''La France'', number 102, was a locomotive of the
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...
. It was bought by
G.J. Churchward
George Jackson Churchward (31 January 1857 – 19 December 1933) was an English railway engineer, and was chief mechanical engineer of the Great Western Railway (GWR) in the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1922.
Early life
Churchward was born at ...
to evaluate French locomotive practice, and particularly the effect of compounding.
[
]
History
George Jackson Churchward
George Jackson Churchward (31 January 1857 – 19 December 1933) was an English railway engineer, and was chief mechanical engineer of the Great Western Railway (GWR) in the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1922.
Early life
Churchward was born at ...
, on succeeding
William Dean as
Chief Mechanical Engineer
Chief mechanical engineer and locomotive superintendent are titles applied by British, Australian, and New Zealand railway companies to the person ultimately responsible to the board of the company for the building and maintaining of the locomotive ...
of the
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...
(GWR), planned the introduction of a series of locomotives designed to tackle the
South Devon Banks
The South Devon Banks are a series of steep inclines on the ex- GWR railway line linking Exeter and Plymouth in Devon, England. These two cities are separated by the rocky uplands of Dartmoor forcing the early railway surveyors to propose that the ...
. Churchward looked at the best practice from both Europe and America, and was impressed by the performance of the
de Glehn compounds running on the
Nord railway in France. A single locomotive, built specifically for the GWR by Société Alsacienne de Constructions Mécaniques on the de Glehn principles was delivered in October 1903. This locomotive was numbered 102 and named ''La France'' although the
makers plate
A builder's plate is usually a metal plate that is attached to railway locomotives and rolling stock, bogies, construction equipment, trucks, automobiles, large household appliances, bridges, ships and more. It gives such information as the name of ...
s had to be moved from the cabside to the front splasher to allow the number to be fitted in the usual GWR position.
Description
''La France'' was visibly not a GWR engine, although fitted with a Swindon chimney and paired with a standard tender, as immediately recognisable from firebox and the cab. Initially the locomotive was painted black, looking more LNWR than GWR, but it was repainted in 1905 into the standard GWR green livery.
''La France'' had two low pressure cylinders fitted between the frames, and two high pressure cylinders outside. The low pressure cylinders drove the front driving wheels while the high pressure cylinders drove the rear driving wheels.
Also notable was the external steam pipe mounted just in front of the dome, and looking rather similar in appearance to a top feed.
Operation
''La France'' was put to work on important expresses in order to fully evaluate it in operation, and worked turn and turn about with GWR
4-4-0
4-4-0 is a locomotive type with a classification that uses the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement and represents the arrangement: four leading wheels on two axles (usually in a leading bogie), four po ...
express locos such as the
City class and
Atbara class. No.102 hauled the inaugural down
Cornish Riviera Express
The ''Cornish Riviera Express'' is a British express passenger train that has run between London Paddington and Penzance in Cornwall since 1904. Introduced by the Great Western Railway, the name ''Cornish Riviera Express'' has been applied to ...
from Paddington on 1 July 1904, this becoming a regular turn which required a non-stop run to
Plymouth
Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west.
Plymouth ...
. In 1913 a top feed and new steam pipes were fitted, and then in 1916 the boiler was replaced by a GWR standard No.1 boiler. In 1926, along with two other French locomotives
103 ''President'' and 104 ''Alliance'', 102 was based at Oxford shed.
[
] ''La France'' was withdrawn in October 1926 having achieved 728,031 miles.
In practice, ''La France'' did not provide any significant improvement in either performance or economy compared to No 171 ''Albion'', Churchwards prototype 4-6-0 which was converted to a 4-4-2 specifically for comparison with the French locomotive. Some other benefits were found, however, particularly a much smoother ride and also a reduction in the loads on the rods and axleboxes due to the drive being split between the two driving axles.
Despite being remembered for not changing Churchward's views about using a 4-6-0 wheel arrangement for his locomotives, and failing to demonstrate the claimed significant benefits of compounding, La France did leave a lasting legacy on British steam locomotive design. Churchward adopted the de Glehn bogie design for his locomotives, and its success endured with its use by
William Stanier
Sir William Arthur Stanier, (27 May 1876 – 27 September 1965) was a British railway engineer, and was chief mechanical engineer of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway.
Biography
Sir William Stanier was born in Swindon, where his ...
on the
LMS LMS may refer to:
Science and technology
* Labeled magnitude scale, a scaling technique
* Learning management system, education software
* Least mean squares filter, producing least mean square error
* Leiomyosarcoma, a rare form of cancer
* Lenz ...
and subsequently by
Robert Riddles
Robert Arthur "Robin" Riddles, CBE, MIMechE, MinstLE (23 May 1892 – 18 June 1983) was a British locomotive engineer.
Biography LNWR and LMS
Riddles was born in 1892 and entered the Crewe Works of the London and North Western Railway as a pr ...
on the BR standard designs. It also found its way onto
Southern Railway locomotives.
[
]
References
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gwr 0102 La France
0102
Individual locomotives of Great Britain
4-4-2 locomotives
Compound locomotives
Scrapped locomotives
Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain
Railway locomotives introduced in 1903
SACM locomotives
De Glehn compound locomotives
2′B1 n4v locomotives