1C1 3900 was a class of

SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (; abbreviated as SNCF ; French for "National society of French railroads") is France's national state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the country's national rail traffi ...

electric locomotive An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime movers, such as diesel engines or gas ...

. The class had only one member, 1C1 3901. It was built in 1912 for the Chemins de fer du Midi and its Midi class was E 3200. It was one of six different prototype electric locomotives ordered by the Midi. It was withdrawn in 1959 and one motor from it is preserved.

Overview

Many lines of the Midi network being mountain lines, the company began an electrification programme in 1909. The system chosen was single phase alternating current at 12 kV and 16⅔ Hz. Six prototype locomotives were ordered for the

Perpignan Perpignan (, , ; ca, Perpinyà ; es, Perpiñán ; it, Perpignano ) is the prefecture of the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France, in the heart of the plain of Roussillon, at the foot of the Pyrenees a few kilometres from the ...

- Villefranche-de-Conflent line. They were: * E 3001 from

Thomson Thomson may refer to: Names * Thomson (surname), a list of people with this name and a description of its origin * Thomson baronets, four baronetcies created for persons with the surname Thomson Businesses and organizations * SGS-Thomson Mic ...

and

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...

* E 3101 from

AEG Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft AG (AEG; ) was a German producer of electrical equipment founded in Berlin as the ''Deutsche Edison-Gesellschaft für angewandte Elektricität'' in 1883 by Emil Rathenau. During the Second World War, AEG ...

and

Henschel Henschel & Son (german: Henschel und Sohn) was a German company, located in Kassel, best known during the 20th century as a maker of transportation equipment, including locomotives, trucks, buses and trolleybuses, and armoured fighting vehicle ...

* E 3201 from Westinghouse, later SNCF 1C1 3900 * E 3301 from

Brown-Boveri Brown, Boveri & Cie. (Brown, Boveri & Company; BBC) was a Swiss group of electrical engineering companies. It was founded in Zürich, in 1891 by Charles Eugene Lancelot Brown and Walter Boveri who worked at the Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon. In 1970 ...

and SLM Winterthurbr>
* E 3401 from Ateliers du nord de la france, Ateliers du Nord et de l'Est * E 3501 from

Schneider Schneider may refer to: Hospital * Schneider Children's Medical Center of Israel People * Schneider (surname) Companies and organizations * G. Schneider & Sohn, a Bavarian brewery company * Schneider Rundfunkwerke AG, the former owner of th ...

Only the E 3201 really worked well. The company also ordered

railcar A railcar (not to be confused with a railway car) is a self-propelled railway vehicle designed to transport passengers. The term "railcar" is usually used in reference to a train consisting of a single coach (carriage, car), with a drive ...

s E ABD 1 to 30, which later became Class Z 4900

Service

The E 3201 worked throughout its career on the

- Villefranche-de-Conflent line for the haulage of freight trains, helped by the railcars. Thanks to its good reliability, it was kept by the SNCF when it was founded in 1938 and it remained in service until 1959.

Preservation

E 3201 / 1C1 3901 was to be preserved but, owing to an act of vandalism, only one motor from the locomotive could be saved. It is exhibited at the Cité du Train, Mulhouse.

References

{{SNCF locos 1′C1′ locomotives Standard gauge electric locomotives of France Chemins de fer du Midi Freight locomotives Scrapped locomotives