bis (a duplicate works number) was a six coupled locomotive built for the Compagnie Est-Landon in 1858. The majority of Anjubault locomotives were sold to contractors building new railway lines in France. A few locomotives are known to have been sold to India, Russia, Spain and Switzerland.[1]

L Corpet
Works numbers 122 to 565 carried L Corpet worksplates. In the 1870s and 1880s, Lucien Corpet continued to build four-coupled locomotives and also started to build six-coupled locomotives, including some designed to be able to be regauged. This design was introduced in 1880. The first metre gauge locomotives built for light railways were works numbers 314 and 315 built for the Chemin de Fer de Cambrésis in 1880 and 1881. Corpet introduced Brown valve gear on some of his locomotives in 1881. This system was popular with Swiss Locomotive Works at Winterthur, Switzerland. Works numbers 341-44 were the first Corpet locomotives with Brown valve gear.[1]

Vve L Corpet & L Louvet
Works numbers 566 to 1415 carried Vve L Corpet & L Louvet worksplates.[2] At the end of the 1880s and into the 1890s many light railways were built in France, many of them to metre gauge. Metre gauge six-coupled tank locomotives formed the bulk of Corpet-Louvet's production until the outbreak of the First World War. In the Ardennes, light railways were built to gauge. Corpet-Louvet supplied fourteen locomotives between 1895 and 1906. The line and locomotives were later converted to metre gauge.[3] Corpet-Louvet also built Mallet locomotives, the first being 0-4-4-0s built in 1897 for the Tramways à Vapeur d'Ille et Vilaine. Works numbers 1409 - 13 were 0-6-6-0 Mallets built for the Chemin de Fer du Centre. These were the largest metre gauge locomotives built by Corpet-Louvet.[4]

Corpet, Louvet & Compagnie
Works numbers 1416 to 1962 carried Corpet, Louvet & Compagnie worksplates. Production was severely hit by the First World War, with only three locomotives being outshopped in 1915 and none in 1916. During the 1920s, production was mainly metre gauge six-coupled tank engines. During the early 1930s, production was mainly standard gauge 0-8-0-ST and 2-10-2ST locomotives. The Depression hit the firm hard, with only two locomotives being delivered in 1934, 1935, 1936 and 1938. No new locomotives were delivered in 1937 or 1939. During the Second World War, Locomotives under construction when Paris was overrun were completed, but some of these could not be delivered to their intended customers, and saw service in France. The largest locomotives built by Corpet-Louvet were ten 2-10-2T locomotives built for SNCF in 1940-42. These weighed 91 tonnes. Six standard gauge 0-8-0ST locomotives were built for Krupp in 1944. It is thought these locomotives carried Krupp worksplates. The first locomotive delivered after the liberation of Paris in August 1944 was works number 1875, a standard gauge 0-8-0T of similar design to those built for Krupp. The last locomotive built for a French light railway was works number 1926 built for the Chemin de Fer de Cambrésis in 1948. The last locomotive, works number 1962 was ordered by the Houillères du Bassin d'Auvergne but subsequently cancelled. However, a locomotive carrying works number 1962 was recorded in service with the company in 1955![4]

May be this topic should go somewhere else before the Corpet maniacs takeover from the post card collectors (even if we are the same people).

This is from Le Chemin de Fer de l’Ile de Re, by Andre Artur published by the Groupement d’Etudes Retaises – Cahiers de la Memoire No 59/60, Printemps 1995 (told you I’d been at this a long time!)

“The line on the Ile de Re was the last-opened of the first network of the EC and the locomotives (already) delivered by Corpet Louvet had all been put to use on lines on the mainland. The EC requested from this company (which delivered over 50 years more than 1400 locomotives to various secondary networks, industrial or colonial railways) a type of light machine suited to the traffic which was expected on the Ile de Re.

So the two locomotives (Nos. 1 and 2) weighing 11.72 tonnes (13.1 tonnes all-up) were delivered respectively on the 1st and 4th of August 1898 to St Martin and authorised into traffic by Prefectoral decree on 10th December 1898 after brake tests on 23rd September.

But already, the company had hastily brought two locomotives of a heavier type (14.6 tonnes empty and 18.65 tonnes all-up) from the mainland, in service there since 1895, so that it could open the line to passenger traffic on 9 July 1898. These were numbers 32 and 33, which had been in service respectively on the Ponsac-Barbezieux and Touvent-Jonzac lines.

No 33 had the honour of pulling the inaugural train. It very soon became apparent that the four machines were insufficient and under a Prefectoral decree of 19th October 1904 a fifth machine was placed in service. This was 31, from the same series as 32 and 33. For its second network, the EC had taken delivery of new heavier machines (series 34 to 48) and preferred to keep these for the mainland lines, transferring lighter locomotives to the Ile.

It is quite difficult to keep track of the locomotive fleet during the existence of the network on Re. It seems that the total number was never more than five, but there were many moves of locomotives to and from the mainland and the Ile d’Oleron.

Locomotives 1 and 2, too light, disappeared relatively quickly...

(in summary, locos 21, 22, 23, (which did not have a long service on the island despite managing to get itself photographed), 26, 27, 31, 32 and 33 were all on the island at some time between 1898 and closure to normal traffic in 1936 (the line was revived by German occupation forces during the construction of the Atlantic Wall and operated sporadically after the war until 1947)).

The characteristics of the locos are given as follows:

1 and 2, builder's nos. 688 and 689, (I’ve got all the weights, dimensions, coal and water capacity, etc. of these and will post them if asked (!).

21-33: EC numbers followed by builder’s numbers: 21, 600; 22, 601; 23, 602; 26, 605; 27, 606; 31, 610; 32, 611; 33, 612:

Length without couplings (“hors tampons”) 6.640m; overall width 2.1m; wheelbase 2.04m; diameter of cylinders, 0.26m; piston travel, 0.38m; wheel diameter 0.95m; tractive effort 2,220kg.

Choo choo!

Nice one Phil. Great detail. (agree with you about a seperate thread on corpets)

Mikey

What do you think it was that attracted so many companies to the Corpet? Price? power? speed of production? Versatility?

Mikey

Reliability seems to be repeated in many stories and indeed when you speek to people like the MTVS about 'Lulu' CdN 36.
And indeed for their day speed and a very modern design which was copied by Pinguely and Piguet.

The CdN by the way had the following steam locomotives,

42 locomotives furent utilisés pour l'exploitation du réseau des Chemins de Fer des Côtes-du-Nord.

030T Blanc-Misseron 13 tonnes (1903). numérotées 1 à 17
030T Blanc-Misseron 15,5 tonnes (1905). numérotées 18 à 25

030T Corpet-Louvet 18,5 tonnes (1908). numérotées 26 à 29
030T Corpet-Louvet 17 tonnes (1915). numérotées 201 à 203
030T Corpet-Louvet 20 tonnes (1922). numérotées 30 à 34
030T Corpet-Louvet 20,5 tonnes (1925). numérotées 35 à 42

So there were 4 different types of Corpet Louvet 030T on that newtork alone!

I will try and find the relevant pictures later but I'm at a crucial stage with a real live engine at moment.

Ah

A topic that gives me chance to post these few pics for your pleasure

These were taken about 2 years ago (or was it 3 or 4 ........ Hope Carl remembers and can also supply the name of the museum as well)

This place is about 40 mins on the train on the outskirts of Paris

Manufacturers Plate



Head on view



Drivers or Firemans window (which side of the loco does the driver stand on "sur le continent?") - Is it on the opposite side of the loco like it is when driving a car?



Two side views - sorry I couldn't get any better pics as Corpet was on a siding at the side of the engine shed and was "top and tailed" by stock fore and aft.



From what I can recall she wasn't being run at the time as she needed some serious boiler repairs (Hope she's running now )

There was an elderly gentleman telling us all about her, with Carl acting as interpreter for me. He was saying that this loco used to wake him every morning as it came past his house on the milk run



Think he called her by a "pet name" of FiFi or FouFou (something like that)

Hopefully Carl can fill in many of the blanks I've left!

Ian_S wrote:

Ah

A topic that gives me chance to post these few pics for your pleasure

Think he called her by a "pet name" of FiFi or FouFou (something like that)

Hopefully Carl can fill in many of the blanks I've left!

Thanks for those great evocative pictures Ian..... I remember well a very pleasant visit to the MTVS at Valmondois a good few years ago I think.
A must see place if anyone has the slightest interest in secondary French railways.

The celebrated Corpet Louvet - CdN no. 36 is affectionately named Lulu!

She was stood rotting on a plinth in Rennes for a good too many years. Now a registered monument historique.

A classic typical 'late' Corpet and has been in full working order appearing on metre gauge lines from the Baie de la Somme in the North to the Chemin de Fer de la Provence in the South.

Its great how pics taken by an enthusiast differ from those of a tourist! Some nice details in those shots. I'm sure I saw that loco in Rennes years and years ago but i never realised it was the same one

Mikey

She's running now, or was last October when she pulled me on the Chemin de Fer de Provence.









cheers,
Scot O.

Nice pictures Scott, I thought she had visited Provence recently.

I don't where she is now but probably back at the MTVS.

I am going to the MTVS in a couple of weeks as it is their annual festival.

They have another Corpet (as in the poster) from the old TIV which is nearing complete restauration.

Maybe a little off topic, but here's a 020T Corpet-Louvet:


and another view of the 130T:


and one more of the 130T, earning her keep:


Both of these are at the CFBS